A Couple More...

There are a couple more photos from our hike around the red rocks of Sedona that I really needed to post. . .

Nate and I show what we're made of from the top of the hill.

Water was scarce, and we didn't bring any on this hot, dry day. I barely made it to this fetid hole.

Not really. It was a nice day, and we even got some rain before we were through. We have plenty of cold water in our packs, and snacks. It was great fun, an I can't wait to go there again. 

Arizona Trip, part III - Hiking Near Sedona

Nate and Kim took us up to Sedona to do a little hiking and site seeing. First we stopped at the ranger station, where Mom got cozy with Smokey.

We did a loop around several really cool red rock formations.

Starting out fresh

  

Beautiful scenery.

Nate and I made a quick trip up the big rock in the background. 

The view from the top. Very cute girls.

The back side of the rock with caves and holes.

Cathedral Rock formation.

This was a groups of rocks we walked past in the afternoon (after paying $20 for frozen yogurt : p) on our way to Oak Creek. The water was very nice, but we didn't have our swim suits so we stayed dry.

Sedona is an interesting place, with trendy shops and food places (that charge too much for yogurt - did I mention that?) But over all the trip was VERY fun. After getting home and cleaning up, we went to an Italian place and had the best garlic bread, meatballs, and pizza I've probably ever had. It was a great day.

Arizona Trip - part II

One of the great things we did was visit the butterfly museum in Phoenix. Henry, Molly, Lucy, and Grant had a great time chasing, looking at, and learning about butterflies.

The room where they keep the live butterflies is like a jungle and very wet, due to the misters. But the butterflies would land on people, and they were eating nectar out of the flowers and out of bowls of fruit that were placed around the room.  It was pretty fun for the grand kids - and us.

Arizona Trip - part I

On our way to Arizona to help with Olive's blessing, and to play around with our fun kids and grand kids there, we stopped at the George S. Patton Memorial Museum. It sits way out in the middle of desert along Hwy 10. I always thought Patton was an interesting character, and the museum is situated on the military training base he established there in 1942 to prepare GI's for war in the deserts of Africa. Melody's Dad was stationed on the 18,000 sq. mile base before leaving for Europe. She has letters of his written from there where he complains about the 100+ degree heat. (He didn't get much relief when he left - he went straight to fight in the Battle of the Bulge in sub-zero winter weather.)

Anyway, we spent an hour and a half there talking to the director and seeing the sites.

A cool jeep, almost as cool as mine.

An amphibious craft.

A Sherman tank from the beginning of the war.

A tank from the more recent wars.

 A couple of the tanks had a port hole cover removed and was able to get some pictures of the insides.

It was well worth the $5 entrance fee. I'd do it again.

Bodega Dunes 2014

We were able to get away for a few days last week and camp over at our favorite spot north of Bodega Bay. The first day ended up having periods of heavy mist turning to light rain, especially in the evening. but the second and third days were very nice and quite warm. Mom likes the campsites closest to the bathrooms/showers (which were free that day) so we usually pick one of the sites like this one or those on either side. The great new EasyUp shelter gave us protection from both the rain and the sun.

The tent was big and comfortable, as were the sleeping arrangements. But then, I always sleep well when camping. And the Jeep (hey, how did that get in the picture?!?) was perfect for hauling all the stuff we took.

This photo was taken the second day, but actually, it was nice like this early on the first day as well. I got in two good days of boogie boarding, and could have made it on the third day, but didn't want to push it since we were packing up to leave. This view is from Bodega Head, which is out past the  Spud Point Crab Shack. The BEST clam chowder ANYWHERE! Bar none. We shared a pint of that and a fresh shrimp sandwich on a toasted roll. Manalive!

Warm water, warm weather, good food, good sleep, good traveling. What's not to love?

State Fair 2014

We don't too many pictures (that we haven't already Instagramed), but we did have a real good time at the fair. I think it was a good day for Melody in spite of the heat - mostly because before we even started to the fair we stopped at Hobby Lobby. It was enough to keep her going throughout the day.

I always like seeing the artwork, especially the big mechanical jobs that some guy does. The one this year was very good. But I really liked this very cool sculpture of a rock splashing into a pond, only it's wood.

I was impressed.

As for food (the main reason for going to the fair), the day included a Jumbo Corn Dog, walnuts, three Hawaiian Shaved Ices (sour blue raspberry, sour green apple and root beer), we shared a very nice cinnamon roll, and later on a big bratwurst on  roll with onions and peppers. Mel had a HUGE turkey and avocado grinder, and before we left we wrapped things up with a chocolate dipped cone and a Very Berry Gelato. What a Day!

 

What I've Been Up To

This year's 4th Level Girls Hike was to the top of Castle Peak (9,100'). Castle Peak is just north of Boreal Ski Resort. It was a beautiful day, and a fairly difficult hike for the girls. In fact, only 3 actually made it to the very top. Rich and Peter and I went up with them. Here are a few scenes from the trip.

The view from a distance

Getting closer. We took the trail through the green just to the right of the ridge.

On the way up there was a cool pinnacle that needed holding up

Near the top. We ended up above the rocks.

The view from the top looking north, and the view looking south (Boreal in the distance).

As always, we ate really, really well while camping. Rich brought mini

cinnamon muffins and I brought bacon. Do you see where this is going?

(By the way, that's not what it looks like in Uncle Richie's mug, it's dark chocolate cocoa.)

Yes, that's a bacon-cinnamon muffin sandwich. Almost as good as a bacon crusted maple bar. Yum!

Errata

Here are a few photos from my phone that I haven't gotten around to posting anywhere yet. The first is of a cool looking tornado kind of thing that Rich and I saw on our way out Hwy 20 to Zion's Camp for the Fathers and Sons outing. The farmers were disking and leveling the rice fields, and the wind picked up the dust. It was pretty fun to see.

The next night, we took grandma out for dinner (for Mother's Day) at Mimi's in Natomas. Good food in the form of burgers, french toast, salads, egg sandwiches - Yum! Mom and I even took a few minutes afterward over in World Imports looking for fun stuff. I love going in there, they have great ginger ale. Very strong stuff.

And finally, this last week has been beautiful weather! I'm so happy to finally be getting some warm afternoons. The thermometer on my bike computer shows what I've been enjoying. Someone at work asked me if I was from AZ because I was saying I'm most comfortable in 90+ degrees. Nope, just love hot weather.

Next week it will be down in the 70's. Rats.

Happy Birthday Melody!

Trevor and Michelle brought their kids and came down for a visit over our Easter vacation. (Easter and Melody's birthday being the same day this year.) The other kids decided to make her 60th a birthday one to remember by coming as well. It was all very "hush, hush and hoosh, hoosh."

The airline gods were smiling on us, because Pam and Lucy. Kim, and Davis were all on the same flight. I said I was going to run some errands, and drove down to pick them up after returning from Fairytale Town with Michelle's family. We had Lucy knock on the door and ask grandma to come out, she had something to show her. I haven't been able to get the video to load, but you can view it at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zhzdhv7ki08ovew/2014-04-18%2015.41.09.mp4

The plan was to have Chris bring his family up Saturday too, as a surprise. But it was too hard to keep the cat contained once it had been partially let out of the bag. So when they got here we took all of the children over to the Church for the ward Easter Egg Hunt and lunch while the adults took Mom out to lunch. All, that is, except Trevor. He took the duty of staying with the kids who were having a little separation anxiety (and maybe a few other anxieties as well). We owe him a lot.

Mel decided to go to Full House Chinese restaurant, where we hadn't been for years, as seen below:

The food was good, and the company was great! The girls had a book made for their Mom with lots of fun photos from the past, and a list of "60 Reasons Why We Love You" scattered throughout it's pages. Something she will treasure the rest of her life.

We're still in the middle of partying, so there will be more to follow. Stay tuned!

Lunar Eclipse

Last night Uncle Richie and I stayed up "way past our bed-time" to watch the lunar eclipse. Below are some photos from the event. No, we didn't take these, though Rich did make a valiant effort to do so with his really nice digital camera. I tried too, with my ordinary cell phone camera. Both were about equally bad.

These pictures are pretty accurate representations of what I have seen in the past. However, last night there were increasing amounts of clouds until the critical moments when the eclipse was total, and we should have seen the beautiful red color. Instead, we saw nothing but a steadily blurring white disk. 

We did have a fun time talking about the end of the world and what kind of celestial body displacement would bring about some of the things described in the scriptures. Plus it was a fairly warm night, so it was nice

This last picture here, as pretty as it is, really doesn't do justice to the kind of  red that comes with this kind of eclipse. I've seen it absolutely blood red before. A very haunting sight.

The next full lunar eclipse is in October this year - and there will be two more next year. The kind of frequency hasn't happened in the past 25-30 years. Exciting stuff

Squirrel!

We have a bunch a squirrels living in the trees in the field beyond our back fence. I really don't like having them running through our yard and trees. They are often noisy, and they leave their walnuts in the lawn (and I step on them when I mow it). I have issues with rats who have furry tails, as well as those with bare tails.

On the other hand, Melody thinks they're cute and likes to watch them scurry about. So we were standing in the kitchen on this beautiful, sunny afternoon, and we see this squirrel chewing on a walnut. I decided to shot some video.

Keep you eyes focused on the center of the video. He's there

SQUEEZE ME!

We were out running a couple of errands this morning and I noticed the signs were up on the new Squeeze-Inn here. They're Open! Well, they weren't open right then (it was 10:30 and they open daily at 11:00), but everything is looking good.

For those who might remember, this used to be the site of Pancho Burgers on Cooper Ave. across the street from Staples. And for the REALLY old timers, it used to be a foster's freeze type of place across the street from the Sutter Supermarket. Now that's goin' back a ways.

Unlike the Squeeze-Inn in Roseville, and almost like the original in Sacramento, this place has no indoor seating. There's a nice little courtyard out back (again, not quite like the one in Sac) so you can sit down.

It looks like Trevor and Michelle will be the first out-of-towners to be treated by us there. (I'm going next Friday.) The rest of you will get the treat when you come - the sooner the better.

A Tale of two Days

It was the best of times and more of the best of times... No kidding. We had nothing but fun with Nate and Kim since their arrival three days ago until their departure today. They played with Mom while I finished the week at work Friday. We watched some Olympics, read Valentines Day cards, and eat some GREAT steaks cooked by Nate that evening. The master chef and the table setting (complete with Martinelli's already in the glasses) will give you some idea of the event, but not of the fantastic taste! And it was nearly as good as left-overs.

Saturday we all drove up to Malakoff Diggins and did some hiking. I was worried that we might find a lot of mud (the red, permanent staining kind), but the trails were just dry enough to keep us clean, and damp enough to keep the dust away. We parked the car at Hillar tunnel (the entrance of which is shown below) and hiked over the hill because there was too much water to hike through it. Usually, that's the highlight of the trip.

We walked along the rim trail and saw the massive hole carved out by years of hydraulic mining from different perspectives. I remember being told by a college professor back in the early 70's that this "moonscape" would never heal. but here we are only 40 year later, and you can hardly see  

This was the best shot of the day. Hiking back along the road from No. Bloomfield (where we had hiked and looked around at the buildings, abandoned facilities, and museums).  The reflection in the pond is really nice.

Here's a panoramic shot of the diggins you can download to get the full effect.

Sunday was Ward Conference in Loma Rica, and since Mom and I both had assignments there, we dragged Kim and Nate along - and they went willingly even though it meant hearing me speak.

Monday we had to put Nate & Kim on the plane back to AZ, so we spent the day tromping around the Crocker Art Gallery (free admission, and really fun to see the old section), and Old Sacramento. I didn't take any pictures (except of a couple of turtles sunning themselves on a log in the Sacramento River), but Mom got this one of us in front of the Capital building.

This photo is actually from Saturday, but it seemed a good way to wrap this up. The name of the game the whole time Nate & Kim were with us was "how can we out-do the last meal." Everything we ate (with the exception of a very poor sandwich sop in Old Sac) was outstanding, with the winner being the stakes Nate cooked Friday night. But a close runner-up was the burgers at Squeeze-Inn. Just look at that happy man!

We can't wait to visit with them again.