33 Years Together

This is Mom's card to me for our anniversary. Most of you will understand the background. I though it was pretty funny. It was especially so because the little boy looks like I did when I was little (only with brown hair) and the little girl looks like Mom when she was that age.

My card to her had a picture of a chimp with a goofy look on his face (I thought it was fitting) and it said: "I got you a card that would remind you of me." The card doesn't open, so you end up turning it over, where it says: "It doesn't do what it's supposed to either."

We went out to eat at Home Town Buffet and thought of Pam and all the money she made there. (She'd stuff all her tips in her socks, and when she came home she'd pull off her socks and I'd help her count it. Good memories.
We ate fish and shrimp, rolls and chocolate milk, and hot brownies with ice cream. We had a good time.

More Bodega Bay

One of the problems with having so many cameras (my standard digital camera, the camera on my iPod, and the camera on my Android smart phone - all of which have zoom, take both still and video , and have relatively high resolution - the iPod even takes 360 deg panoramic shots) is that sometimes I forget that I took pictures with more than one of them while on a trip or outing.

So what you see below are photos from my phone that I took while wandering up the beach early one morning at Bodega Bay a few weeks ago, like the wonderful site of the ocean just over the rise as I approached.

People gather driftwood and build structures or forts, sometime to break the wind, and sometimes just to be creative - like these

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I climbed to the top of this one. It was about 12' high

At the far south end of the beach there was this little cave, maybe 5 1/2' in diameter. I walked in as far as I it went (maybe 20'). The shot on the left is looking into the cave, the one on the right is looking out.

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I really do enjoy going over to camp at Bodega Bay. I did a pretty fair amount of boogie boarding, even though there were no pictures this time.

Final Project

Now that summer is over I can report on my final project. This is one of the canoes that my good friend Cliff Johnson (fondly known as "Cliffy" or "Cliff Diver") gave me. Both canoes needed to be repaired before they could be sea worthy. The larger, nicer one needed some supports built to keep it from caving in on itself when anyone sat in it. (Ask me about the story sometime, I was there when Cliff wrapped it around a boulder in the Yuba River at Parks Bar. No danger, just a good story.) The canoe pictured above was in pretty tough shape though. It's a 12' canoe (the other one is the standard 18') and a light-weight affair. It holds one adult or two small youth.

Anyway, there were several cracks and breaks in the fiberglass hull, the paint was chipping off all over it, and the wood slats used for the seats were well worn. So after a few weeks of working on it with whatever time I had, I put at least six fiberglass patches on the inside and outside of the hull. I sanded down the entire canoe (inside and out plus the wood seats), put four heavy coats of extra tough duty paint on the outside hull, and two coats of regular exterior house paint on the inside. I also put two heavy coats of Verathane on the seats. I still want to add some thin rubber bumpers to the three skids that run along the length of the bottom for extra protection.

It looks pretty good... but will it float? Of course it will, I just need to take it out next week end and piddle around with it. Anybody what to join me?

Bodega Bay Beach Bonanza!

One of the last things on my summer To Do list was to go to the beach. For years we have liked camping at Bodega Dunes (because the showers are free EVERY day) It's kind of expensive, but it's really a nice campground with good beach access. It was cloudy and cool with wind, but no fog. Below is a poorly pieced together photo of our campsite. Real secluded and close to the showers.

My common practice is to set up a wind shield on the beach before heading into the surf. The day was still cloudy when I first went it, but after a short nap on the sand I went back in to sunshine (and I have the reddened face to prove it). The tide was in and hammering the beach pretty hard, which made for some fast rides. I enjoyed my time greatly.

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One of our other favorite spots in Bodega is the Spud Point Crab Co. This is the place Kim and David went to with us a couple of years ago when a free lance photographer took our pictures for AAA's VIA magazine. The have the world's best clam chowder, and great crab cakes (available only of Sta. & Sun. - rats!) But the food really is great. I had the shrimp sandwich on a toasted roll, and shared Mel's chowder.

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After the feast we drove out to Bodega Head (where the wind was just howling) and hiked a little along the trail. I thought this was a funny shot of the three seagulls. These three photos give a good perspective of how they were perched on a narrow ridge 100' above the sea.

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And the final photos are also from Bodega Head. Here Mom shields herself from the wind, and next to her is a cool looking arch like the ones we used to explore up at Wages Creek. (Remember those days?) All of those arches were knocked down during the earthquake of 1989.

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We really had a good time, and ate well as always. We used our new tent again (we actually bought a tent two years ago, but must have loaned it to someone who has not returned it, because it's nowhere to be found this year).

Anyway, both of us have to put in two days next week at school, then the students come back on the 15th and away we go.