Chibs Chats, dispatch 15
I'm drafting this on the Amtrak Coast Starlight, up to visit my friend Devin in Portland. I've only done a few Amtrak trips - overnight Boston to Baltimore for a grad school interview (don't recommend that strategy, not a good night sleep, did not get in to Hopkins!), a fun if frigid post-Christmas jaunt from Jersey to Montreal with Randy, and a solo trip from Emeryville to SLC (totally delightful). This one has been excellent. Slowly traveling past beautiful west coast sights with a good book in hand is the way to go (if you have the time - from Oakland, Portland is 2 hours by air and 18 hours by train!) I woke up thinking "I should do this more" even after a night of broken sleep in a coach chair, and I am almost never cheerful first thing in the morning.
Weird hikes
Living out west has really grown my appreciation of hiking and being outdoors. I love a beautiful natural setting, but the locations that get me most interested are those at the interface between nature and human civilization. Undoubtedly that's part of the appeal of this train I'm on now - ambitious human infrastructure running though parts of a vast natural landscape, some of it otherwise inaccessible. (As I write this, I'm about 4 miles southeast of McCredie Springs, OR, on the part of the trip between Chemult and Eugene.)
In the East Bay, there's a lot of opportunity for weird little interfaces between development and open space. Unremarkable to many, but distinctive to me, who grew up in North Jersey suburbia where the edge of one town meant the start of another, for miles and miles across whole counties.
Recenlty Finn and I took a short hike at one of these interfaces, a neighborhood in Orinda that only got built in 2017. It's mostly cut off from the rest of the town except by highway, but the back of the development does have a trail/old ranch road through the appealingly-named Lost Valley that you could take to another part of town by foot or by bike. It's got the feel of a spot you're not totally sure if you're allowed to be at - though this one does seem to be public, just tucked away. (I'm not opposed to pushing boundaries on the occasional fire road or private lane, but I try not to do it with 35 pounds of toddler on my back.) We did just a brief walk on it but that was enough to instill the thrill of discover in me, and make me wonder what I'd find if we kept going on.
FJF
Finn and I also made our way to the Coliseum recently to express our love for baseball and our disdain for As management. Decked out in SELL gear, Finn had a great time communing with Stomper the elephant, and we caught 5 innings before naptime.
Going to the Coliseum feels a little like going to the minor leagues, which I don't mean in an insulting way. I went to a lot of NJ Jackals and Newark Bears games with my dad when I was a kid, and they are core memories. I even saw Rickey Henderson play for the Bears on his bid to stay in the game in his mid-40s! (He had a point; he was still faster than all the other guys on the field.) Anyway, while the city and the team deserved better than a crumbling cement football stadium, there's also a certain charm to a cheap major league experience that's a little rough around the edges. I've paid $2 for a lot of As games.
Given what I just said, there's an irony that the As are carpetbagging off to Sacramento to play their next few seasons in an actual minor league stadium, until they figure out what the hell is going on in Vegas. I'm sure the MLB PLayers Association is *stoked* about this turn of events. As fun as riding the train is, I don't think we'll be putting in the effort to go see them up there.
Randy (As fan by birth, Red Sox fan by college) and I used to fight, well before Finn was born, about what team our kids would root for. My position was the Yankees, his position was "whoever they want" - self-deterministic nonsense. But if I lost the bid for pinstripes, I could've been happy with As fans for children, so their imminent loss feels pretty acute. Neither of us have much love for the Giants (though I admit their stadium is a fantastic baseball experience), so I guess we're back to our household AL East rivalry.
Fortunately, as the As go out, the independent Pioneer League has brough Oakland the Ballers, and the town is embracing them fiercely. We'll absolutely carve out some time to see them too this summer, and I'm cautiously optimistic about their long-term prospects here. Plus, they have a female pitcher - what's not to love?
Plugs, recs, recent loves
Ishaan - a beautiful new art book/children's book from my college roommate Kacie Lyn Martinez. Perfect for the newborn in your life who's just getting the hang of light vs. dark.
Bashar Murad - I've been grooving to Maskhara a lot lately.
The Sopranos - I am finally well into season 3 and get a stupid thrill every time Nutley is mentioned (never actually filmed, not allowed, it was a "sensitive issue") or I recognize a Belleville spot of whatever.
Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde's follow-up to Shades of Grey was finally released in May, 15 years after the original. All of Fforde's work is great; I have a thing for his way of building fictional worlds that are based in ours but differ in some strange ways that you discover as you progress through the narrative. Shades of Grey might be my favorite book, period, so getting my hands on the sequel right before this trip could not have been better timing.
Jardines - Mexican food in San Juan Bautista. A favorite of Randy's family, he and I snuck away for a solo dinner recently and I was charmed by the atmosphere as always (historical complexities of Mission towns admittedly noted). Less charming was getting stuck for 45 minutes at this [new traffic circle from Hell](LINK), but that's what we get for taking the "scenic" route home.
SF-Oakland Ferry - I've been taking this lately from the office on my way to Friend Cult, and it may be America's most beautiful commute. Makes a Wednesday night feel like vacation.
Dokkaebier Yuza Blonde - it's delicious!
Favorite recent Finn-ism: "This a stelecope!" (telescope)