Marin by Day and Night

We catch up with Flo's cousin Alain and his family on the beach in Marin. These occasional encounters are a great reminder of parallel lives in a family, branches of a Swiss tree that now span from Lausanne to Los Angeles. Suddenly, Paul and his cousin Lucien are at university toying with careers in tech, while Marie contemplates film school at USC. 

We catch up on the intervening years as the girls make sandy cocktails and we dive into the delicious turkey sandwiches and home-made beignet of our windy picnic. Thank you Haruyo! Watching the riptide is like seeing water flowing uphill, waves that double back on each other and break heading out to the ocean. Surfers dodge the rocks that have tumbled off the cliffs into the Ocean. This is not the gentle swell of Pacifica. 

In the evening, we dine on the other side of Marin (great to be able to cross the Golden Gate by night and day...), at Celine and Massimo's. Celine is one of Florence's oldest friends (here in CA she'll have seen three of them in a single week), but it's the first time the girls or I have a chance to meet her or their daughter Gabriella, who we've heard so much about. 

Celine and Massimo's determination has helped Gabriella enjoy a normal life among children in the local school, in spite of Gabriella's condition. Her alert and nimble mind is out of synch with her motor reflexes and muscles. Joyful, playful Gabriella has accomplished astounding feats of self-expression and coordination in spite of the entrapment of her unruly body. She's a charmer, has her circle of friends at school and continues to confound the doctors with her progress. 

Massimo took over a local kitchen when the chef broke his arm, a fateful turn away from the publishing industry that he's worked in for years. And now he and Celine are opening a restaurant in Larkspur. What a treat, then, to eat in his kitchen! Look out for Laboratorio Organico, opening soon.  

Thank you for the kind invitation Famiglia Covello, another illustration and reminder to the girls and to us alike that there are so many routes to family prosperity and happiness.