Pesach

We had the first night of Passover in Chicago with Navah and Freddie's sister, Coco. We made a spontaneously beautiful dinner, said a few blessings and hung out around the table together. It was precious and meant a lot to me to share this tradition with everyone. Earlier in the day we had a hilarious experience at Russian tea time...basically we realized we could just order a few items "a la carte" rather than overpaying at $30/person for the "tea service". Totally fair for us to do, right? Well, our old school Russian waiter man didn't seem to like it (or maybe he just didn't like us) so he provided us not just with bad service, but with overtly rude comments and literally mocking us. We were having a blast and didn't want to let him get in the way of that...so we got our tea and snack tower and took it in stride :-)

 From Chicago, we continued west on 90 to Minneapolis. As we were arriving we decided to track down my sister, Sadie, who was visiting there to search for housing with her partner Leo because they just "placed" there for his medical residency! It was a treat to get to see them again on this trip and in a new place. So much sister time! Yayyy! So yeah, we surprised them walking around the lake, had a nice dinner and then had an interlude so we could watch the premiere of Lemonade, Beyonce's new video album...not sure I can even get into that amazing piece of art right now...I'll just say, I love Beyonce, and I love what she is doing for art, music and political spheres. She is queen! Anyyywayyyz, we got to hang out with them the next morning and then headed back to the house we were staying at for a queer radical passover seder. It was one of the best seders I have ever been to. It was such a powerful intersection of community, ritual, and political engagement. And it was so sweet to be invited into Jo's home and seder even though we had only conversed over email through shared community. So much generosity and warmth. I truly loved Minneapolis and am excited to visit Sadie and Leo and new friends there!

Lake Calhoun with Sadie

Seder at Jo's

From Minneapolis, we began the first of a three day haul from Minnesota to Washington. We knew it would be a long drive, but the torrential downpour didn't help. After about 8 hours, we made it to the Badlands in South Dakota where we wandered around and relaxed in the sunshine.

The following morning, we got an early start and headed toward Montana. We listened to Beyonce as we drove through the Badlands and it felt like we were on a different planet. Clouds of mist suspended over crumbling canyons, all with the soundtrack of Lemonade. It was a little rainy, but that was fine...until the rain got cold and became hail, and then snow. Ah, the snow. The one thing I knew I did not want to do on this trip was drive through the snow, but there we were, on a day that was already going to be our longest drive of our entire trip...so we persevered. Freddie drove for several hours while I was stress eating Matzah (unleavened bread for passover that tastes like cardboard). Finally the snow dissipated, so we pulled over and I got myself pumped up to drive. We were both exhausted, and I knew it was my turn to come through. So I drank my organic sparkling water energy drink (lol) and beasted it across the country. I drove for over 5 hours with only one stop to pee on the side of the road. I just let some other part of myself kick in and there was only me, the car, the road, and our destination. By the time we made it to Missoula, a 10 hour drive made 14 hours, I was spinning. We got to our motel and I was chatting with the owner while they checked us in, she asked where I had come from that day...I paused, started to laugh and said, I actually cannot remember right now...moments passed...and I still had no idea where I had been that morning...as I was about to walk out I turned to her and said, "the Badlands! that's where I drove from today". We grabbed some food, got in bed and passed out hard. Just to wake up the next day and drive another 8 hours which is when we got our first speeding ticket of the trip. Such a bummer to have made it around the entire country - over 10,000 miles - and then get a ticket back on the west coast. Oh well. We then realized that Seattle is North (not South) of Olympia (whoops) so we made a quick stop there to see Freddie's grandpa and headed to Olympia as planned (skipping the overnight in Seattle since neither of us could imagine backtracking even if it would have been just a few hours). Haha. Definitely a time of unraveling, sillyness and overcoming obstacles.

Oh and we stopped in the famous town of Wall, SD at Wall Drug to get in a photo booth session of course.

 

Passover matzah on the road (not my favorite road snack)

You might remember our companions from earlier posts...they got a little wild on the drive

Alas, we made it to Olympia where we stayed with my friend Sarah. It was so lush and dreamy and I felt soooo relieved to be back on the West Coast! I loved so many of the places we went on this trip, but I really am a west coaster, born and raised, and still committed to the Pacific ocean.

Now we are in Portland visiting friends and Freddie's family, with just a few more stops before we are back in the Bay Area.

Thanks for reading,

Eli