Jack London State Park

So much for retirement. I mean, it didn't REALLY start until this week, which was the first week of school. Until yesterday, it was just the same summer vacation I have had for the last 11 years. But, sure enough, just as people warn you, it is possible to get busier in retirement than you were before. So many projects. So many things to do.

In the meantime, my wife's eye for the unusual has been sharpened. A few months ago, while perusing the legacy media output of the San Francisco Chronicle, she spotted an evening performance of Broadway under the Stars, by the Transcendance Theater Co. at Jack London State Historic Park near Glen Ellen, CA, just outside of Santa Rosa. We went and had a wonderful time, spent the night, and came back the next day to inspect the park, which contains both buildings and memorabilia associated with Jack London, who lived there just before his death. There is his cottage, the big house his widow built, and the amazing mansion they were about to move to when it burned down in 1914. The performance was amazing; the venue, the remains of a winery, reminded me of  the outdoor theater in Ashland, Ore. before they put a roof on it. Which is to say, magical. Downtown Glen Ellen is cute as a button, with several great restaurants (some of which do not serve lunch). Parking is tough; take a shuttle bus. The yellowjackets are numerous and obnoxious, so don't expect much of a pre-show picnic, and don't take any meat or sweet fruit. And even then you might get swarmed. For reasons I cannot understand, they seemed less interested in the output of the food trucks: crepes, grilled cheese sandwiches and various slabs of tri-tip type beef.

This is not the lavishly detailed description of our magical weekend that I had hoped to produce, but I'm already two weeks late with it, and I refuse to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. If this small item gives you the impression that this is an experience you should try, along with some advice on how to improve your experience, it has achieved its goal.