We had a crazily good time at Brian & Barbra's house on our way home. They live in the rural, wild hills above Redding. First of all, they took such great care of us: delicious food and folding our laundry and always up for engaging with the kids. Brian mentioned a few times that he doesn't know anything about kids but they were endlessly attentive and kind -- the kids naturally adored them.

They have a lovely house that they have spent the last decade remodeling. It is kind of craftsman inspired, I guess, and so well kept. There is a slate wrap-around porch with a wooden swing where we spent a lot of time...

and a gated veggie garden, a native flower garden out front, and soft low-water grass out back. And all around are woodlands that Brian has created hiking trails in and cleared all the poison oak plants from.

They have an ample, custom kitchen with a big center island where we gathered often to cook, talk, doodle, and look at pictures that we'd taken on their huge computer screen.

Brian and Barbara bicycle to work and back every day -- 14 miles each way for Barbara and something like 25 miles each way for Brian. They also ride on several long trips each year and hike together and do yoga together. They are so calm and centered. They have made a lovely life for themselves in an inspiring setting and although our messy, noisy bunch came and jostled it up for a few days, we never felt like we were imposing or rattling Brian and Barbara's patient reserves.

When we arrived it had just rained and Halina collected oak leaves with rain drops glistening on them like jewels. After dinner we spent the evening at a nearby lake where a family of ducks followed us...

and a deer appeared and a heron flew from tree to tree screeching its ancient song. Halina and Luke played with sticks and sand and rocks; they balanced among the boulders in Brandy river that feeds the lake. Luke applauded every time someone skipped a stone across the water.

The next day we visited the amazing Turtle Bay museum, where we visited the butterflies...

shared some treats...

and played some more.

That evening after napping we visited the ruins of the goldrush town, Shasta, where Halina goaded us into rolling down a grassy hill over and over until we were all giggling and dizzy. We explored the old boardwalk with it's row of roofless, crumbling brick buildings and the trails behind them.

It's striking to me how much the kids adore playing in nature in this way, just being outside and free, jumping, exploring, inventing, and especially leading the way as we adults followed. It's also striking how nice it is to have loving family right there to help out with caring for children. (So much easier to attend to Luke or Halina individually while the other one is being entertained by someone else! So much easier to read a book or take a shower!) Back at Brian & Barb's, we slept soundly in antique beds with old family quilts and woke early to light flooding the picture windows and birds singing and pancakes and muffins warming in the oven.

While Chris and I packed the next morning, Brian and Barbara read story after story to the kids and took them outside for long walks where they threw pinecones and searched for treasures. Suffice to say, no one particularly wanted to leave.

On the way home we had classic road trip moments, like scrounging up some fun at rest stops and dealing with the excitement/melt-down that goes on in your average ice-cream-based roadside restaurant.

This included the Nut Tree, the place with those big rocking horses that Chris and I remember fondly from our childhoods (except I remember them being much more enormous -- and with yarn tails).

I don't know what it is exactly about a road trip, but I just always like them -- even when they are going poorly. And there were plenty of those moments on this trip. Still I always remember a road trip fondly. Why are they so satisfying? Well, yes, you are all crammed in this little space together with all your piles of random stuff droning endlessly down the highway. But you are making do, in it together, team playing, inching along from point A to point B more or less productively, and being (by necessity) pretty creative and accommodating along the way. Every one of your little crew present and accounted for.