pandemic diaries: weeks 20-21

School (100% remote) started yesterday, but more about that in next week's update.

The face I give my kids when they say they're done with their distance learning.

The Oakland Zoo reopened a couple of weeks ago. Very exciting, especially considering they were facing possible permanent closure if not allowed to reopen. We reserved a spot on the last Friday of July and it was so great to be back and have something old/new to do (and yes, we felt safe, etc.).

As we did the first week of summer break, we escaped the city during the final week of summer break for a pandemic-friendly vacation cabin camping in the Sierra foothills, on what used to be a golf course. 

We were pretty close to Yosemite, but opted to stay closer to the property instead, hiking nearby, biking the 6 miles of paved trails around the old golf course, and swimming in the pool, which we had almost entirely to ourselves during the three days we were there. 

S'mores cookies are, sadly, not vegan :\

We played cards, board games, and I finished two books, a bit of a record for me (more thoughts on Jenny O'dell's How To Do Nothing later). My tips for travel right now? Avoid weekends if you can, bring plenty of masks, pack in most, if not all the food you need, and pick a place with a private bathroom. We considered tent camping, but the thought of sharing bathroom facilities right now is even less appealing than usual.

We continue our daily (masked) outings/hikes, including shorter morning and evening walks now that school has started. We just do one lap around the neighborhood school in the morning, not because we want to feel like we're "going to school" so much as I hope a brief blast of fresh air and exercise will make for a good start to the day. 

Inspired by this article and my feeling that galleries and storefronts would be wise to make better use of window displays right now, for one of our midday outings this past weekend, we finally checked out The Roll Up Project in Oakland's Jack London Square (in the window is the work of Maria A. Guzmán Capron).

We watched the HBO documentary about Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and what he's done for the city over the past few years. Highly recommended (watch it here for free). We also watched The Old Guard and Doctor Sleep, both of which were...weird, and kind of felt like they should be TV shows instead. But not in a bad way. Speaking of movies that seem like TV shows, we've been making our way through Fargo, which has also been great for my heightened anxiety, as you can imagine.

In the mostly vegan cooking category this update - turns out these are fully vegan - we have lasagna...

...and cheesecake! 

Look, neither was quite as decadent and delicious as the real thing, but as is my motto lately, it's just food. And it's pretty tasty.