Our trip out west; existing in wonderment and appreciation
I’m swelled with ideas and longing and memory, but at a loss for words. What can I say? The American West is amazing.
We flew into Albuquerque, New Mexico and took the train to Santa Fe. We stayed at a hostel, met some really great people, ate some really great food, saw some really wonderful artwork (surprisingly), saw some fascinating adobe architecture, visited a parish housing the most kindhearted priest I’ve ever met, and finally we were stranded by Greyhound at ten o’clock at night which forced a budget expansion to include a motel and car rental.
We spent a week in El Paso, Texas for my brother-in-law’s wedding. We were treated all too well. We ate a lot. We drank a lot. I wore a tuxedo. I was privileged to watch my new sister-in-law so joyfully glow during their marriage ceremony which was on a golf course in a country club surrounded by friends and family and desert mountains in perfect sunset weather. I learned how good Jack and Coke is and how great it can make you feel. I learned that in El Paso there was a mountain removed so that Walmart could build a new store, and that swings and mulberry trees have been banned from public parks. In El Paso there is a stretch of I-10 where you can see impoverished neighborhoods of Juárez, Mexico being looked down upon ironically and sadly by towering American bank buildings just across the border. In El Paso the Mexican cuisine is real and delicious.
We drove to Tucson, Arizona, staying in another hostel where I talked to a former architect who doesn’t like Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, nor seemed able to admit Wright contributed anything good to American architecture. We spent time at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where we saw lots of birds and cacti and other things. We visited San Xavier del Bac Mission: a 300-year-old Roman Catholic mission we had seen featured in a documentary; the current structure built in the late 18th century. We ate tacos of cow tongue and cheek.
We drove to Joshua Tree, California. We entered the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, exiting the north. In between we saw fields of Joshua trees and weirdly shaped and placed boulders and other plant life, all while the sun was setting. It was strange and wonderful and beautiful. We visited my uncles at their amazing B&B just a mile outside the entrance to the park. We spent a whole day with them and had a great time, and we’re hoping to make it back in the spring when the flowers bloom. We met a neighboring artist and got to tour his studio-property.
We flew to San Francisco, California for the last four days of our trip. When we were in Santa Fe we met Liam Golden, a gentleman working one of the art galleries on Canyon Road. It happened to be that we were headed to San Francisco just days after he would be moving back. He invited us to stay at his family’s house, and we canceled our hotel reservations a few days later. We arrived at his house per his detailed directions Thursday morning and he welcomed us with open arms and breakfast.
The next few days were spent not per our sketched itinerary (which included such destinations as a forest of red wood trees, Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, etc.), but instead we walked the city, guided by our new good friend Liam. He showed us the way to the beach, the Sutro Bath ruins, sushi, Golden Gate Park, De Young Museum with a towering view of the city, the Japanese Tea Garden, Botanical Garden, Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe performed by the San Francisco Symphony, William Stout Architectural Bookstore, Chinatown, Huntington Park, a taqueria, and amidst all that, many wonderful conversations and (to borrow an adapted phrase from my uncle) time spent existing together in wonderment and appreciation of all things natural and urban. We were also able to visit Holy Trinity and Holy VirginOrthodox Cathedrals.
Liam is truly a lover of his city, and he is truly a lover of his friends both new and old. His selfless hospitality was something entirely strange and new to me, and something immediately and lastingly bothering for my own lack of it. I am truly and deeply thankful for everything he did for us. I will never forget it. I can’t imagine what our perspective of the city would have been had we not met him.
Our trip began as an itinerary of destinations. It became rather a pilgrimage. The geographies, the wildlife, and the architectures were beautiful, but the people we met were beautiful beyond compare, and they will be living memories of our trip.
I don’t know how to put it all in words, and some of it I cannot, but this trip became of upmost importance. My life is forever changed, and I’m eager to see what fruit might be bore of it, eager to see what’s next.
Many more photos on Flickr.
