mountain home inn, muir woods

What do you do when for the past few days there has been a stifling heat wave with no end in sight, and you have plans in two days to meet friends and stay on their houseboat where temperatures are expected to rise to 108? You get smart.  You change plans.  You get lucky on July 3rd and 4th to find any place to rent -- but you find one place in town that has space.  And so you book it. And then you throw in a few loads of laundry, pack up your belongings and tidy up the house you have been staying in for two and a half weeks.  You don't have to deep clean it because you arranged ahead of time for that to be done by professionals.  You smile at them as you walk out of the door, flipping on the air conditioning for them.

Then you get in a car and drive, sweating it out as the car temperature gauge reads 100 degrees.  You drive up the mountain, winding through Mill Valley to a beautiful inn.  By the time you arrive the temperature has dropped into the 70's.  The air is magic, oxygen like no other, and you can smell the eucalyptus trees and the pine trees.  You take a deep breath and realize that now, yes, you are on vacation.

seventeen

Seventeen years ago Gary and I welcomed this girl into our lives.  She has been gracing us ever since. Still, I can't believe Skylar is seventeen.

Today on Sky's birthday, she chose to feed the homeless.  It was our scheduled day to cook and she didn't want to miss it.  So we picked all of the kids up from school and headed to our local shelter, where we prepare a meal once a month with some friends.

We made a Mexican polenta casserole, two veggie sides (including twenty pounds of Swiss chard donated by a local organic farmer), rice, bread, carrot cake, and fruit salad.

We also made a surprise apple pie that we gave to Sky later, after serving the meal to the residents, and eating our meal.  Sky was happy.  Apple pies are her favorite to make and eat, her trademark Skypie, which is also her my nickname for her.