We made great time, barely hitting any traffic. It felt a little foreboding to be honest, to miss so much of the crowds on a holiday weekend. One of the new rules is babies aren’t supposed to be in their car seat for more than 2 hours. So we stopped just outside Sacramento. The gas station was right off the freeway, and full of… colorful characters. I told my wife to lock the car while she nursed and I went to use the restroom, which the attendant had to buzz me in to use. Once we set off again, our baby girl definitely gave us the look of “really, you’re still keeping me in this thing?” We didn’t have to stop after that, arriving in Truckee, and the cabin, before sundown.

The cabin… it was surreal driving on 80 as we neared Truckee. I remembered various spots on the road, the lonely gas station, where Boreal was, the commercial train across the valley. I watched those things as we passed them by as a kid, riding in the back seat with my aunt and uncle. They were gracious enough to take me up to Tahoe often when I was growing up, both in the winter and in the summer. I made the familiar turn off the highway and headed up to their Tahoe Donner neighborhood. The turns came naturally, as if I could feel my way in return. We arrived. When I first saw it, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. This cabin was a place of adventure for me as a youth, a place in which I felt comfortable and cared for, but still somewhere foreign, where I learned about harsh winters and the snow, life at elevation, and so much more.

I gained a lot of independence here. My aunt taught me to swim in the pool at my house, but she would take me to the community Northwoods Pool, and I was “off on my own,” with no friends but free to explore. I learned archery here in the summers, and did rock climbing trips with the local kids. And in the winter I learned how to snowboard, that surreal sensation of floating down the mountain on fresh powder. In many ways, it was here that I grew up and became independent, separate from my parents.

I unlocked the front door and faced the familiar mud room - it was here that I first learned what a ‘mud room’ was. The familiar dining table was just beyond, where I had many coming of age conversations with my uncle. I turned to the left to find a completely redone kitchen and living room. The cabinets and counters were brand new, and the sunken floor of the living room was gone, leveled off to the sliding glass door and large windows. It felt familiar yet strange.

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People were very friendly, but I’m pretty sure most side-eyed us as I pushed the bassinet stroller along the trail. I guess no one takes little babies on hikes through the forest.

But it was blissful. The excessive bumps and jiggles of the trail rocked our baby girl to sleep, and pushing the stroller gave me a better workout. I remember looking up and seeing the trail wind ahead, silhouetted by towering trees all around us… the snow dripped mountains resolute in the distance, with nothing but us and the sounds of the forest.

We love nature. We belong in nature. Visiting Truckee has brought us to it again.

We’ve also been doing a digital detox while up at the cabin. We haven’t turned on the TV at all, and we’re staying off ‘the algorithmic internet,’ as Cal Newport calls it. For me, that means no Reddit, no ESPN, no social media. Resorting back to using our phones for only 5 things: calls, texts, photos, maps, and music.

I found this “cabin chill” playlist on Spotify and it’s been so relaxing and fitting. Soft slow sounds that seem to soak up the wooden walls and wooden beams high up on the ceiling. It helps fully transport us to this cabin retreat.

The cabin creaks and settles. It’s a different type of building, a different experience staying here. These little differences would be unnoticeable if we were plugged in.

I sat out on the deck with my baby girl near dusk while Mommy took a shower. It was incredibly peaceful to sit there with my daughter, listening to the sounds of the forest. She is fascinated by trees. I counted over 50 with her, just within our immediate field of view. We heard the birds and the squirrels, felt the wind gently pass through our glade. I felt the forest then, even the bears and the deer and the coyotes and cats, all the birds and owls and squirrels… you just know when you’re in a forest. It feels… enclosed and sheltered, but vast… immersive but connective. How wonderful we enjoy a world with forests.

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Happy Chill Morning mix for Spotify to start the day. I got to spend time with baby girl while we let Mommy sleep some more. Just us on Great Grandma’s quilt with the woods outside. It’s amazing how much she’s learned in 15 weeks. She now plays, with toys, with you. I love playing with her.

Diced tomatoes and spinach and cheese in scrambled eggs over toast for breakfast, along with our trusty French Press once again. I guess we’re those kind of people now, bringing our fresh coffee beans and grinder and French press. Simple hearty breakfast with fresh hot coffee, just the three of us isolated in our mountain cabin. I want for nothing more.

I heard my daughter’s first laugh today. I was walking up the stairs, bringing diaper cream to Mommy who was changing her, when she started. Hastening up the final steps, I hurried to the edge of the bed where she was being changed, just giggling away at the wind from the open window blowing on her bare bottom. It lasted all of 15 seconds, and I cried. We shared the joyous moment together, just the three of us. I didn’t have my phone to take a picture or video, and I didn’t need it. It was a private moment just for us.

We did our first walk with baby girl facing outward in the carrier. It was just behind the cabin, in the trailway between the open backyards. I’d say maybe 25 minutes, a half a mile. But she liked it, and that was the measure of success. In a way I felt more a Dad than ever, shielding her face from the sun (hats are still strictly off limits for miss high maintenance), walking carefully over the trail, one hand under her bottom, one across her chest. It was a walk in the woods with a new family, and in some mystical sense, I felt it was a rite of passage. A modern generation living a life of convenience, but walking amongst the trees with baby in tow, like so many thousands of generations before…

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Looking back at the ponds from Cold Stream Drive

She’s started to give us this look when we put her in the carseat, like “where now?” So much adventure for a new family of three over the past few days. Adventure for all of us, Mom and Dad trying to learn how to do all of it all over again with a baby now, and for baby girl herself, her first time for so many things… her first road trip, first bumpy rumbly hike, her first outward-facing walk in the woods, her first stay away from home… her first time at elevation, first time in a forest with the breeze ruffling her hair and sweet baby skin. First time in a foreign place for multiple days… “we’re still here?!”

It’s been adaptation for all of us. Particularly baby girl, who we couldn’t have asked more from. But also for us, learning that she’s okay, that she can handle change and variation and less than ideal conditions.

It’s also been listening to perfectly timed playlists, looking out the windows to the forest beyond, just soaking in the essence of the cabin. Up in the mountains, you don’t need TV or internet. You need your connection to your tribe, which we’ve maintained these past few days, but there’s something about the reclusive lounging, the disappearing far away high up in the mountains, that’s suited us. It may be gone tomorrow, once we enter the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t something to learn up here, just the three of us, “hiding” away, learning and growing together as a family.

This was special. It’s been a reconnection to nature, to our roots of humanity, but also a journey. There’s only more learning ahead, based on all the learning that’s happened rapid-fire so far.

Truckee is beautiful. California is awesome—don’t let the media or Texans or anyone else tell you different. It’s amazing we have these mountains and lakes high up on the border, just here to enjoy and bask in their pristine glory. Keep Tahoe blue for sure. Visit nature. Explore. This is what makes us human, even with a baby in tow. Thank you Tahoe, thank you pacha mama, and thank you God, the universe, whatever we call this miracule we get to enjoy and explore.