Kai with her two grandmas, Erline and the author, in a man-made forest in McLean, Virginia
Kai won’t be a kid again. If I didn’t take advantage of this fact, I’d just wind up being the geographically distant grandmother from Baguio whose jokes she may find corny soon.
So when Lolarga cousin Erline V. Mendoza opened the opportunity for Kai and me to fly from Boise, Idaho to Washington D.C. via San Francisco, I grabbed it gratefully like a lifeline. It was my chance to, as they say, bond deeply with Kai and create lasting memories.
Erline communicated with Kai via postcards, asking the latter for her desired breakfasts and favorite snacks. I had just reawakened in Kai the joys of letter writing and creating her own postcards this summer after we discovered a huge, largely untouched box of Crayola crayons, color pencils, markers, and highlighters under her bed.
At first, she was anxious, telling her mother Kimi that the adults in Virginia might be talking about her, to her shame and discomfort. When Erline announced that she had drawn up an itinerary for our Virginia-Maryland-D.C. visit that included an outdoor concert at the Wolf Trap Filene Center, featuring Lea Salonga, my 12-year-old granddaughter shrugged nonchalantly and said, “But I don’t even know her songs!”
What followed was marathon YouTube shuffles of Lea’s Disney, Miss Saigon and Les Miserables songs in the home computer until these were coming out of our ears. Kai was sufficiently convinced it was worth taking a nap to ready herself for an evening concert.
At the Lea Salonga concert in Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia
It helped that in late May to early June, my brother Junic came down from Calgary, Canada for a first-time visit to Idaho to explore its outdoor attractions. His enthusiasm for daily walks, climbing, and biking was contagious. Kimi joined him, while Kai and I rode with them on the drive to rural McCall that sits around picturesque Payette Lake. Kai was excited at every chance that he would allow her to tinker with his professional camera. He admired her sunset shots and dramatic portrait of him against the trunk of a sugar pine tree.
Kai and I made sure to bring our deck of cards in a large font that we scored from Barnes & Noble. Kimi protested that we could’ve gotten a cheaper deck from Amazon, but I wanted to review Kai’s skills in gin rummy, which we thought would help us pass the time while traveling. Soon, she was beating Junic and me even in friendly games of Black Jack.
Kai and I made sure to bring our deck of cards in a large font that we scored from Barnes & Noble. I wanted to review Kai’s skills in gin rummy
We packed one large luggage with clothes good for two weeks and a hand-carried one for pasalubong, which Kai was responsible for. At the SanFo International Airport, our evening departure was marred by a two-hour-long brownout that delayed our flight to Dulles Airport. But WiFi was still available, so we were able to notify Erline and husband Rudy of a later arrival time. By the time the night sky had touches of pink, I woke up groggy from sleep, with Kai beside me looking irritated because she said I snored deeply during the trip.
Because I didn’t have a working mobile with me, Erline kept in touch for the remainder of our visit with Kai for pickup points and coordination. This millennial worked her phone agilely. Soon we were safe in the Tesla, our first time to ride an electric car that had, instead of a dashboard, a large computer screen that gave directions to our first destination—home in McLean, Virginia—and also showed the road we were covering, plus the moving vehicles on either side. We were mesmerized by this ultra-modern but environment-friendly car.
Among the breakfast items that Rudy prepared was an eggplant omelette that made me homesick. But Kai was indifferent to vegetables and settled for a Nutella sandwich and cookies. After a brief rest, Erline knocked on our bedroom door to indicate it was time for the Dr. Seuss immersive experience in Tysons Corner, VA, beside a branch of Barnes & Noble, a shopping trap for me if there ever was one.
Kai entered a labyrinth of mirrors and artificial trees. I met the Grinch and posed with him, no hard feelings for childhood Christmases when I didn’t get my wish. Kai and I chose a stuffed Thing One as a gift for her toddler cousin Poppy in California. I noticed that because of past COVID-19 protocols, cashiers hardly accepted cash, so Kimi was right in having me carry her credit card for purchases. (I had a ceiling, though; items beyond $20 required deep, second thinking.) On the way home, Erline stopped by to pick up a bag Chick-fil-A nuggets for our young, picky eater who was overjoyed to nibble on fries and fried chicken.
Our next day was earmarked for the National Gallery of Art, where I met up with my Maryland-based godchildren Diwa and Mae de Leon with their daughter Kaya at the souvenir shop. We picked out cards and postcards before moving to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries upstairs. Kaya is a cosplayer, a nifty dresser who already earns from her commissioned art that enables her to order her costumes online. That morning, she looked like Little Bo-peep with a frilly bonnet but without the staff.
At the National Gallery of Art shop in D.C. with Diwa, Mae and Kaya de Leon
When my cousins in other parts of the US saw Viber pictures showing me standing erect beside portraits by Monet and the other Masters, they were convinced that my knee replacement surgeries were a success, and they were excited to take us out some more.
“Broadway in the Park: Lea Salonga at Wolf Trap” was set in a meadow with a covered amphitheater in Vienna, VA. It was a drizzly early evening, but already the hilly picnic grounds facing the stage and beyond the theater’s roofs were full of people who had unrolled their blankets and mats or brought their own folding chairs. There were at least three jumbotrons set up outdoors so the overflow audience could see what was going on onstage.
But somehow, Kai and I emerged not fully satisfied with the overall program. Lea, our national theater treasure, came on in the second half, singing only five songs, one of them a duet and the other with the rest of the American cast. In the duet of “For Good” from Wicked with Megan Hilty, it was clear who had the superior voice. From her first note, Lea overwhelmed Megan.
Another cause for our disappointment was she didn’t give an encore despite a prolonged standing ovation and cries of “Bravo!”, “We love you, Lea,” “Ang galing mo, Lea!” An encore wouldn’t have strained her voice, despite her claim of exhaustion. Oh well, all’s swell!
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, retired journalist Cielo Lutz, once known by her byline Marichelle Roque, arranged for Kai’s and my trip to rural Lancaster County via Amtrak. When she met us at the station, her hands were on her hips as she said with a straight face, “Your train is late by 10 minutes.” It was to be Kai’s first train ride, for which she worried a lot until Cielo said, “Anxious about a train but not anxious about flying?”
I was glad to note that our host’s residence in New Holland was just two blocks away from the post office, so we were able to walk and send postcards to dear ones describing our first meal with an Amish family. Kai hungrily tucked into her mashed potatoes swimming in butter together with the baked chicken (crisp skin, tender flesh), pot roast, buttered noodles, raspberry jello with whipped cream and a choice of dessert between a lava chocolate cake and an apple tart.
Amish house
The visitors and I observed that the interiors of an Amish household were not all that austere. They had indoor plumbing and battery-operated lighting fixtures. Sometimes, the others had solar panels for power needs.
Pot roast served in an Amish house in Kinzers, Pennsylvania
The cook and host, Mary L. Beiler, was a mother of seven. Her two sons helped bus the tables and pour our water. Her secret to her mashed potatoes? She mixed them with cream cheese to make them creamier.
When my cousins in other parts of the US saw Viber pictures showing me standing erect beside portraits by Monet and the other Masters, they were convinced that my knee replacement surgeries were a success
Unlike other modern Americans who dry their laundry with a dryer, Mary’s was arranged on a long clothesline, clipped and flapping under the sun and in the breeze. She had a barn with horses that Kai gingerly got close to. Herbs like the ones mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel song were present, including kale and dill, and labeled carefully.
Kai with the horses in a barn owned by an Amish family
At the visitors’ center, Cielo noticed a flyer of the musical Grease, a local production, playing in the old theater downtown, the Fulton. Husband David reserved tickets for us. I thought Kai would have a hard time identifying with a play set in the ’50s, but I was wrong. She paid attention and understood why its title was so—the teenaged boys from that era styled their hair with pomade or grease.
Ceiling of the old Fulton Theater, where the musical ‘Grease’ was staged
We spent our evenings playing gin with Cielo. Victories were divided among the three of us. Perhaps an outstanding memory for Kai was visiting the cow/dairy farm where Lapp ice cream was churned and sold, along with its bestselling tubs of butter.
Pens for calves at the Lapp Dairy Farm
We looked at the Jersey cows, calves, and the sign that declared proudly: “The milk and ice cream products that are purchased in this store are all produced and packaged here on the farm.”
Sorry for me, I was lactose intolerant, so I just took pictures of Cielo and Kai enjoying their ice cream. Later, the older woman confessed that she regretted ordering two scoops, and she’d have to burn it off by gardening the next day.
The author beside Monet’s ‘Woman with a Parasol’
Kai lucked out with Cielo as her cook. The latter prepared pancakes from scratch, eggs and bacon for breakfast, salmon sinigang for one dinner, among Kai’s favorites. We were profuse with thanks as we parted ways at the train station and exchanged hugs, with a promise to host Cielo and whoever her companion will be when they visit Baguio.
Kai’s and my last immersive art experience with the Mendozas was Yayoi Kusama’s One with Eternity at the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. She was always concerned if we had to pay for our entrance tickets, until Erline assured her that all the museums and galleries in the D.C. area were free of charge because their existence and maintenance were made possible by taxpayers like Kai’s mother.
Kusama’s installations included a mirrored room with red and white polka-dotted phalluses which could only be entered one at a time, the same recurring polka dots on night lanterns, and the famous giant yellow pumpkin covered with black dots.
In a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room, Hirshhorn Museum in D.C.
I still have to gauge how this prolonged field trip has impacted on Kai, but my fervent and only hope is that she enjoyed my company.
