My last vegan meal in Berkeley was preceded by THREE different vegan cupcakes.  Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting, Cocoa with Mocha Frosting and Ginger with Lemon Frosting from TWO different Bakeries.  I was pretty full but I couldn’t pass up a late night dinner with my son and girlfriend in North Berkeley at an incredible Italian eatery across from the Safeway. The name of the restaurant is Lo Coco’s and it was the best bread on the planet, served with a piquant olive oil.  It seems, after raving to our waiter, that his dad began the starter for the bread THIRTY years ago after arriving from Sicily.  It has a secret, special bacterial ingredient that crossed the Mediteranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean giving it its flavor and texture.  Tears?  The loaves are small and irregular, crispy and salty with a buttery crunch but no butter is used.  The success of the bread is due to the original starter that evolves and has matured and changed over the years.  I also ordered a small veggie pizza with no cheese.

I just drove back down a few hours ago.  Luckily, the owner’s son gave us a few extra loaves to bring down to OC and we just re-toasted them up and enjoyed them.  Not as fabulous as when they were fresh, dimly lit and eaten with M and J but it was nice to share with my husband, daughter and boyfriend and bring them a little taste of foodie heaven.

I am exhausted but sated.  Tomorrow, we become true empty nesters again.  All our chickadees will be together in the Bay area this summer and I love having family in Nor Cal so I can visit and have an excuse to eat like that again.

Enough cannot be said of the kindnesses I have encountered here during my stay in Berkeley.  From the gratitude of my children to the availability of neighbors to the invitations from young, intelligent and cheery new adults I have met, I am overwhelmed with appreciation.

Here is what I have picked up about this oasis of the Bay Area in my short stay in a residential neighborhood.

The residents are serious about their impact on the world and their environment.  They feel better walking or cycling than driving around even if they own a car (a hybrid of course), they compost, recycle and re-use.  As you walk down the sidewalk, – shoes, books, toys, furniture etc… is left for whomever needs or wants it.

You have to take your own bags everywhere you shop because unless it is a fancy gift at a boutique –  ordinary grocery, produce and Walgreens type of shopping requires you to carry your own re-usable sack.

It is a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-racial, ageless and vibrant community.  There is an openness here that you intuitively synchronize with or dislike according to your own lightness and comfort of being.

It is urban but not posh.  It is cosmopolitan but not chic.  It is filled with sophisticated scholars that know they have so much more to learn.  It is a world of readers, artists, workers, musicians, walkers and intellectuals with souls.  Every social, monetary, religious and political class co-exists in harmony.  The young and the old, the hetero and the homosexual, the poor and the elite – are living together inside a few miles of land, both city and residential.

It humbles everyone.  It feels balanced.  It somehow works.  The beat of this town’s drum lies low, its rhythm is steady, its tone is on the edge.  The sound, the look and the feel of Berkeley are remarkable, authentic, stable and explosive all at once.  The more I visit, the more I fall in love with its vibration.  The deeper I explore its streets, the deeper I pulsate with its inhabitants.  Experiencing the pizzazz of Berkeley is like combining a multifaceted lyric into one composition of a gemstone.Simple sidewalk chalk art speaks of the creative juice that stirs this city’s poetry – individuals in their own sphere of existence embracing each other.

It took years, tears and squashing of fears to get us two to finally be hitched at the Santa Ana courthouse, 25 years ago, today.  We were basically heathens and eloped.

We sped up Highway 1 North in a rented convertible that we had to switch out because the top would not come up when it inevitably rained on our excursion.  How we reacted, handled and proceeded from that disappointment has set the tone for our journey.

We took off that day, headed for San Francisco, via Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo.  The Pacific Coast road lines the edge of California.  It skims by the beaches and climbs to the top of crags overlooking Big Sur. Like a roller coaster ride, the scene was set.

We have traveled together holding hands, heads leaning towards each other and touching,  occasionally banging into, thus far.

After many false starts, our ‘legal’ beginning, our ‘piece of paper’ became a commitment we were not about to take lightly and it led the way to a life filled with bliss.

With every setback, we trudged ahead and together.  With every turn, we changed course together, sometimes whining, always willing.  With every happy occurrence, we celebrated our good fortune, together.

Every tragedy helped us experience sorrow, grief, anger, remorse, surrender and acceptance in unison, touching each other’s hearts with care, carrying it lightly, while holding each other tight for dear life.  Every uplifting experience helped us experience joy, gratitude, forgiveness, empathy and compassion.  The moments in between have been held with a sense of humor, a sense of belonging and exquisite contentedness, I refer to as – bliss.

It has been our outlook together that has kept our sanity.  Having a mutual positive perspective of survival and hope brings two distrustful, negative and insecure people, at times, back into focus.  At any one or many points in time, we are all weak and flawed.  But to have someone next to you, who know you through and through, can lift and center you.  One spans the bridge for the other.  It has been our resolve and our luck, to face life on the same page, or at least in the same chapter.

Surely, the moments of despair, historical significance, time and physical changes have made us resilient but what deepened the meaning of life, and I speak for both of us I believe, has been our children.  To create a family and to have the product of your love continue beyond your existence is not praised or given worth enough.

We instinctively, humbly and sometimes clumsily (they don’t come with a reference manual and my husband wouldn’t read it anyway), welcomed, raised and support our offspring with love and some semblance of even-handedness between the two of us.  We became a family of five quickly and new challenges, decisions and discussions had to happen.  They are gifts to the world and creative, fruitful, heart-centered and interesting adults we admire, now.

Not every day has been spectacular but each day has been necessary.  There is a balance between difficult and smooth, up and down, the yin and the yang.  What remain true are the love and the need I have for and from my husband.

We have given 200% to ourselves, our lives, our home, our work, our play and our children.  We kept our pledge, through thick and thin.  I believe trust, respect, willingness, humor, flexibility and kindness are just as important as love in our intimate bonding of souls.  May the next 25 years be just as adventurous.

I could not have asked for a more decent, understanding or caring partner.

Happy Anniversary to Mr. Wonderful, the Duke of V.P., my Rock of Gibraltar, my hero, my angel and my tiger.  You have made me proud and more importantly you have made me laugh and feel like a woman who deserves to live life to the fullest.  Thank you.

I have known you forever and yet I have just met you.  I look forward to getting to know you even better, with all the endless facets in your prism that shine, color and enhance my world.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

“There is only one happiness in life … to love and be loved.” – George Sand

My Cal freshman surprised and gifted me and Cindi with this adorable sundress.  Very Berkeley, very sweet. Cindi and I resting in an atrium beside the dining hall at the Foothill dorms.  

“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is Patience.”

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ceanothus or wild California LilacNot only does Ceanothus resemble the lilacs I recall from my childhood on Long Island, they also are faintly perfumed with a similar essence; sweeter but less aromatic or strong. Native to California, Ceanothus is a shrub that once established (like all indigenous plants) needs no care.  It seemed well suited to the Bay Area judging by how prolific and healthy the bushes we encountered were.

Prunus Cerasifera or flowering plum

Spring adorns these decidious trees with light pink flowers which fall as the maroon foliage unfolds and sticks to the delicate twigs all summer long.  Here, they welcome students on either side of the path to their dorm rooms.

Italian Stone, Ponderosa and Monterrey pines, Oaks, ginkgo bilobas, eucalyptus, cedars, redwoods, palms, olive and elms abound on this UC campus.  Large, old trees are the foundation of its landscaped grounds.There is no shortage of California native squirrels to forage the many nut filled trees.Berkeley squirrels rock!

Although I am not in the Bay Area –  I still have lots to report.

Peerless Coffee is on Oak St. in Oakland and is a haven and study for coffee lovers.  The Vukasin family business began in 1924 when John Vukasin’s passion for gourmet coffees sprouted his unique idea to share and provide coffee with a storefront.  He sold “different” and “better” coffee both retail and wholesale.  His wife Sonja, collected coffee and tea antiques and memorabilia.  The collection was displayed in the store and eventually enlarged into an adjacent space for a museum.  Here you can enjoy viewing among other artifacts, a full sized 1922 Model T Ford.  Reservations are a must for a small or large party tour – call first. Monday – Friday.  510-763-1763.

 My kids get their coffee here every morning of vacation and I had a great decaf soy latte with sugar free hazelnut shots.

Cinnamon and cinnamon roll and vegan lovers unite and created Cinnaholic (in Berkeley), a make your own toppings and icing/sauces or pre-made/created rolls.After sharing a blueberry infused roll with raw vegan cookie dough (no worries) and a coconut with coconut icing roll, I OVER indulged on a ‘make your own’ number.   A cinnamon vegan roll with macadamia nut and maple sauces and pecan and walnut pieces as my toppings. MMMMMmmmmm.

The city of Berkeley has a ‘je ne said quoi’ attitude that resonates with me.

The University and its grounds vibrate with static electricity that I feed on.  From the first time I stepped on Berkeley concrete off the BART in 2007 accompanied by my son to visit the campus in his Junior year, I have felt the buzz.  I thought I felt he belonged here but I realize now – it is I who has a bond with the place – beyond my two offspring who venture here.  I love the food, the greenness and the multi-ethnicity, here.  I love the hippie, eco-sophisticated and vegan energy, here.  I love the nobel laureate, smart, nerdy, computer hacker, innovative, compassionate, open, political, bum-friendly, edgy, discriminate yet tolerant, span of generations and distributions of wealth, here.  I love the views, the prices and the liveliness, here.  I love that the buildings are squatter, the treed campus is steep and hilly and the way the University flows into downtown and Berkeley thrives because of all the young blood, here.  I am not saying I want to move, but I definitely look forward to the experience – every chance I get to come up, here.

A formal double row alignment of spring flowering trees marching up and down one of the many centers of UC Berkeley or better known as the Cal campus.  Summer blooming lilies fill in the center.  Elsewhere, I noticed groups of agapanthus or ‘otherwise known as’ lily of the nile clumps springing up, purple and white.

Endless and timeless, always picturesque, ever changing yet always beautiful, the campus explores itself within the confines of structures.  Students, professors, employees and visitors get to behold the landscape of an ascetically pleasing stroll wherever they go.  The aged tree canopies make the oldest UC campus feel grounded, secure and established.  There is a lot to be said for the value in plants and their design, how they help with mood, inspire and uplift the viewer.  That belief is clearly protected at Cal.Above the street, a view from the enclosed walkway bridge that connects two dorm sites where my youngest resides.

Bookended, Berkeley has been and is home to my oldest and youngest.  Across the great expanse of the USA, my middle one lives on the opposite coast, from whence her parents met and grew up – go figure.

This vacation, I got to be part of an important welcome back to one, time spent with all, a farewell to one on spring break and a kick-off to another at the start of her time off.

Today I leave with my youngest and drive back down to OC.  May she endure the drive with me and land softly, securely and happily back into her nest.  May V have a safe and pleasant flight back to the East Coast, may her re-entry be productive and interesting. May M start his first week at his new job in SF with enthusiasm and energy. May J soon find the position of her dreams.  May they all be joyful and healthy.   I love them all so much it hurts.  To see them flourish, enriching their worlds and living their dreams,  is a gift,  I am so grateful to witness.

After a relatively long road trip (@7 hours) and certainly the longest road trip for Cindi (three stops I needed anyway) that we know of, we landed safely at my son and girlfriend’s flat in Oakland, Alameda County, California.  NY daughter is spending her Spring Break with them, Berkeley freshman daughter is 15 minutes away, so I invited myself up for a ‘reunion’.

The Bay Area is notorious for its fresh, interesting and innovative as well as mature approach to food and I look forward to a few good meals and the unavoidable few good extra pounds – although it is a walking, talking kinda urban vibe which alleviates some of the extra calories and guilt.

Cindi took to everyone immediately and vice versa.  We ate at a German restaurant by my waterfront pet friendly hotel (more about this another time) and just spent some lazy together time before heading to a Chinese market (their apartment borders Oakland Chinatown) and a supply store for the feast that was to bedevil us anon. Navigating through this triple tiered Chinese grocery store where fresh, frozen and dried fish, fowl and produce was displayed in naked and abundant abandon was a sensory explosion not unlike fireworks in your head.  My kids confidently sought ingredients, handled themselves like they were born in Asia and left with a box of goodies that were to about to take a transformation I never would have dreamed of.

To say that my NY daughter, V has grown in her culinary skills, is an understatement.  Neither photographs nor descriptions could do her expert hand or her discriminatory palate any justice.  You just had to be there to experience the masterpiece and the creation.

First, she tempted us with steamed then sautéed, crispy bottomed dumplings with homemade vegan filling designed to enchant your taste buds and mouthfeel with cilantro, tofu, onion and secrets.  V’s deft handling of dough mesmerizes.

About to be cooked.Finished and served with an Island Sauce from Trader’s. “Hey, can I have the half bitten one?”  I must have eaten at least four of these between the communal platter and ‘taste and doneness evaluations’ by the stove.More tomorrow on what has proven to be an eye opener for this mom.