Without having to do any work ourselves, Trish and I (along with Louise Yeoh and Don Wong) became grandparents for the first time on 2025-05-31. Grandson Quinn has travelled north to meet Louise and Don in Richmond, British Columbia, and they have travelled south to visit him. At the beginning of November 2025, Trish and I visited Sequoyah Heights/ Hills, in Oakland, California to meet Quinn, Shelagh and Derek. This is a report on our adventure.
The name Sequoyah has its origins with George Gist or George Guess (1767 – 1843), a Native American polymath and neographer = a person who creates new writing systems, in his case, of the Cherokee Nation, in Tennessee. The genus name of the coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) was long presumed, initially in Josiah Whitney (1819 – 1896), The Yosemite Book (1868), to honour Sequoyah. However, an etymological study published in 2012 debunked that myth, concluding that Austrian Stephen Endlicher (1804 – 1849) derived the name from the Latin word sequi = to follow, because the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus aligned in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder.
This suburb in Oakland is probably not named after either the tree or the person, but Sequoyah Country Club, an adjacent 18 hole golf course, founded in 1913. Wikipedia tells us: the members of the club intentionally chose the traditional Indian = native American, First Nation spelling.
The house the McLellan-Wongs live in is an Eichler, built in 1965. Between 1949 and 1966, Joseph Eichler’s (1900 – 1974) company, Eichler Homes, built more than 11 000 houses in nine communities in Northern California and in three communities in Southern California. One of Eichler’s stated aims was to construct inclusive and diverse planned communities, ideally featuring integrated parks and community centers. Eichler established a non-discrimination policy and offered homes for sale to anyone of any religion or race. In 1958, he resigned from the National Association of Home Builders when they refused to support a non-discrimination policy.
His houses have come to be known as California Modern, with feature glass walls, post-and-beam construction, open floorplans, with exteriors with flat and/or low-sloping A-framed roofs, vertical 2-inch pattern wood siding, and spartan facades with clean geometric lines. A signature concepts was to bring the outside in, with skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows with glass transoms looking out on protected and private outdoor rooms, patios, atriums, gardens and swimming pools. Most of these houses lack street-facing windows. There are fewer than 50 Eichler houses in the Sequoyah Hills subdivision.
While my son, Alasdair, I have visited Newfoundland, Labrador and Saint Pierre et Miquelon in 2024, and the other maritime provinces and Maine in 2025, the last time we (and Trish) were in California was in 2020. The last time Trish and I were in British Columbia was in 2017, in part to celebrate my mother’s 101st birthday. On both of these last two trips we met Trish’s sister, Aileen.
We arrived on 2025-11-01, All Saints day. The day before, Halloween, seems to be a major celebration in the Sequoyah area, with most houses having suitable decorations. One neighbouring house was equipped with a 3m60cm (12 foot) skeleton, that remains in place all year. Over the next few days, most of these decorations slowly disappeared from view.
We were surprised when Aileen showed up in California on Tuesday, 2025-11-04. Someone had done some planning, others had managed to keep it a secret, still more people (including myself and Trish) were not informed. The two sisters seemed to appreciate the opportunity to meet in person, and not have to communicate using emails or other apps.
I am thankful for having lived in an automotive age with mechanical powered vehicles, avoiding horses, reindeer, dogsleds and other animal powered conveyances. Admittedly, I could have accepted that there were more electric vehicles, earlier.
One neighbour owns a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. I correctly told the owner its year, which impressed him. Yes, I can recognize most American car models from about 1954 to 1967. I am not particularly skilled beyond that range. He then showed me its fully chromed 350 cid (5.7 litre) V8 engine. This seemed a bit large, but I did not have the facts about the original engine in my head. That larger engine was not introduced until 1967. The 1955 model originally had a 265 cid (4.3 litre) engine. Despite that, I managed to impress its owner further by telling him we owned a two-tone yellow and white VW Buzz. It totally lacks chrome! Thankfully. He had seen his first Buzz the day before.
Not everyone has car restoration as a hobby, so a little further away there is also a neighbour who provides a little free library.
We were out walking through the hills of Sequoyah most days, with or without Quinn.
During our stay we left home several times by car to visit Emeryville, Lake Chabot, San Leandro, Dublin and Pleasanton. I was certainly happy to leave the driving to Derek. At Emeryville we ate dinner at Trader Vic’s. I had last eaten a meal at one in 1962 in Vancouver, so this repeat performance was on my bucket list.
The photo below shows some of the waterfowl at Lake Chabot. We had originally planned to rent a pontoon boat to explore the lake, but boat rentals were closed when we visited, due to illness at the marina.
We did some shopping at Trader Joe’s in San Leandro. For me, the most important item on the list was some Virgil’s root beer. Root beer is probably the one North American item I have not learned to live without. It should also be noted that I was unable to visit the first A&W rootbeer stand at Lodi. So it remains on my bucket list.
In Dublin we visited REI = Recreational Equipment, Incorporated. It was here that I was able to buy an insulated Swedish Fjällräven Skogsö jacket on sale. As I age, I have found my uninsulated Swedish Haglöfs jacket, bought in Molde, Norway in 2008, increasingly too cold. Back in 2020, I had purchased a Swedish Wesc winter coat on sale in San Francisco.
We visited the town of Pleasanton twice. It is ranked #2 on the American Social Progress Index. On each visit we bought ice cream treats at the Meadowlark Dairy. Yes, I bought a root beer diablo on both occasions.
Note: A visit to the Left Coast of North America gives a time displacement of eight or nine hours, compared to much of Europe. For us, the outward journey is relatively easy to adapt to. By staying up a couple of hours later each day, one is fully adapted within four or five days. It is the return journey that is more problematic. My son tells me that one has to adapt to a fifteen or sixteen hour time difference. Once again, this is done by staying up later each day. On day five of our return, I took a six hour nap between about 15:00 and 21:00. This allowed me to stay awake until about 05:00 in the morning, when I returned to bed to get a few more hours of sleep. I estimate that it will take me another three or four days to become fully acclimatized to Norwegian time.