Day 14 - 12/09/2022 - Santa Clara

I wasn't particularly surprised to find out that I still wasn't feeling great this morning, and it seemed as if another day spent at home was very much due. In reality, this bothers me very little, and for two reasons. One is that I remember my Dad saying that his favourite part of travelling somewhere is just to have those quiet moments of truly experiencing what it's like to have a regular day at that place, to sit at a café and watch people go by, as if he lives there and it's just another day for him. I love California, but I didn't choose to come here for the place but for the people I would be staying with, and so it actually sounds nice to be able to spend a good amount of time with them (even if during that time I'm coughing like Walt Disney coming down the corridor at his Studios).

And today I got to experience with my friends something that I have always considered to be quintessentially American: sugar cookies. One of my favourite parts of visiting my family for Christmas is to absolutely devour Hallmark Christmas movies with my Mum. If you tell me you don't like them, I don't believe you. What's there not to like? Yes, the plot is always the same, and yes, there is a discomforting sexism and conservatism about a story of a young woman who is tired of her high-rolling career and instead is persuaded by her absolutely awful ex-boyfriend to return to her hometown (which he never forgave her for leaving) and instead open a bakery. But there is also something endearing about the focus on family over prestige, wellbeing over wealth, and kindness over selfishness. And, most importantly, you get to spend an hour and a half watching people whose absolute worst problem in the world is having to choose a Christmas tree, or having to follow a recipe to make the perfect sugar cookies. And the sugar cookies always look amazing!

Now, you may ask me: if I so wanted to make sugar cookies, why didn't I just bake some while back home in the UK? The explanation is very simple: I'm the worst cook in the world and enjoy baking as much as cats love water. But when Inês told me we could make some and I found a recipe for some vegan ones, I was very excited. I could spoil the simplest of recipes, but Inês never could. So we made sugar cookies, which was a lot of fun, and they turned out perfectly chewy and incredibly tasty. As I walked out into the garden, book and sugar cookie in hand, to catch the last minutes of sunshine, within a minute I saw a squirrel running through the electricity cables above the grapevines and a hummingbird flying from flower to flower, neither of which are something I see every day.

I couldn't help but think of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love (I hear you groan, but I'm afraid there are more of these yet to come!). I had read a very considerable chunk of the book and by then was thinking "Yes, yes, Elizabeth, good for you. There you are in Italy eating pasta, followed by pastries, followed by ice-cream, then moving onto India, where you are eating all of these curries, and somehow you always feel great. Travelling must be amazing for someone who clearly isn't lactose intolerant." It had always made me sad that, much as I loved travelling, my body didn't always love it as much as I did. And yet, almost as if on purpose, a couple of pages later she confessed to actually really struggling with being sick while on holiday. She admitted that it was a bummer, but that it would never stop her from travelling, because in the end the experiences you have while travelling more than make up for any of it. As I read this, it made me feel incredibly comforted to know that someone whom I think of as one of the best travel writers of all time also loves travelling despite not experiencing it as something that is totally seamless and comfortable. And as I'm reading in the garden, watching the grape vines swinging in the wind, and sucking on Ricola cough drops in a desperate attempt to no longer sound as if the sea witch has taken my voice because I failed to make some rich boy fall in love with me, I can say that I agree 100%, because I know that, out of all the memories I will remember from this trip for years to come, making sugar cookies with Inês is always going to be one of them.

I highly recommend that you go bake sugar cookies now