Travel day. Jessica and her mom spent the morning struggling furiously to get everything packed, including gaggles of gifts for their family. Jessica’s sister, Jennifer, and I hugged and waved them on their way, then we made our own way to the Caltrain station, and I headed off to Santa Cruz. It was not a direct flight, with a transfer in San Jose that had me running to buy bananas to get exact  change for the bus, and in Scotts Valley I missed my pickup when Ben’s mom, Barbara, called out for “Amy.” I walked around the suburby sleepy town, and read in the library until I could get ahold of her and Ted, Ben’s dad.

Oh but it was worth the wait! They live in a craftsman-style house, covered in shingle siding and embedded in the redwood rainforest of Felton. The windows and skylights reveal only green and the musical notes of the rain. I curled up in their reading room, a flat platform sporting pillows and a comforter, and drank tea in a Mexican mug while absorbing the positive thinking of Cradle to Cradle.