I vividly remember walking across this suspension bridge as a kid. My parents have a hilarious video (probably stashed away somewhere, on a giant Beta) of me crossing it—and crouching down every few steps when it would slightly sway!
The Capilano Suspension Bridge is just outside of Vancouver, in British Columbia, and is the longest suspension bridge in the world. When you step out onto it, it looks like it’s a mile long! It’s surely incredibly secure, but you do feel it moving with the wind and foot traffic as you cross a beautiful gorge, 230 feet (23 stories) in the air! Eeek!
I have a mild fear of heights. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach and my heart rate accelerating when I look over a steep cliff. Milan Kundera, in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
( a favorite read), says that vertigo is not the fear of falling but rather the fear of the temptation to fall “against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.” I have no suicidal tendencies, and yet I understand what he means. There’s this immediate, palpable understanding of how close the perilous lies.
Are you afraid of heights? Do you have any phobias?
Here are links for your weekend. Hope it’s a good one!
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Angelou in an Interview for Beautifully Said Magazine (2012)
I wasn’t assigned to read Ms. Angelou in school. I knew some famous quotes, but I hadn’t read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings when I first heard her speak at UC Davis’s Freeborn Hall—back in the mid-nineties when I was a freshman. But that voice. That voice that could make you feel so much compelled me to. She was an incredible orator and an inspiring woman. I’m happy to be compelled to read her words again today, even if under unfortunate circumstances.
Earlier this month, over the mother’s day weekend, Aron and I drove into Yountville (a little town in Napa that you may have heard of thanks to some fella named Thomas Keller) and had an anniversary lunch at Redd.
Redd won me over with the best mocktail (and a delicious meal) when I was pregnant with Hudson. This was the first time we’d been back, and I still loved it. The menu is a bit eclectic—many dishes have a bit of an Asian-fusion aspect whereas others are steadfastly European—but everything we’ve had has been great. I was especially excited about indulging in things like hamachi sashimi and tuna tartare (their take is amazing), oysters and (real) cocktails—the sorts of things that had been off limits last time (and throughout most of the past year).
But I was also reminded what a pleasure it is to indulge in a special midday meal.
