Escape from Mordor

For the last several weeks Reno has been positioned perfectly to receive smoke from the Rim fire burning near Yosemite.  What would otherwise have been a beautiful end to summer was covered in haze and health advisories.

It looked like Reno was lost in fog, but it was smoke.

Finally Calvin had enough and declared that we needed to get out of the smoke so we took a fairly spontaneous trip to Healdsburg, California to breath fresh air.

We decided to spend Friday afternoon canoeing on the Russian River. We arrived at the river about noon and rented a canoe at Burke's canoes where life jackets are mandatory, at least when you leave their dock.

Most of my experience in a canoe was on our Green River trip last year.  This was similar because drifting down the river is an excellent way to spend an afternoon or a week, but the water in the Russian River is clear and it has houses and people all along the section of river we paddled.

But it also had some great birds.  Right off the bat we saw a pair of double crested cormorants in a tree at the river's edge.

And we saw several great blue herons.  One even sat still long enough for us to get a close up picture.

It was really a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Back in Reno we are finally getting a little relief from the smoke.  It is still a little hazy, but much better.  Compare these before and after shots looking more or less the same direction.

August 27

September 7

This more what Reno should look like.  It is nice to be able to go outside again.

Lake Tahoe 3/4 Family Reunion

Last week we had a partial family reunion.  Sarah and her family couldn't make it because Sarah is too near her due date to fly cross country.  We know that when we plan a family gathering that there is a good chance that not everyone will be able to come, but we are grateful for the times we can get together.  This year we gathered at Lake Tahoe, which is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful spots on earth.  The weather was sunny, the smoke stayed away and the family was fun.  What more can you ask of a reunion.

The house we rented had a boat dock that was perfect for jumping and there were a lot of jumps!

Single jumps

 Couple jumps

 Multi-generation jumps and group jumps

We also had boats...kayaks, paddleboards and a sailboat

And then the natural out growth of boats and jumping...boat attack!
Here Butch and Emily get a splash attack.

Then Roque, Peter and Butch launch an attack on Rosie and her paddle board.

But Rosie managed to leave the attackers in her wake.

to be continued....

Happy Birthday Zach!

Today is our grandson Zach's 6th birthday.  What a great boy he is.  One of my favorite stories about him was when he was visiting 2 years ago.  Something had fallen behind the dryer and I came up to the living room  and asked for a strong man to help me move the dryer.  Zach, age 4, immediately popped up and declared himself to be a strong man and ready for the job.  As it turned out he was just the man for the job because he could slither into the crack behind the dryer and get whatever it was that I had dropped.  We have had several camera toting vacations with him this year and here are a few of my favorite photos.

Happy Birthday to one terrific grandson!

Alice Caroline Wright

I got to spend last week meeting our new granddaughter Alice.  Rosie and Jay welcomed their new little daughter just before midnight July 26.  She is beautiful and so snuggly. I got lots of snuggle time with her.  Here she is on day one with her adoring parents, tired, but thrilled to welcome her to their family.

She spends a lot of time snuggled up and sleeping on Jay's chest. 

But Grandmas get snuggle time too. Notice the guitars on the wall.  Rosie and Jay have really made their house a home with personal touches everywhere.  I just love how peaceful and quiet it is there.

On Wednesday the family took an outing to see the "stink plant" at UCSB.  Alice was an old hand at riding in the stroller, she had already been for a ride the day before.

This plant only blooms about once every ten years and is quite rare.  I think Jay said there are just over 100 known plants in the world.  When it blooms it gives off the odor of rotting meat.  Sadly we didn't get close enough to smell the fragrance.  I can't say that it is all that attractive either.

While Alice was taking a stroller break I talked the Wrights into a family photo.  A beautiful family.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures, especially when Alice opened her eyes.

But this one is my favorite.  Welcome to the family Alice.

Summer in Reno

It is really HOT in Reno this summer.  We go kayaking when we can to get out of the heat, but one kayak picture looks pretty much like another, so I won't post any more today.  It is too hot to garden, so today I just took a picture of the bees in the lavender and called that good for my gardening effort. We have six fully mature lavender plants on the back hill and they just hum all day with bees.  I consider that doing my part to prevent hive collapse.

 Since we haven't had any adventures for a while I thought that I would go back and post some pictures we took at Easter.  We were driving back to Reno from Moab in March and decided to stop at 9 mile canyon in the middle of nowhere Utah.  It is home to thousands of petroglyphs, but way off the beaten track.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast at the mouth of the canyon. It was not exactly a "Napa Valley" bed and breakfast.  Here is a picture of our suite, the Elvis room.

Calvin puts up with a lot in my quest for petroglyphs. We stayed on the road in the canyon, which was just recently paved, and saw the main identified petroglyph groups, but we have heard that the side canyons are full of lesser known groupings.  We made our first foray in the evening and found huge herds of deer grazing on the new grass. Deer are nice when they are grazing on someone else's grass.

 This unusual man on the left is called the juggler or the balloon man.  I'm not sure what he is meant to represent, but it was one of the more interesting petroglyphs.

I thought it was interesting that there were many buffalo pictures. I don't usually associate buffalo with the rock canyons of Utah. This one is called "Big Buffalo."

 Probably the most famous panel in this canyon is the Great Hunt. It is fairly recent as rock art goes.

 Calvin loved the flying warrior, so here is a close-up.

And I just loved it all!

Kayaking in June

It must seem like all we ever do is go kayaking.  And that is mostly true on Fridays.  Other days of the week Calvin dutifully pedals his bike to work and I clean house and weed the garden.  Those are good things to do, but not very picture worthy.

The last couple of weeks I have been busy preserving our cherry crop.  We didn't have a bumper crop this year, but we did have enough to make several batches of cherry chutney, which is really the only way I like to eat cherries.  I thought about taking a picture of the cherries, but they look pretty much like the cherries I photographed last year, and the year before.  I picked the last cherries from the tree this morning and began harvesting our raspberries. 

Still, no pictures of the cherries or raspberries, so I'll post a few from our last couple of kayak trips.

On June 14 we had a lazy day kayak.  We didn't arrive at the lake until late afternoon.  The water was a little choppy, but we braved it any way and idled a few hours away on the beach.

 This is the north end of our favorite beach.  The boulders discourage beach walking company from the north.

Here is Calvin looking relaxed on the beach

Here are pictures I took of the beach because I forgot to bring a book.

As the sun set we tried to get a picture of a sail boat sailing across the setting sun with not great results. Look carefully to see the boat.

This week we met Cindy and Bill at Commons Beach in Tahoe city for a paddle.  We've had record breaking heat, so it felt good to get on the water. Especially water this clear.  Tahoe doesn't have very interesting wildlife but the water is spectacular.

Cindy and Bill showing off years of experience paddling the same canoe.

Calvin shows off years of experience paddling our kayak while I play with the camera.

You just can never get enough kayak pictures.