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大切な夏の思い出
この夏、筆者はカルフォルニア州に住む親族に会うために、車を使った長い旅に出た。
ロサンゼルスでバンに乗り、650キロ北にあるソノマ郡へと向かったのである。
のんびりしたペースの旅の途中では、いくつもの美しい風景との出会いがあった。
Summer preserves
Most people gather up crops in the fall, but there's one harvest that's sweetest taken in during the summer. Though the heat roasts us to laziness, this rare and invaluable preserve requires the help of loved ones to gather.
My family and friends are scattered all over North America. Some live in Nova Scotia, some in Denver, more in Florida, Oregon and throughout California. To visit them all, I'd have to "mortgage the farm" (and I don't even own one). So instead, I choose a quadrant and hope to see as many familiar faces as possible. This year, my aunt, uncle, mom and son all piled into a van in Los Angeles and did a quintessentially American thing. We took a road trip, driving 650 km north to Sonoma, where another branch of family lives happily ensconced in wine country.
Heading north at a leisurely pace, we stopped at towns along the way, stretching out the journey to several days, and letting the itinerary be bound only by the sepia light of the setting sun. Being on the road removed us from cell phones, computers and the concerns of home, and coaxed out instead old family yarns and corny jokes, or caused us to notice the beauty of the landscape on the way. We spotted wild turkeys, whales off the coast of Big Sur, the zebra descendents of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst's zoo near Cambria and otters in Monterey Bay. We tasted succulent beef tri-tip sandwiches home-grilled by an Indian gas stop attendant, sifted for elusive opalescent moonstones on a beach near where elephant seals congregate, and felt the heat of summer pulsating through hills of golden grass crispy as old tatami mats.
My son often succumbed to the car's cradling motion, rocked to sleep by the opiate of the road. There were stretches of great quiet for the rest of us, too, as we moved along. We traveled light with little more than a few changes of clothing, an odd assortment of maps, cameras, snacks, and bottles of water for crossing the scorching Salinas Valley, where temperatures climb into triple digits. But we traveled light in another sense, too, discovering a truth beautifully expressed by Salinas Valley native, author John Steinbeck: "You don't take a trip; the trip takes you."
Our trip took us through enormous fields of garlic, strawberries and corn, groves of fragrant peaches, apricots and citrus. We saw giant sequoias and a museum celebrating John Steinbeck's work. We slept in humble motels with teeny showerheads and flimsy wooden doors. We were also taken on a freewheeling trip through each other's past memories and present observations. Our trip took us into the future, as well, because it will be with us — a harvest of images and ideas — for years to come.
As you read this, I hope you have just returned from a family gathering of some sort, whether it be to light the lanterns that safely guided your ancestors home for Obon, or a vacation with your sweetheart, or even a languid afternoon in the park with your kids while they are out of school. Summer's light, while brief, is golden for a reason, and it helps us grow a family.
- preserves
- 「ジャム」の意.夏に家族と一緒に過ごした大切な思い出を、夏の間に収穫した果物から作る「ジャム」に例えている
- heat roasts us to laziness
- 暑さでだらける
- are scattered
- 散らばっている
- mortgage the farm
- 農場を抵当に入れる
- quadrant
- (北米の)4分の1
- piled into 〜
- 〜に乗り込んだ
- quintessentially
- 典型的に
- branch of family
- 親せき
- ensconced in 〜
- 〜に落ち着いて
- itinerary
- 旅行のプラン
- Being on the road
- 旅行中であること
- coaxed out 〜
- 〜を引き出した
- old family yarns
- 家族に伝わるエピソード
- corny jokes
- 古くさい冗談
- Big Sur
- ビッグ・サー(=風光明媚で有名な海岸線)
- newspaper magnate
- 新聞王
- otters
- カワウソ
- succulent
- ジューシーな
- tri-tip
- ともさんかく(肉の部位名)
- gas stop attendant
- (軽食店を兼ねている)ガソリンスタンドの店員
- sifted for 〜
- 〜を見つけようとふるいにかけた
- elusive
- 見付けにくい
- opalescent
- オパール色の
- elephant seals
- ゾウアザラシ
- congregate
- 集まる
- pulsating
- ゆらめかせる
- golden grass crispy as 〜
- 〜のようにかさかさした黄金色の草
- succumbed to the car's cradling motion
- 車の振動に身を任せた
- rocked to sleep
- 揺られて眠った
- opiate
- 眠り薬
- odd assortment of 〜
- 〜の雑多な寄せ集め
- scorching
- 焼けつくような
- triple digits
- (カ氏で)3けた
- groves
- 果樹園
- fragrant
- よい香りの
- sequoias
- セコイア
- teeny
- 小さな
- flimsy
- 薄い
- freewheeling
- 自由奔放な
- languid
- 気だるい