Of all of my favorite things to do when we travel to California, visiting family in Ojai tops the list.
My husband’s great aunts and uncles have lived there for decades and seeing them each year – where not much has changed besides the size of my children – fills me with a familiar peaceful comfort. We visit for lunch, hugs, and updates on family members not able to attend. The aunts and uncles gush over how the children have changed and absorb some of the energy of 4 young cousins so excited for yet another day spent together.
Lunch for 12+ consists of sandwiches made assembly line style (grilled cheese with american cheese, tomatoes and margarine, or egg salad with extra mayo in the salad and on the bread) and is eaten under the dappled shade of live oak trees. The girls run wild, alive with freedom, through the breezeway and down to the old tennis court where my husband learned to play. Some years we visit the horses, llamas and other farm animals behind the house, some years we just listen to their many sounds from the yard. Aunt Mary brings her oatmeal cookies and extra jars of homemade apricot pineapple jam and we tell her we still want her to teach us how to make her famous homemade tortillas. I am thrilled every year to see our “first dance” wedding photo still has a prominent place on the fridge.
Then elders become tired, children become cranky, we all embrace once more, and as quickly as we arrived we are whisked away through dry grassy hills, back to fog and ocean. Until next year…
