Focus on the Family
July 3-28, 2025
We go home to the United States every year for Christmas, which is a great time to see friends and family, but the winters in the Pacific Northwest are always predictably dark and dreary. It’s lovely then when we are given an excuse to come home during the summer; in 2019 we returned for multiple weddings and used them as an excuse to tack on road trips and other adventures. In 2025, Becky and Brian decided to tie the knot in California and asked Kirb to officiate and Mazz to be a bridesmaid. Combined with needing to use up some excess vacation days (thanks, European work/life balance!), we figured it was a good excuse to spend the entire month of July on the West Coast. If you’re already flying that far, why not make the most of it?
The summer of 2025 was a historically bad season for tourism in the United States. Thanks to a seemingly unending deluge of stories about border agents illegally detaining foreign visitors, illegally searching phones for defamatory content about the president, and masked ICE agents illegally kidnapping and disappearing people off the street, millions and millions of vacationers decided that the US didn’t seem like a particularly great travel destination.
Even we, as US citizens, were nervous about coming home. The Trump administration is openly hostile towards people like us who hold radical views like “fascism and bigotry are bad” and “free speech is good”. The horror stories online were enough to make us turn off facial recognition on our phones when we entered the country, just in case we happened to encounter a fanatical right-wing border guard. Instead, we flew into Seattle and were greeted warmly by the TSA agent, who welcomed us home and waved us unceremoniously through the security checkpoint and onto American soil.
The 4th of July
While deciding on the dates for the trip, we realized we had an excellent opportunity to watch Brother Brian blow stuff up. We don’t much care for lighting off fireworks ourselves, but it is always fun to experience destructive joy through others, and Brian loves making things go boom. As luck would have it, Becky and Brian were already planning to come up to Washington for the 4th of July to spend the holiday with Brian’s sister’s family. Rebecca, Dan, and their daughter Kasey who was home from college, invited us to join them at their vacation house on the Puget Sound and we happily agreed. We landed at Sea-Tac Airport from Berlin just after Becky and Brian had arrived from California. As we stumbled out in to the sunlight from our long-haul, Becky and Brian came around the corner in their rental car and scooped us up. From there, the four of us waited in line at the ferry dock for three straight hours as boat after boat filled up in front of us with merrymakers heading to the sound for the long holiday weekend. Eventually, we arrived at Dan and Rebecca’s beach house, excused ourselves, and promptly fell asleep in the guest room.
Dan and Rebecca’s house is near Poulsbo, and as PNW natives, we were slightly embarrassed to learn that this city is actually located on the Puget Sound inlet of Liberty Bay, not off the I-5 near Seattle at the giant Poulsbo RV sign. Regardless, we will always refer to both the town and the business as “Poulsborv.” We spent our morning going for a nice hike in North Kitsap Heritage Park, then checked out fireworks stands at the Suquamish reservation. One of the spots had a big iron grill with some massive shells on it, and when we asked the locals what they were grilling, they invited us over to try some oysters. Mazz happily took them up on their offer. When she went out later in the afternoon with Dan and Rebecca to buy more fireworks, she made them stop at the Suquamish Seafood Shop, which was housed inside of a gas station. It was set up almost like a 7/11 but sold a wide variety of hyper-local seafood, including oysters caught just outside in the bay. She bought a big bag and brought them back to the house - along with a huge stash of explosives purchased by Dan and Rebecca - and we taste tested whether we preferred the oysters raw or grilled, au natural or with a shallot mignonette. To us, grilled with a mignonette was the winner, but this was a divisive stance. They were definitely some of the best oysters we have ever purchased from a gas station.
It was a pleasure spending the fourth as part of a big extended family, cooking and playing lawn games and watching Brian gleefully shoot pyrotechnics out into the bay. We were falling asleep from jetlag before the stack of fireworks was even fully exploded, which was fine, as we had to be up before dawn the next day anyway to catch a flight to Sacramento.
California
Though they’ve been together since 2013, there was no guarantee Becky and Brian were ever going to get married. Then, in 2023, Becky took Brian to see a Devo concert in San Francisco for his birthday. Brian was so moved by the lyrics of the song “Girl U Want” that he knew definitively Rebecca was indeed the “girl he want,” and proposed after the show. They’d been trying to figure out the right date and venue since. Once the cousins convinced Becky to host a multinational Mazzio/Wilkinson reunion at her home in Colfax in July, 2025, she figured the wedding might as well be part of the festivities, since everyone important was going to be there already.
We arrived in California a few days before the rest of the family started to trickle in. The first order of business in California, as always, was to get some tacos. We decided that while we were in the Golden State, every meal we ate out in the world at an establishment was going to be tacos; they are just so much better there than anything you can get in Europe. The next order of business was to drink wine, because California is really good at that too. Becky had taken us to her favorite local winery, Montoliva, on previous visits and we hadn’t really been blown away, but several of the wines they released this season were particularly good.
The final order of business was to become best friends with some new dogs. Sadly, both of Becky and Brian’s previous pups, Harvest Moon and Döner, passed away since our last visit. Thankfully, we were greeted by two new friends when we arrived in Colfax: Paul Anka and Courteous “Primo” Jones. Paul is named after a similar-looking dog from the Gilmore Girls, and though intelligent and good-mannered, he’s a bit of a nervous wreck. He is emotionally glued to his partner, Courteous, who in return loves anyone and anything that gives him attention. No one knows exactly what kind of dog Courteous is, but we reckon he’s a mix of terrier, hyena, and gremlin. Honestly, we assumed we were going to fall in love with Paul, but that dog was simply too scared to love us back. Against all odds, the gremlin ended up winning our hearts.
Eventually, cousins started coming out of the woodwork left and right, and before we knew it, Becky and Brian’s garage was filled with family members. Some brought teenagers, others brought dogs. One dog in particular, a minuscule, ridiculous thing named Francesca, was the clear star of the party. Armed with a tongue that refused to stay in her mouth and no apparent functional intelligence, “Frankie” was so small you constantly had to be on guard not to squish her underfoot. Mary and Rocco brought their new black lab puppy Beau, and like most black lab puppies, he was a very bad dog. We got some particularly excellent (and spicy) salsa from the Mexican market in Auburn and one of the teenagers, Hope, became transfixed with it. She proceeded to eat more chips and salsa in one sitting than we had ever seen anyone consume. Brian, sweetheart that he is, drove all the way back out to the market to get more as soon as he saw how much she enjoyed it.
Some cousins were staying with us at Becky and Brian’s, other cousins rented places of their own outside of Colfax. During the day, groups would meet up for activities like swimming at the river or going to the Empire Mine gold rush museum. Becky bought a metric ton of food and drinks from Costco; Cousin Lori was always at the house bright and early to cook everyone breakfast; Cousin Angie hosted dinner at her enormous rental in Grass Valley. The Mazzios and Wilkinsons from across the US, Canada, and Europe were properly reunited.
There is a particularly great winery in Oregon House, CA called Renaissance that has been making “natural” wine since before the term was coined, let alone culturally loaded. Renaissance doesn’t produce wine anymore, but they still age and sell their existing stock, and visiting the winery is by appointment only. The peculiar thing about Renaissance is that it is owned and operated by a group called the Fellowship of Friends, which as Wikipedia states, “is a new religious organization which is non-denominational that has been labelled as a cult by critics, ex-members and some academics.” So…they’re not a normal winery. From 1982 until 2015, Renaissance produced some world-class wines that were often served at state dinners, and because of their various views, they planted, harvested, and produced wine the old-fashioned way, which is the crux of what would become known as “natural winemaking”. The night before our tasting at the compound, Becky opened a bottle of their 1999 cabernet sauvignon, which we proceeded to hide from most of the family. But we did share some with Popzzio, who was so intrigued by what he drank that he insisted on coming along the next day.
Fortunately for us wine lovers, Becky does not like to drink very much anymore. This is an ideal quality in a tour guide for an all-day wine tasting extravaganza through the California countryside. Our first tasting was at Frenchtown Farms, which produces wines using grapes grown in Renaissance’s vineyards. We met with new-generation winemakers Aaron and Cara Mockrish in their tasting room and got our minds and bodies ready to begin steadily consuming alcohol at 10am. Frenchtown’s wines were nice, but honestly became kind of forgetful after what came next.
There’s a decent chance we may never have another wine tasting as incredible as the one we had at Renaissance. First, there’s the whole vibe of the tasting. To enter the premises of this “new religious organization” you have to be cleared at a check station and then guided through a compound lined with millions of dollars of non-native palm trees and towering gold statues. Then, you’re taken to a warehouse filled with recreations of classical paintings and pallet after pallet of decades-old wine. The tasting room was filled with ribbons and medals and accolades, and cheese and crackers were set out for us on the table. Our host was proud to point out that unlike tastings at other vineyards, where one or two of the wines in that year’s vintage might be exceptional, all of the wines in this tasting would be exceptional, as they were all standouts from previous years. We were shocked to find that the most recent wine we were being served was from 2013, and it was the newest wine being offered by Renaissance, “released” only a few weeks prior. In our free tasting, we were poured incredible wines from the turn of the century; 25-year-old reds opened up for visitors like they were nothing special. As indicated, everything we drank at Renaissance was fantastic. Our group happily came together to mix-and-match a case of different vintages, which earned us a discount on some already shockingly-affordable wine. Bizarrely, a 20+ year aged bottle at Renaissance cost the same as many new bottles at nearby wineries.
And that is how we became loyal members of the Fellowship of Friends and moved back to America to live in a compound in Oregon House, California.
The next night, Brian’s parents hosted a big rehearsal dinner at their house, with all the food catered by his sons. Takoda, Ukiah, and Sage spent the whole day prior prepping and cooking at the community center in Colfax, and the resulting feast was excellent. Friends started arriving from Portland and there was much hugging and merrymaking as the theme of the get-together shifted from reunion to wedding.
Brudder snugs
The big event took place at the Elks Lodge in Grass Valley, with the wedding party staying just down the street at the charming Holbrooke Hotel. The bride and groom were welcomed by a trombone choir in honor of Uncle Carl, with Mazz and her ladycousins as the bridesmaids and Brian’s boys as the groomsmen. Despite being a college student, Kasey served as the flower girl. She misjudged how many petals to scatter with each step and then fully dumped the remaining petals out of her basket at the altar, much to the delight of all who noticed. Kirb officiated the ceremony, celebrating the couple’s loving, longstanding relationship while also using his pulpit to drag Uncle Paul for missing the event to play a gig. There were tacos and line dancing, two-stepping and heartfelt speeches; Megan even sang a surprise song. It was a lovely wedding.
All wedding photos by Simi Pro Photo.
We were all a little worse for wear the next morning when the family began to disperse and head back from whence they came. But Momzzio, Danielle, and Steve Neal were all still sticking around for another day, so we spent the afternoon shopping together in Nevada City. We almost never find anything we want to buy in Berlin, so it’s a shock when we go someplace cute and want to buy something (expensive) at every store we go into. By the afternoon, drinks seemed like a good idea again, so we went to the Red Frog in Colfax. Kirb and Momzzio decided to get frozen blackberry margaritas which gave Kirb immediate, debilitating heartburn. Thankfully, it subsided in time for him to watch Cal Raleigh of his hometown Seattle Mariners win the Home Run Derby, causing him to yell, “Big Dumper!” again and again into a garage of confused onlookers. You can take the boy out of Seattle, etc. etc. We flew back to Seattle the next day.
The Pacific Northwest
We got into a bit of an argument when Mazz proposed that almost immediately after landing in Seattle - where Kirb’s people are - we drive down to Portland to see a drag show - where Kirb’s people are not. Thankfully, two of our favorite Washington people, Cream and Peebs, wanted to come down to Portland and join us. Peebs’ sister lives in Portland, so Emmett could have a cousin sleepover while his parents celebrated their anniversary with drinks and food and friends and drag queens.
And just like that, we’re in Oregon
As we’ve mentioned before on the blog, we like the restaurant Hat Yai in Portland so much that we went to its namesake in Thailand just to eat the food. We met up with Cream and Peebs at their hotel and when we got some drinks at the hotel bar, we mentioned to the bartenders that we were headed out to dinner next. They both paused and asked where we were going, and when we said, “Hat Yai,” they both nodded solemnly as if we had passed a little test. As per usual, everything we ordered there was fantastic. Truly one of our favorite restaurants in the world.
Pattie Gonia is a drag queen with a specific emphasis on environmental activism, and her performance at Revolution Hall in Portland was titled Save Her! with the “her” being Mother Earth, naturally. Pattie and her co-hosts Sequoia and Vera alternated between performances of their own and spotlights for local up-and-comers, with each piece focusing on a different theme of political, environmental, or social injustice. There was something genuinely cathartic about being in a room full of pissed off, likeminded individuals screaming in laughter and frustration at the nasty, intolerant humans who run the United States. Save Her! felt like a radical act of political indignation and it was a thrill to be part of. In the words - or screams, rather - of Portland drag queen Elle: “Let the bigots hit the floor.”
Back in Washington, we got to enjoy beautiful summer days and nights with our family and friends, arranging multiple sleepovers to maximize hangtime. We played Catan late into the night with our Tacoma people. We gathered all of the Kirbs together for a family sleepover at Scott and Kristine’s, where we all watched in awe as Anna displayed her otherworldly talent for virtual reality rhythm games. We sang karaoke after day drinking in Seattle. We happily consumed case after case of flavored sparkling water, like any good American in their forties.
Uncle Sean and his partner Jennifer announced that they are getting hitched and threw a big party at their new house out in Issaquah, which was a great excuse to get all of the old Seattle boyfriends and girlfriends together for a BBQ. There were dogs and babies and friends and so many snacks. What more could you ask for?
All we ever want to do when we come back to the PNW during the summer is go camping, and thankfully, that’s all Cream and Peebs want to do as well. They’d recently discovered a new favorite car camping spot in the South Sound at Millersylvania State Park, which we had seen highway signs for our entire lives but never bothered to investigate. For how close it is to a major highway, Millersylvania seems almost out of place. The gorgeous second-growth forest is tall and dense, the camp spots we got were enormous, and the campground is situated right next to a cute lake that doesn’t allow motorized boats. We spent two nights at Millersylvania playing games and swimming and making campfires and laughing and we could have easily done it for days and days more. What a joy.
Fireside Catan
The rest of our time in Washington was spent seeing as many friends and family as we could. The weather was abnormally sunny and warm every day, so we prioritized being outside and having as many barbeques as possible. As always on trips like this, there’s never enough time to see everyone, or see the people we did as much as we wanted, but we did the best we could.
When you’re only ever looking at America from the outside, it can be easy to focus on the negatives. Thankfully, our trip back in the summer of 2025 was filled with nothing but positivity and love, even in situations where intolerant forces could have popped up to harsh our buzz. Being in the Pacific Northwest always feels like home. We hope that never changes.