An Old Lady’s Adventure
These so-called adventures took place in Santa Barbara, CA during our Thanksgiving holiday. Although the pandemic was raging in California, and all over the world, we decided to carry out our plan to have a reunion. Our son, Jan, who lives with his family in LA, has been renting a beautiful house in Santa Barbara near the ocean. We decided to rent one nearby for the rest of the family.
My beautiful, 40 year-old, Iranian, live-in helper, Parisa and her boyfriend, Houman, drove me down to Santa Barbara and back, roughly a six and a half hour drive each way. Houman did the driving. The atmosphere was lively, with lots of food and music. Parisa even managed to find on the radio, a playback of my favorite program, “At the Opera, with Sean Bianco.”
My family is relatively small, consisting of “Grandma” (myself, almost 96 years-old), our daughter Eva (a Buddhist teacher and independent film editor), our son Jan (an independent businessman dealing in real-estate), his wife Nicole and teen-aged sons Richter and Leighton. The former is currently enrolled at MIT. Our little family also includes Andre’s Polish daughter, Agneiszka, her husband Joseph, and two adult daughters, Luiza and Alicia. Agneiszka and Joseph are retired therapists who have spent the last ten years working for the military all over the world, dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among veterans. Luiza is a Yoga teacher and Movement Coach, with a large audience on Zoom. Alicia is a therapist like her parents, working for the county in Walnut Creek.
My husband Andrzej (I called him André) died in August 2019. He used to join us on these family reunions, and enjoyed them. I placed a framed picture of him in a conspicuous place in our rented house, a picture taken before he grew his beard and mustache. In the picture his arms are clasped behind his bald head. He is smiling a broad smile, as if he had just won a big lottery.
When you enter our rental house there is a spacious sitting and dining area, with a long kitchen on the left, where Agneiszka and her daughters were constantly cooking. One is overwhelmed by the panoramic view of ocean and sky, the curving white sandy beach and calm blue ocean as far as the eye can see. The dark range of Santa Inez Mountains are on the left. A spectacular view! On a ledge beyond the porch someone had put a chair, which was occupied by me and Luiza, alternately. From that chair one could see the road below, with cars, bicycles, and hikers, then further down people strolling on the beach. I never grew tired of that view, nor of the sound of the little waves crashing on the shore. It brought back happy memories from my childhood summers on Long Island.
We couldn’t have the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner together with Jan’s family, since his boys had not received the results of their Covid 19 tests. Nor had they been as careful as the rest of us. So we sat around a table in Jan’s garden, eating something which the Silvas had prepared, while Jan and his family stood on the back porch of his house, at some distance from us. (I couldn’t hear what was being said, even though I was wearing my hearing aids.) Later, we had a big Thanksgiving Dinner in our house, without the Brzeskis. We had two desserts: cheesecake and pecan pie. I sampled both of them.
The first “adventure” was simply a 2-hour sail on a rented sailboat. Jan and his family couldn’t join us, but Jan treated us anyway, knowing how much I love sailing. Joseph, Eva and my granddaughters joined me.
It was a small sailboat, unlike the catamaran of our former trips to Santa Barbara. When the young captain learned that Joseph had once owned a similar boat, he let him take over, which made Joseph very happy.
The girls and Eva made their way precariously to the bow, which I didn’t dare to do. I sat quietly in the stern. It was a calm, peaceful trip. I have loved boating since childhood, when I spent lots of time on my uncle’s 40-ft. cabin cruiser, on Long Island Sound and elsewhere.
During the course of our stay in Santa Barbara, I made several trips down to the beach. Alicia wanted to drive me down, but I preferred to walk, although it was steep and difficult at the bottom. When we reached the sand, my granddaughters said, “Don’t you want to take off your shoes, Grandma?” I said, “Yes, I do!” So, I did. Then as we approached the water my children said, “Don’t you want to splash water on your face?” I said, “Yes, I do!” I rolled up my blue jeans and strode boldly into the wavelets. I splashed water on my face and yelled, “Life begins at 96!” They took pictures and everybody laughed. They know my routine. Because of all this, everyone thought I was very “brave” and “inspiring.” The second “adventure” happened because I felt I couldn’t disappoint them.
On the last day in Santa Barbara, Jan and the girls wanted to go Stand-Up Paddle-boarding, in which you stand up on a board and paddle with one oar. They wanted Eva and me to accompany them in a kayak. Neither of us had ever been in a kayak, nor did Eva know how to paddle one. But we did it. I have stiff legs due to a rheumatic condition. I wondered how I would get in and out of that small kayak. People helped me. It turned out to be a pleasant experience. We stayed inside the Marina with its calm waters, tall, white-masted sailboats and a few ocean-going yachts.
At one point a playful dolphin appeared in our midst. Luiza crouched down on her board, trying to pet him. He darted up and down, showing his tail. I wondered if he might flip over our kayak, but he didn’t.
After this “adventure” we had lunch at an outdoor restaurant, joined by Agneiszka. I had fried oysters and two bottles of Blue Moon Beer. I felt proud of myself and happy to be there with my little family in sunny Santa Barbara. An old lady’s adventures.