First Kayak outing 2015 Pyramid Lake

Saturday we ventured out in the kayak for the first time this year.  We managed to get it down from its winter storage in Calvin's workshop, blew off the sawdust and we were ready to go.  The weather forecast was for afternoon thunder storms at Lake Tahoe, so opted to go to Pyramid Lake.  We drove to the lake in a very strong headwind and thought that we might not be able to paddle, but the lake itself was calm and we had a beautiful day.  I realize that all kayaking pictures look more or less alike, and you could go back through the blog and see lots of these pictures, but I am posting them again anyway.

This is the classic Calvin picture taken with a camera pointing backwards on the top of my head. You will notice in this picture he has a new sunhat.  That is how you can tell the difference between all of the other Calvin kayak pictures and this one.

When we were getting ready to head in to a beach I kept seeing a line of white along the shore line, and I was afraid we would have breaking waves to negotiate as we landed.  We don't have a great track record landing in breaking waves.  As it turned out the line of white was a line of soapsuds and we landed without incident.  Calvin decided we needed a picture of my "breaking waves."

I say it never hurts to be prepared.

The beach looks kind of muddy, but aside from the tumble weeds it was a pretty nice beach, small pebbles and fine dark sand.  One very small upside of the drought is that there is plenty of beach this year.

After a winter in the shop, our kayak needed a good cleaning, so Calvin polished it up on the beach. You can see the Pyramid in the background.

One other feature of the lake is Anaho Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is a nesting ground for the American White Pelican.  You can't paddle up to the island, but the pelicans don't seem to mind hanging out with people on the lake shore.

And are happy to pose for pictures if you ask the nicely.

A week with Zach and Austin

Our grandsons, Zach and Austin, came to visit us for a week. Calvin took the week off and we had a lot of boy adventures. Calvin is very good at finding things that boys like to do like digging in the dirt and throwing rocks in the river. One of their first projects was making a dirt slide down the back hill.  

While they were there they helped Calvin put up a raspberry trellis for my new raspberry patch.

They had lots of time in Granddad's workshop using cool tools and making cool things.

We made several trips to the Truckee River to throw sticks and rocks and do a little dam building.

One cold day we went to the discovery museum, which was full of really fun things to do including an engineering room where you could build a bridge.

They had a couple of ski days at Mt. Rose where "Around the World" was thoroughly investigated. Here are 3 generations of Smith boys skiing at the top of Northwest chair.

There were a few quiet times for chess and other board games.

The hot tub was a hit with the Smith boys and the Gabbart girls in this new generation.

We dragged out the marshmallow shooters and an epic battle began between marshmallow shooters...

squirt guns....

and even a shoe.

Saturday we went to the American Kennel Club Nation Agility Championships with Peter and Roque.

Not everyone can say they did that for Spring Break! Zach and Austin are wonderful grandsons. It was so fun having them here.