Of Bunk Beds, Meze, and Cedar...
We spent most of July and the first part of August 2018 making Happy Cabin just a little bit happier. Eben and our neighbor Jon tore out old carpets and laid gleaming, hard-to-destroy wood laminate floors that are as low-maintenance as they are beautiful. Grandma Oranges organized dishware and tended to "I'm bored" kids, clamoring to go to the lake. But it was Grandpa Oranges who gave a part of himself to the cabin. Grandpa toiled for weeks in the hot summer sun over built-in redwood bunks, crafted by hand from pieces of redwood he'd been saving for a special project. I may be a little bit biased, but these beds are magic. Not only are they functional and fun, the smell of linseed oil and old wood takes me back to another happy place we discovered on a trip to Turkey we took when Anaya was only 4-years-old. Lake Egerdir.
Perched on the side of an azure lake high in the Turkish mountains is an eclectic lodge called Charly's Pension, built partly of weather-worn cedar. Our room was lined in old cedar planks and listed slightly, giving the impression we were bunked on a swaying ship. Directly out our window was the lake, wind-swept below towering mountains and a sky that shifted from clear blue to steel gray depending on the weather's mood. At night, we would sit out on a deck overlooking the inky water and play cards and tell stories with other travelers over glasses of raki, an anise-flavored grape liquor served swirled with water until it turns a milky white, and meze, small dishes of fragrant, colorful appetizers like beyaz peynir (a salty white cheese), haydari (thick yogurt with herbs) and--my favorite--acılı ezme, a spicy pepper paste made with walnuts ,sumac and pomegranate molasses. That smell. . .
When I walk into Grandpa Oranges’ bunk room, I am there again, the intervening years bewitched away by my senses. I hope that Grandpa Oranges’ bunk beds will soon be the stuff of many a family's memories, and that the smell of linseed oil and aged redwood planks will forever transport them back to Happy Cabin and the memories they made here.
To visit Happy Cabin during your trip to North Lake Tahoe / Tahoe Vista / Kings Beach, click here.
We caught some early-morning prowlers on our security camera! It was a good reminder for all of us how important it is to STAY AWARE--to stay aware of our local ecology, to stay aware of how our actions affect our wildlife neighbors, to stay aware of how important it is to store food in bear-safe containers and make sure left-overs don't get left outside.