PART 3: Spain
After finishing a week of hiking in the Ortler Alps, a nice slow-paced form of vacation, with 6 hours or so of relatively quiet hiking (though Jess might argue that I chatter a lot) followed by chilling with games and reading in the afternoon sunshine, our next day was incredibly hectic.
We woke up before 5am in Bormio in order to have time to drive to Milan, get gas, drop off our rental car, and get on a flight to Madrid. And, when I say that we drove, I mean me. I was the only registered driver for the car. All of that went pretty smoothly, and we didn’t even have to stop for breakfast, as our hotel had given us the most extensive “to go” breakfast I think I’ve ever seen.
Upon arriving in Madrid, Jessica’s sister, Emily, her husband, Jay, and the two boys, Connor and Caleb met us at the airport and we immediately went to pick up a rental there. With 6 of us, we needed a small monster, not just a little car. Again, I was the only registered driver, as Jay’s international driver’s permit had expired. Fun times for me.
We spent the next several hours driving from Madrid up to Panticosa, a cute little ski town in the Pyrenees less than 10 miles from the French border, arriving right around dinner time. So, that’s one flight and two long drives. I was pretty beat.
Anyhow, in Panticosa, we settled into a little ski condo that we had rented for the next few days. The town itself was pleasant with one little main street and some interesting alleys to get lost in. There was also some pretty excellent gelato available in the main square. The best part, though, was being surrounded by some great mountains. I had expected slightly less dramatic peaks after the bit of the Pyrenees we had seen in France in 2021, but this was clearly a different area.
The next morning, we got up and got our hike back on. The six of us set out on a trek from Ibon de los Baños to Embalse de Bachimaña Alto. In other words, we started at a complex built around some thermal springs and a cute little lake, and from there went straight up the mountain to some high-altitude lakes, gaining about 1,700 feet over 3 miles before reversing course. It was a workout! Especially for Connor who has somewhat shorter legs than the rest of us. And it was crowded! This turned out to be quite the popular destination. The number of people was a little surprising given the fact that multiple sections involved chains and such to help people along the trail. But, it was also beautiful, with tons of rock scrambling, waterfalls, and people doing some fun-looking canyoneering down the creek we were following uphill.
At the top of the rise we arrived at a little reservoir (Embalse de Bachimaña Bajo) just below the larger reservoir above (Embalse de Bachimaña Alto) with a mountain hut sandwiched on the rise in between (Refugio de los Ibones de Bachimaña — there’s a theme here). After lunch, Jessica and I hiked up to the upper lake while the others headed downhill with the (accurate) promise that we would catch up with them.
And, on the way down, we stopped to enjoy the freezing cold creek, each in our own style.
The next day we were slower moving, and the main activity was going to another nearby lake (by car, not hiking), Embalse de Lanuza. The boys had fun kayaking (and falling) in the lake and the rest of us just read and recovered.
We enjoyed exploring Panticosa a bit more and caught a great sunset on the mountaintop.
Speaking of that mountaintop, we went up to that area the next day. Don’t worry. We didn’t hike all the way up — we took the telecabina. From the top of the lift, we hiked to two little lakes. The first was higher altitude and in a nice little bowl, while the second we came down to from above and it was a vivid blue-green, trapped against a steep hillside. We ended the hike with an enormous lunch at the little restaurant by the ski lift.
It was pretty ridiculously hot, so for the third day in a row, we sought out some water to cool down. This time, the river running through town was the spot. (Actually, it’s the same river that we were in on the hike two days earlier, just 5 miles further downstream.) We spent a good hour hopping in and out of the water, playing on the rocks, and sliding from one pool to the next. (No, I’m not sharing the videos because they are about as embarassing as they are fun.)
That evening, I also made a new friend in Panticosa.
Meanwhile, our three cats were back home making a new friend as well. They seemed to be pretty happy with the woman who was catsitting for us. (This is my absolute favorite picture of the three of them, even with a stranger’s leg in it.)
After three days of fun in the mountains, it was time for one more long drive back to Madrid. Well, not actually Madrid, but the suburbs. Emily, Jay, and the boys moved to a new apartment a bit closer to their school, so while it’s not right in the city as they used to be, it was still fun to see where they lived. It was also a nice reminder that suburbs don’t have to be as bleak as they are here in the U.S. They’re still in walking distance from restaurants, groceries, shops, parks, and more. There are a ton of buses that run through the neighborhood. And the four of them are just fine without a car. So different than where they were in Raleigh!
Anyhow, we had a nice afternoon wandering around with them and playing a bunch of That’s Not a Hat (among other things) before leaving the next morning. It really is very cool to see them settling into their new life in Spain and I hope the experiment continues to go well…
PART 4: New York
Of course, from Spain we didn’t head right home. Instead we spent the next several days in New York, adjusting six time zones towards home rather than nine all in one go. We went to New York because Jessica needed to attend the American Sociological Association meetings there and I just had to go to New York because it’s awesome. We had parts of a few weekend days to wander the city together, but Jessica was busy some of the time and on the last day we were there, I was back to working remotely.
Unlike our last visit, this time we were staying just off Times Square. That was nuts! I’ve been through Times Square in the daytime before and it’s busy and bright, but weekend nights it was nearly impossible to move through.
With and without Jess, I just enjoyed wandering the city as always. Central Park, Harlem, in and out of the subway, just wherever I ended up was a pleasure.
One of the best things to do in New York, of course, is to see our friends. Ira, Ruth, Sam, and Sara came down from New Haven to spend an afternoon with me (Jess had to leave after lunch together). Besides just wandering and catching up, we explored some cool bookstores near Bryant Park and took refuge from the sun in the basement of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. Sara went off to read there, while the rest of us played That’s Pretty Clever at a table made for much smaller people than us.
Another night we caught up with Alison. She took us to the Thai Diner, a very cool place with everything from very traditional Thai cuisine to diner-fusion wonders like Thai Disco Fries. It was delicious. We ended up in a very loud, very dingy bar later where we learned all about her work as a union leader at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She gave Jessica and I some pretty cool buttons to wear proudly wherever we went the next day…
…which turned out to be the Whitney Museum of American Art. Not only did we get smiles and fist bumps from a few museum employees — they also let us in for free! Thanks, Alison! The only downside was that the Whitney might be my least favorite modern/contemporary art museum experience in recent memory. There were a few things I really liked amidst a sea of stuff ranging from somewhat interesting to slightly unpleasant. My two favorites were (a) the several tiny creations from Jasmin Sian, who cuts found objects with an exacto knife and paints them with single bristle brushes — this one is about 3 inches across to give you a sense — and (b) lithographs by Mabel Dwight, including this one: Danse Macbre, from 1933.
Of course, the most disturbing part of the trip was discovering that New York has a new stylized subway map. Maybe it’s easier to read, but it lacks the exactness of the old one which showed major cross streets and gave a clearer sense of the real distance and direction between stations. Hmph. I’m just going to be a grumpy old man here. Change is bad.
Finally, we made one last stop of importance: Little Italy. The day after we had visited Acetaia Malpighi near Modena, I realized that that was exactly what I should have gotten for my mom, whose 80th birthday we were headed to St. Louis to celebrate. So, after looking around Bormio for balsamic tradizionale and finding some overpriced mediocre stuff at the airport in Milan, we decided to look around New York. We ended up at DiPalo’s Fine Foods. While they had an extensive deli, we were disappointed not to find what we were looking for.
We were about to leave when I noticed some dusty old boxes on the top shelf of a cabinet behind the counter. Could it be? When we asked the young man working the register, he said we’d need to talk to his uncle. His uncle wouldn’t let us go without a thirty minute conversation about travel in Italy, mountaineering, comparisons between different balsamics from Modena, his relationship with the one he was going to sell us, and…oh so much more. It felt very New York, very Italian, and also just right for a special gift for my mom.
PART 5: St. Louis
So, with that, we were off to St. Louis. One more hour of time change back towards California.
As always, our time in St. Louis was chill. (Not a lot of photos, sorry!) I worked remotely some, but mostly we just hung out, ate well, played games, and were silly together.
Linda enjoyed her balsamic and a nice dinner out with the whole family (including the Indiana Cohns).
We did a puzzle celbrating Linda’s childhood home in New Jersey…
And while that puzzle is pretty goofy, probably the most ridiculous part of the week was this:
Every year my parents get a pumpkin for Halloween and leave it by the door, uncarved. When I was in college, they started being lazy, terrible people who let their pumpkins rot in the front yard, and when I came home at Thanksgiving and complained about the rotting pumpkin each year, they taunted me mercilously. Eventually, they started calling this “Gabe’s Pumpkin” when it was most definitely not mine.
This year, things got out of hand and Junior (not my choice of name) left behind some seeds that turned into a vine that turned into 4 more pumpkins and an overrun front yard.
My parents are crazy people. (I say that with the most affection possible. But still, crazy.)
Anyhow, I enjoyed getting to see these folks and spend some time just hanging out together. I’m glad Linda’s made it 80 years and I hope there are many more to come. I just hope they don’t all have to come with a rotting pumpkin.
So, that’s it for our 5-trips-in-1 summer. Back to California and back to work. More adventures next time…