We here at Offspring Tourism love the saying, “old stomping grounds.” In the 1950s, my dad used to use the term all the time. “Oh, the Berkeley campus - that’s my old stomping ground!” But it still means the same thing as it did then. A stomping ground is a place that elicits happy memories and is familiar in every way. I was delighted to learn during my eldest daughter’s recent visit how many happy memories of old stomping grounds we share.
My eldest daughter, Hana, visited for nine days last June without her family in tow. This was a different sort of offspring tourism. This time the offspring came to me!
Hana had just arrived when we headed over to Clement Street and Burma Superstar, our favorite Burmese food restaurant. Eating the fabulous Firecracker Cauliflower and Rainbow Salad made our evening. Then we got to poke around in the dozens of interesting shops as we sauntered the mile home.
The next day we paid our respects to the Arboretum/Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. Definitely an old stomping ground! My husband and I first brought Hana here when she was still a baby snuggling in a carrier close to my chest. When she was four years old she dubbed the Moon Viewing Garden the “Mary Ann Place” because it seemed to her like the kind of place the White Rabbit would chase after Alice while he looks at his watch and calls Alice “Mary Ann.”
Three views of the Moon Viewing Garden in Golden Gate Park
Fortunately, the Arboretum is but a short walk to one of our must-visit bakeries, Tartine, on 9th Avenue. The croissant, bread and pastries there never disappoint.
We savored our favorite matcha drinks at Stonemill Matcha on Valencia and enjoyed their fine cuisine. We attended the Mountain Play on the outdoor theater on the side of Mount Tamalpais and adored their production of the musical, Kinky Boots.
Hana and I always love driving to Los Angeles to see wonderful, long time friends there and hike or run trails we know so well in the Santa Monica Mountains. This time we decided to zip down Highway 5 and stay at a nice Marriott Hotel in Woodlands Hills which was perfectly centered to access friends in the north valley, Pasadena, Calabasas and Culver City.
Hana running the Summit to Summit Trail for cross country in High School.
How I could have forgotten how much driving is required in Los Angeles, I’ll never know. We drove a lot, but we still managed to walk nine miles a day, likely because we started each day with a hike along the Summit to Summit Trail (literally an old stomping ground!) which runs along the crest of the mountain we used to live on in Calabasas. Pink and yellow wild flowers covered the hillsides. The brilliant purple of the jacaranda trees blanketed the valley floor. We visited our former homes, Hana's middle school, and Venice Beach, because we have to drive through Topanga to the Pacific Coast Highway when we're in LA.
Enjoying Calabasas and the Santa Monica Mountains.
It might seem funny to some, but my daughter and I, and, actually, my whole family like to go food shopping. We never met a Whole Foods we didn’t want to explore. In LA we rediscovered the outrageously expensive but beautifully appointed Erewhon Markets. My husband took me to the first west coast Erewhon on Beverly Boulevard in 1981. Here I am forty years later, passing the torch to my daughter.
In November, I’ll visit Hana in Germany and enjoy all the stomping grounds we’ve already created there: A walk along the Rhine, meandering from Christmas Market to Christmas Market, hiking up the Rotweinwanderweg, and of course, a visit to the big Rewe Supermarket at Barbarosaplatz.
Golden Gate Park with Hana and her sister 1990.
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