City Mouse, Country Mouse

I love mice of all kinds. When our Substitute Grandma/Angel Marci came over last week to watch Peter and let Erika get a little shopping done, she straightened up the whole house AND made Erika and Martin dinner. And she did not neglect MY needs either - she organized my entire collection of mice into one easy-to-select-from pile. I have quite the mouse collection! Red ones, grey ones, green ones...furry mice, sheepskin mice, wool mice...it's pretty impressive.

Erika was thinking about mice this weekend too - city mice and country mice. There is a story called Town Mouse, Country Mouse about two mice who yearn to live in the opposite place from where they grew up. Erika has always used this phrase to describe people who live in the city (and love it!) and people who live in the country, and couldn't imagine living in a city. After a simply wonderful trip to the country this weekend, Erika has realized that she has a split personality.

Reading the Chronicle this morning, Erika was pleased to discover that 2 of the restaurants who won big in the latest James Beard awards (Tartine and Delfina) are walking distance from her apartment in San Francisco (and one, Gramercy Tavern, is walking distance from her last apartment in New York City). In fact, as she has discovered in the last 7 weeks of not driving, there are all kinds of good things within walking distance if you aren't afraid of a few hills. It is a clear, sunny morning in this sparkling, mellow city and Erika finds herself completely in love with San Francisco. In fact she is on her way to Tartine this afternoon to meet another new mother and talk babies over chocolate pudding. Or maybe a lemon tart.

However, this weekend was another story. Erika and Martin toured Mendocino County all the way from Potters Valley outside Ukiah, to Westport (on the coast north of Mendocino) to Boonville in the Anderson Valley. They stayed on a hippie commune turned bed and breakfast and dreamed of their own homestead as they watched the sunset from the windows of a cottage that sat just 300 yards from the ocean. Then they discovered Boonville and were smitten. Not only because of the houses that ring the airport and boast their own personal hangars right next to the 2-car garages, although that was a heavily influencing factor for one of us. In Boonville, one could purchase several acres of land with an old farm house, room for goats and bees and a BIG garden and REAL field mice for less than the price of a flat in San Francisco that doesn't even have a yard. The Anderson Valley is warm and peaceful and the rolling golden hills that surround it are beautiful and quintessentially California. Erika and Martin could not imagine returning to a freezing cold, dirty, crowded city where the closest they come to nature on a daily basis is watering the tomato plants on the deck (still no sign of tomatoes, dad - it isn't looking good).

Are we city mice or country mice? Do we want Peter to grow up going to the opera and museums and yoga classes or do we want him to learn how to milk a cow and feed chickens and pick carrots right out of the ground? Me, I'm happy anywhere there is a sunny spot and few mice (real or otherwise), but Erika and Martin have some hard thinking to do...