Take Me to My City by the Bay

After our tour of the Big Apple, we boarded a plane direct from JFK to take us to the place that is perhaps more home to us than any other: Berkeley. Pamela (Sara's mom) and Laura (Sara's sister) greeted us at the airport (with tears), then Matt (Sara's dad), who had been doing church-related things, greeted us at home, then Julia (Sara's other sister) came home from a musical she was at, again with many tears. Much to our delight, Merry, the dog, hadn't forgotten us and didn't seem too angry at us for our extended leave of absence.

I think that nothing tastes like being home like the taste of Zachary's Pizza. Deep dish spin(ach)-mush(room) and a thin-crust pesto, please.



I had the chance to meet up some of the Young Men from the church congregation we attended in Berkeley, with whom I worked very closely for over two years and whom I adore. We met at my favorite Albany (town bordering Berkeley to the north) taqueria, Gordo's...



...then headed into Berkeley proper for delicious gelato at Naia.

Left to right: Jayson, Brian, and Albert (fondly known as Al-bear). Awesome to see all of you guys again!

Following our reunion with the family (and Laura's boyfriend Jamie), we celebrated the Meldrum-Marostica summer birthday season for the second time with a stack of presents to open.



Among other things, Sara got this fascinating book. You'll have to ask her about it someday.



Late that Friday night, we drove the 3 hours from Berkeley to the north shore of Lake Tahoe, the summer retreat for Marosticas since 1990 or something like that. We were so lucky that our trip to the US coincided so excellently with the timing of the Tahoe trip, especially since we'd moved to Germany just one week too early last summer and had missed our chance.

While there we hiked part of the Rubicon Trail, capturing the three lovely sistees on this rock along the way:

Julia, Sara, and Laura, all in a row.

The rock and its surroundings were so picturesque that we all stopped for couples shots.

Laura and her much-discussed boyfriend, Jamie, on his first Marostica Tahoe week.

If you've never been to Lake Tahoe in the summer, you should go. It's absolutely beautiful. The lake is known for the clarity of the water (sometimes clear in excess of 60 feet and, in former days, up to 100 feet), and it's just so blue. The alpine setting is gorgeous, too. This picture is also from the Rubicon Trail.



One of the many Tahoe-week traditions includes brunch at the Old Post Office on the last day. Since we were leaving before the last day, we rearranged our schedule and went on Sunday morning instead. As usual, visiting the Old Post Office usually includes severe pangs of hunger (this time demonstrated by The-Agony-and-the-Ecstasy-Laura)...



...and the near-ritualistic newspaper reading. Julia usually gets the comics first.



Some members of the extended Marostica family attend the Tahoe festivities regularly, including our awesome cousins: the builder



and the superstar.



We saw lots of friends in Berkeley and at Tahoe, too, including the Wests, the Gurilngs, the Parkinsons, Elisa and Krista et al., the Spencers, and the Ritzmans. With that crowd one can't help but have a great time, which we did. (And a big shout out to the Parkinsons for letting us use their house during our pre- and post-Tahoe nights.)

We took one family picture from the "heating hill," our regular spot on the beach that is just perfect for warming oneself prior to a dip in the chilly alpine lake, a rousing game of Kubb, or just taking it all in:



Our trip to the USA to visit family was awesome. We felt so relieved to be with people that we have known and loved for years rather than simply months, the language came so naturally, and the food was so delicious. It was certainly tough to come back to Aachen (especially with the dread of 24 hours of travel), but the trip was totally worth it. I think this picture of Julia and her friend Adri perfectly captures our feelings about coming home: ebullient.

The Meldrums Take Manhattan

Drinking fountains. Free bathrooms. Free water (with ICE! and refills!) in restaurants. Pizzerias without a single mention of seafood on their menus. These are just a few of the wondrous things that greeted us upon our return to the land of our births. Also, the Meldrum family, complete with Austin, whom we hadn't seen for more than two years. (He was on a mission for our church in Chuuk, one of the Federated States of Micronesia.) We spent an excellent week in Manhattan together. (Technically, we only had everyone all together for three days of the trip. Tyler came late because he was at a science-in-art-conservation conference in Vermont and Jaren had to leave early to get back to DC for a class.)

As with any good Meldrum vacation there was abundant silliness and fun, and as with any good New York vacation there was abundant good food. Here are some pictures that capture these two vital aspects of the trip.

For reasons best known to himself, Jaren made t-shirts for everyone with his mother's face on them. Becky promised to wear hers often, though she was (understandably) reluctant to wear it out into the city, since the picture is so well done that it's very recognizably her.

In addition to the shirts, there were lots of other presents to exchange. We got some lovely American things ...

... and gave away some German goods. Austin got a Berlin Ampelmann shirt. (The Ampelmann is the little guy on the pedestrian traffic lights from East Germany, now seen all over Berlin.)

I think Becky would agree that she got the best of all the European presents--Belgian and Dutch chocolate.

We had to try this taqueria--it was started by two brothers from Berkeley who found New York sadly lacking in decent burritos. They based their restaurant Gordo's, my favorite taqueria, from the food down to the wood-and-leather stools. And yes, the burritos really did taste like Gordo's. I teared up. Just a tiny bit.

We took a ferry past the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island. I'd say Benton looks the most solemn, Becky has the best posture, and Austin and Eric are tied for most disgusted face.

After our afternoon on the water we were starving. Luckily, Eric knew where to find Grimaldi's Pizza. Amazing--it came close to being as good as the pizza we had in Perugia. And there wasn't a bit of tuna in sight.

Becky was excited about Times Square.

Not pictured:

On Thursday night, before Tyler arrived, Kenny, Eric, Jaren, Austin, and I went to the taping of the Colbert Report. We showed up a scant forty minutes before the doors opened and all managed to get in. We had to wait inside for a long time, but it was well worth it. Before and after the show Colbert took questions out of character--he was at least as funny, if not funnier, than he was in character. He told us about the little library he has to one side of the desk on set. The fiction section includes On the Origin of Species, while Watership Down is on the nonfiction shelf. Colbert said that when he tries to make a joke that is too highbrow, his producer says, "Remember, your character thinks that rabbits are at war with each other." If you're interested, you should be able to watch the episode we saw here. (No, you can't see us in the video. Sorry, Austin, but no, you can't.)

Another highlight was a behind-the-scenes tour of the American Museum of Natural History, given by my dear friend, Amy, who works there. First we went to the astrophysics department, where a graduate student tried to recruit 13-year-old Benton to the field. Then Amy took us to a room in the depths of the building where the stacks house whale skeletons. We learned that a single whale vertebra is bigger than a human head. Over the next hour she led us through a maze of rooms and corridors stuffed with preserved vertebrates of every kind. Though Amy had told me about her job before, seeing the animals and the scope of the collection was still kind of shocking.

It was a little sad to be in New York City without my sister Laura (since the three trips I'd taken there before had been to visit her), but luckily we got to see her and the rest of the Bay-Marostica family next!