Speedy Sonoma

Most people think of Sonoma as a place to relax and sip wine while walking through endless vineyards. This is true, but it is also home to Infineon Raceway. The Mr. is a longtime Nascar fan and insisted we visit the raceway on our recent trip. Since he came with me to meet blog friends and ate at Herbivore, it was only fair.

Mr. B&B at Infineon Raceway


I was not a Nascar person until I met my husband and learned that not all race fans meet the stereotypes placed upon them. We had been dating less than a year when he invited me to a Nascar race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. I am always up for new experiences. The seats were about 8 rows up and right in front of the pits near the start/finish line. It was exhilarating!

I go with him and my Father-In-Law to the summer race every year now. The sun is warm. The people we sit near are friendly, her in her leather bra top and him with his "fun flask". The pits and the race are always entertaining. It isn't anywhere I would ever choose to go without Mr. B&B, but even I, the environmentalist vegan, have come to enjoy and embrace it.

Check out the inspiration for this post, The Meanest Mom's Nascar Adventure, here.

I leave you with photos of Infineon Raceway in Sonoma:
The sheep on the hill behind the Grandstands.

The Start/Finish Line

Trifecta

I have read three leisure books in the past week and I am pretty excited about it.

First, I read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This memoir was a New York Times Bestseller and tells the story of the Jeannette's life with her siblings and vagabond parents. It was simultaneously inspirationally moving and strangely horrifying. Though it is Jeannette's truth, at times it reads like fiction which helped this reader to feel just far enough removed, at times, to be able to look at things objectively and gain some understanding of people one might not be able to feel for otherwise. Achingly beautiful and stunningly real.

Second, I read The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. I picked this up at Habitat Books in Sausalito because I wanted something that took place in San Francisco and was written by a San Francisco author. The owner, Sharon, was incredibly helpful, friendly and even sent me home with a list of a few other good San Francisco area writers. I was not disappointed by this work of fiction narrated by a soon-to-be step-mom who loses her step-daughter-to-be one foggy morning on Ocean Beach. You are with Abby every step of the way just hoping and praying that she is able to find Emma and put the life she was about to have back together. A truly excellent and haunting book.

Finally, after two fairly heavy reads, I picked up 3 Willows: the sisterhood grows, a YA novel by Ann Brashares who also wrote The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Last Summer (of You and Me). As a fan of The Sisterhood series, I wasn't sure I would enjoy this "sisterhood part deux", but I was pleasantly surprise. Brashares tackles serious issues facing teen girls today and she handles them in a delicate way. Parents separating. Not getting exactly what you want. Making the most of all opportunities. Starting to date. Eating disorders. Loneliness. Cliques. Changing friendships. Alcoholism. Death of a sibling. All of these subjects and more are addressed. I think it would be an excellent book for mothers to read and discuss with their daughters in order to open a dialogue about these sometimes touchy subjects.

The Trifecta. My To-Be-Read shelve will be empty sooner rather than later.

Have you read any good books lately? I'd love suggestions!

Swing to Work

via Treehugger.com

Swings on BART trains.

Yet another reason to love San Francisco.

This Little Blog of Mine

...I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.

"Pondering Place" was featured on Eye on Blogs, a blog by Brittney Gilbert for CBS Five in California's Bay Area. You can see it here.

Thank you, Brittney!

To learn more about Brittney, check her out on TangoBaby's "other blog" I Live Here: SF.

Breath of Fresh Air

I imagined there must be part of our country that remained unspoiled, but I'd never seen it. Then I did.

On the second leg of our trip to San Francisco, I looked down on Utah and Nevada from above. For the entire bit-more-than-an-hour flight from Salt Lake City to San Francisco I stared.

Now you can stare, too.

Pondering Place

I don't even know where to begin with our San Francisco trip. All I can say is that I have not stopped thinking about, daydreaming about San Francisco since we left. Sitting in my window seat in the plane on the tarmac delayed for more than 20 minutes I boldly proclaimed to Mr. B&B that this was a sign that San Francisco didn't want me to go, San Francisco wanted me to stay FOREVER.

I have always lived in Massachusetts, except for a brief six month stint in Rhode Island. I have always been proud of my "Hearty New Englander" status, but I've also always had a tendency to want to roam, a wanderlust, a sense that I might belong somewhere else. Somewhere else somethings and someones may be waiting for me.

We moved a lot when I was little. My husband and I have lived in three different places in the last five years. In total, I have moved 13 times in 28 years. Might this have something to do with my wanderlust?

As a child, my family rarely went on vacations. We spent lots of time on Massachusetts beaches. We traveled further very few times. Block Island when I was 4. Florida with Grandma and Poppa when I was 5. Bermuda for Thanksgiving when I was 6. Florida with Grandma and Poppa again when I was 13.

As a senior in high school, I took my first vacation without my family. It was a foreign language department trip to Italy and Greece. Driving up and down mountains, hopping from one Greek Island to another, wandering the cobblestoned piazzas of Rome, for the first time I fully felt that maybe where I was born was not where I belonged, not where I was meant to live. I returned to the U.S. and declared that I would be retiring to the Greek Islands, a Greek Island, I just wasn't sure which one yet. On our honeymoon 8 years later, my husband and I fell in love with Santorini and vowed to return there "some day" in the vague and distant future.

Walking the hills of San Francisco, looking out into the bay, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, through the mountain,

and fifteen minutes and a winding drive up and down a mountain later

dipping my toes in the Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach

I felt a sense of belonging.

I loved it. All of it.

The hills.


The cable cars.

The homeless man who gave us directions and then said, "May I ask you something? I mean no disrespect, but I am 46 and homeless and... I mean no disrespect, but is there anything you can spare?" You bet we gave him all our coins.

Golden Gate Park with its botanical gardens, Japanese tea garden, art museum, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Conservatory of Flowers, and all the wonders we have yet to discover.

Barking sea lions under a setting sun.


Two story carousels.

Ballparks that serve veggie burgers.

Haight Ashebury with its street kids, vintage shops, & free records on the sidewalk.

Murals on buildings.


Oh, and that glorious bridge with Muir Beach only 15 minutes beyond and Sonoma only a half hour further away.

How do we know where we belong?

Because we were born there?

Because our family is there?

Because we have always lived there?

or because we feel a longing, a pull, a connection, an unfamiliar pitter patter in our hearts, and are consumed by this place as we feel it consume us?

All I know is that if it weren't for my husband and my kitty, instead of sitting on that plane I would have quietly risen from my seat, politely asked the stewardess to lower the stairs, and walked across the tarmac sure there was a place for me in this strangely familiar city.

Back in Massachusetts

I returned from the west coast at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Friday was errands and cleaning and laundry.

Saturday was in-law's yard sale and friend's graduation party.

Today my brother graduates from Clark University.

Tomorrow, my loves, I will spend lots of time posting on this here blog.

I've missed you!

Taking My Heart to San Francisco

Early Sunday Morning, Mr. B&B and I leave for San Francisco. We will return on Thursday night at 11:00.

Since I have been so busy with school all week, I need to spend tomorrow cleaning and packing. This is my last post until next Thursday.

Never fear! Two of my dear real life friends have agreed to blog in my absence. Keep an eye out for Tanya and Irma. Please show them a little love for me. I have told them all about how great this blogging thing is and I am sure you all will encourage them :-)

Take care my dears! I will come back and post all about my travels and maybe meeting this super woman and this lovely. There'll be pictures, too! xoxo I'll miss you!