Lodi, California
38° 07' 48" N, -121° 16' 20" W
Home is where your heart is and for us our heart in the San Joaquin Valley is at Maria’s. We met Maria and her family on the heels of the pandemic. She has a vacation rental right down the street from Mary’s mom and her place is heaven on earth. Everytime we visit Mary’s family we also visit the Loducas! This year Papa Loduca turned 90 and we were invited to help capture some living history.
The adventure from San Jose across the Altamont Pass to the oasis in Lodi is harrowing to say the least. Walking through the door of the Garden Faire Cottage is always a welcome respite from the jammed lanes of semi trucks moving Amazon goods and America’s food supply, but this time was incredible! The cottage was stocked with epic good eats and our hearts were bursting at the seams!
It was also harvest season in the Valley and fresh veggies and fruit were everywhere! A peach tree hung her tired arms in the alley by the house, grapes and almonds were being harvested, the garden was full of eggplants and green peppers, and no one could eat enough figs or tomatoes.
Speaking of tomatoes, a variety that Papa Loduca himself transported in his younger years as a tomato sauce hauler were available in bumper crops at the local farm stand: The Fruit Bowl. On a late afternoon adventure we made it just before they closed, but not before the sandwich making operation had shuttered for the day. On the picnic table outside of the shop Maria made us hand-crafted (literally) tomato sandwiches and they were to die for.
We made several trips to the Fruit Bowl and one adventure put us directly in the path of an estate sale in a stunning old Victorian farmhouse. Maria flipped an energetic u-turn and we meandered through the collection of folks who are no longer around. It made us grateful that everything we own fits in a 40L backpack. It is frightening to imagine that someday everything can be splayed out for strangers to come and rummage through. Great treasures abounded and now we know where Maria gets ALL of the amazing stuff in the cottage!
September also marked Mary’s birthday and we were able to put on a really wonderful *not* birthday party with her childhood friends and family. We had an absolutely glorious potluck with TWO birthday cakes, butter chicken, chicken adobo, pancit, and a billion focaccia breads adorned with garden vegetables. Guests included a family of guys who are generational iron workers and cat lovers. Krystal laughed so hard she was often in tears.
Days were also needed for operation Little Sissy. Navigating college as a first generation student is a wild west adventure fraught with haphazard instructions and unclear consequences. We loaded up and spent the day in Sacramento to clear up some undue confusion. We started with a reward: a visit to the Crocker Art Museum to see the Estampas de la Raza show. It was epic. We then spent several hours at the Sacramento State University Campus attempting to make sense of transferring. Krystal channeled her days as a high school advisor and we didn’t leave until we felt clear about next steps.
After a day in the admission office and financial aid whirlwinds we all needed a drink! Good thing we were driving home through wine country! We stopped at the Oak Farm Vineyard and shared a really lovely rosé next to the bocce ball court.
Towards the end of our time the big 90th birthday party was on the horizon. Maria and her family are descended from a family of Sicilians who call a small town just to the west of Palermo home. Maria and Krystal could be related and are definitely kindred sisters. In fact, Maria is the reason we know about Italian Dual Citizenship in the first place. Meeting the rest of the family felt like going to our own family reunion. It was an absolute blast filled with everything one would expect from a family function: great food, even better gossip, and laughing so much it made our cheeks hurt.
Happy birthday Papa Loduca. Thank you for inspiring us to have the right-sized dreams.
We are beyond grateful for our Lodi home. It is here where we learned of the importance of drinking your espresso with panna (whipped cream) and truly embracing the good days because the bad days will always be there too.
