Chinese Version 04-22-2024 Sunny
Yesterday, I went on a planned day trip with my son and daughter-in-law for the first time, and I had a great time. In the evening, while reporting to my daughter, who was far away in China, about my day trip, she suggested: “Mom, you should write a story about this trip.”
Planning
Last Saturday, my son texted me: “Do you want to go Mystery Spot with us around next weekend?” I immediately replied: “Yes” He then texted: “On Sunday, April 21st, around 12. I bought the tickets.”
This Friday, I texted them: “On Sunday, after visiting the Mystery Spot, do you like to have dinner at home?” My son replied: “It is close to Santa Cruz Beach so we can go to there and eat something.”Later he texted: “Tomorrow we’ll arrive around 11 to pick you up.”
before Leaving Home
I started to dress up at ten o’clock on Sunday morning. The weather is warm today. After trying floral skirts with light-colored tops several times, I felt that black was better, so I wore a knitted black long-sleeved shirt with a black and white pattern short skirt. I also wore additional things, a necklace with the word “love” written in more than a hundred different languages which was a Mother’s Day gift from my daughter-in-law last year; a pearl ring, which was given to me by my daughter many years ago; and a silk scarf, which was given to me by Ben’s grandma last year. After getting dressed up, I felt happy even before going out.
My son and daughter-in-law came to pick me up at 11 o’clock. I specifically recommended them to inspect the peach tree that was now bearing thumb-sized peaches, as my son was the one who labored to plant this peach tree in our backyard last year.
the Mystery Spot
“The Mystery Spot is a gravitational anomaly located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California. It is a circular area of effect around 150 feet or 46 meters in diameter. Within the Mystery Spot you will be stunned as your perceptions of the laws of physics and gravity are questioned.” The admission fee is 10 US dollars. It is an extremely short tour so the tour guide needs to slow down the tour to make it a 40 minute long experience.
My son booked our tour at 12:20, with a group of more than ten tourists, our tour guide was an eloquent pretty young girl. While following her around, our group enjoyed spending time at this nearby small scenic spot. After the visit, I felt that language is also very mysterious, as the tour guide often made fun of herself to amuse us and by changing her cadence to pique our interests to prevent boredom on this very short tour around this small place.
I’ve been to the Mystery Spot many times and never felt sick before. Today, while climbing uphill to the cabin, I felt that my legs were heavy and my chest was so tight that I had difficulty breathing, a bit like the altitude sickness I experienced not long ago in Cuzco, Peru. This sudden physical discomfort made me think that it would be best not to come here often.
When we walked into the tilted wooden cabin, the visual illusions immediately intensified, our group crowded into this small space and became excited, I felt my surroundings were very noisy. Looking at the familiar layout of the cabin, I asked my son: “Do you remember you have been here?” My son said: “I don’t remember.” I said confidently: “You have been here!” My son replied: “You said I’ve been here, XXXX?” Because it was so noisy here, I didn’t hear clearly what my son said, so I asked, “What did you say?” Zelene, standing next to Duke, said, “Duke is talking in Chinese. “I said to my son: “I didn’t hear it clearly, could you please say it again?” My son repeated it, but I still could not pick up what he meant, so I started to suspect that the altitude sickness had made me slow. Zelene smiled and said, “I think Duke said it very clearly. He was saying if he had been here, there should be photos of him here.” I laughed and said to Zelene: “I really didn’t catch it. You know Duke’s Chinese best.”
My son was hanging on the doorframe of the cabin to show us his feet tilted to the right noticeably.
After visiting the Mystery Spot, I suggested we go hiking a bit, but my son said: “Sorry, my shoes are not good for hiking.” I looked down saw he wore a pair of slippers and I asked, “Are you comfortable walking in these slippers?” My son said: “I’m used to it.” Zelene said, “Oh, I suggested that he wear these slippers to get some air for his feet, because he has sweaty feet.” I laughed and said to Zelene: “I have sweaty feet, Eileen and Duke have sweaty feet, Alex also has sweaty feet, Ben already has sweaty feet. Do you have sweaty feet?” “I don’t,” Zelene replied. I smiled and said: “Your baby will have more chance not having sweaty feet.”
Actually, my own father does not have sweaty feet, but my brother and I both have sweaty feet. In the past, when we didn’t change shoes and socks every day, I really wished I didn’t have sweaty feet, because sweaty feet are very uncomfortable and shoes of the sweaty feet smell bad.
There is no cell phone signal at the Mystery Spot, so we can’t use GPS navigation. At the first fork in the road leaving the site, my son made a right turn sign. Remembering he turned right into the Mystery Spot, I reminded him: “You should turn left.” My son said, “We are going to the beach, which is on our right.” I looked at the big map in the car and sure enough, the ocean is on our right. I suddenly felt very happy as I really don’t need to worry about the route and direction when going out with my kids. While my son was driving, Zelene was looking for a restaurant for lunch. Though we were near the ocean, my son doesn’t eat seafood and I don’t eat fast food so there were very few choices. She picked a Korean restaurant.
Korean lunch
It was already one o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the restaurant. The restaurant was very empty, I sat face to face with my son and daughter-in-law at a table next to the window. I’m not familiar with Korean food, watching they discussing what to order, I joked: “Eileen said that nowadays we need to ask you for good restaurants as you eating outside often.”
After ordering a today’s special of stewed beaf rib and a typical Korean fried rice noodles, we ate the free Korean cold dishes and chatted while waiting for our dishes to be served. I told them about Ben’s trip in China: “Ben’s grandma is teaching him how to speak Chinese and Ben can count one, two, three, four and five in Chinese now.” I also told them a story of Ben’s behavior change: “After Ben turned two years old, he started to cry and got up to open the door to get out as soon as we put him on the bed in his room. Eileen asked Alex to install a door lock, so Ben could not open his door from the inside. Then Ben stood by the door alone in his room and cried for many days, finally he stopped crying and stopped trying to open the door. He stays on his bed playing until he is tired, then falls asleep.” I concluded: “When raising a baby, you have to be firm sometimes.”
The two dishes were not small. Zelene likes vegetables, my son likes meat, and I like everything. The stewed beef rib also has rice noodles and very big carrots. The noticeable red carrots in the stew reminded me of my late aunt’s saying: “Carrot is the poor man’s ginseng.”
As my son started to teach high school students, in one-on-one classes for math and economics, I asked him: “How is your throat?” My son said: “I drink more water now, and it’s fine.” Zelene added: “I asked him to bring chrysanthemum tea and honey to his office, so he often drank chrysanthemum tea now.” I was very pleased to hear this. Zelene added: “Duke likes teaching. He often talks to me about his students.” I asked my son curiously: “How many students have you taught now?” “More than twenty.” he replied. I asked again: “Are they all taught face-to-face in a classroom?” He said: “Some students are still taking online classes.” Zelene smiled and said: “Duke has DaBaiTu candy in his office, and some students asked him what it was. I told Duke, if students ask you, tell them they are candies and let them taste it. ”
I also chatted with Zelene about her job and very happy to hear she is doing well.
The stewed beaf rib and the fried rice noodles were delicious and we finished them all, only the rice was not finished. Today’s lunch plus tip is $100. After lunch, my son drove us to the beach for a walk.
Walking along the beach
My son drove to the Santa Cruz Board Walk and saw the parking lot was full. I said： “I always park my car on W Cliff Dr near the Lighthouse. Let’s try parking there.” Unfortunately the parking near the Lighthouse was also full. Not long after driving pass the Lighthouse, the road to the Natural Bridge Beach was still closed for cars and only bicycles and pedestrians were allowed to pass. My son parked the car on the roadside in a residential area not far from the beach. We walked to the seaside in a few minutes. Smelling the unique saltiness in the seaside air, I shared the reason why I like to visit the beach: “I specially like to go to the beach during the pollen season because there is very little pollen in the air at the beach.”
We walked towards the lighthouse together and passed by the beach for unleashed dogs under the cliff. Watching the dogs having fun on the beach, I asked my son: “Do you remember us coming here before?” My son said: ” I remember we went to a beach with dogs, but I don’t remember where.” I smiled and said, “We came here after Eileen went to college. After seeing a lot of dogs playing happily here, you said you want to have a dog too. I told you: ‘Okay, if you get straight A’s on your final this year, you will have a dog.’” After hearing this, Zelene said, “Oh, I didn’t know you wanted a dog when you were a kid.” I continued: “Duke didn’t want a dog too much, as he didn’t get straight A’s that year, then he never mentioned wanting a dog anymore.” Duke said, “I thought it’s too troublesome to have a dog, so I was not interested anymore.” I asked again: “We were excited about getting a dog. Do you remember that we already named the dog?” Duke said, “I don’t remember.” I said, “We said we would name the dog Eileen, because Eileen always orders us around at home. Now we can throw a ball out and command the dog: ‘Eileen, go fetch!’ Later I told Eileen how we named the dog, she joked we were so mean.” Zelene was very happy to hear this story. I told her: “When I went out with Eileen’s family, I often told stories about Eileen on our way back home. Alex enjoys listening too.”
I told another story about Duke when he was little: “When Duke started eating solid food, he ate Gerber’s canned baby food. Those foods were saltless, tasteless and very unpalatable. We had a neighbor who was a stay-at-home mother with two children, her daughter is younger than Eileen, and her son is younger than Duke. She often makes delicious noodles for her children. One day when I came home after work, I saw several children playing outside, and the mother was feeding her son noodles. I saw Duke really wanted to eat the noodles. The mother happily gave me a bowl of noodles to feed Duke. I felt so sad and full of regrets because I didn’t have the energy to make delicious noodles for Duke at that time.” I paused a bit and said: “I now feel that it is not bad to live with regrets. Making up for the regrets brings deeper satisfaction, this is why I often make soft noodles for Ben now.”
While walking along the beach, I was mostly talking, they were mostly listening. We also watched the people surfing on the sea for a while.
We took a group photo before leaving the beach. On the way home, I fell asleep because I was very tired from the fun day today.
Little Episodes
04-11-2014, two photos of the beach for unleashed dogs under the cliff near the Lighthouse:
