Odds and Ends

We have had a lot of small adventures this spring.  A few weeks ago Calvin did a three day bike ride to Calistoga.  He started from our house Wednesday morning and I met him Downieville that night. 

The next day he rode down to Woodland and I caught a shot of him coming across a dam. 

He finished the ride in Calistoga way before I finished shopping at the outlets, so the photo documentation of this ride is skimpy.

The next week I went with a friend to Pyramid Lake to see the white pelicans.  She is kind of new to the area  and it is fun getting to see local sights again that I take for granted.

There is a nesting colony of white pelicans on the lake. And they happily put on a nice display for us.

On Memorial Day we enticed the Gabbarts into their kayaks and we took a tour of the West side of Lake Tahoe.  We got on the lake early and had a nice paddle to Carnelian Bay for lunch, but the wind came up during lunch and we had a bit of a slog getting back.  It is amazing how far away the car is when you are paddling into the wind to get to it.
Calvin and I had a casual paddle this week.  We stopped at our favorite beach and watched a family of mergansers paddle by.

Do you see a similarity here?

Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I'm thankful we can spend time there so often.

Still clear.  Still blue.

More grandkids

We have had a flurry of visits with children and grandchildren.  Rosie and Alice came to visit the first weekend in May.  Inexplicably I only took a couple a couple of pictures during their visit, even though I had the good camera out and available.  I guess it was just more fun visiting.

Here I cleverly enlisted everyone's help to cook dinner without actually assigning anything to myself. It was nice to have the house full of family and friends for a few days.

And here is my only picture of Alice, perhaps not one she will thank me for posting when she is a little older.

On Thursday while Rosie and Alice were making the ten hour drive back to Santa Barbara, Calvin and I made the 2 hour flight to Denver to visit Butch and family.  We didn't have any big plans, just spent the weekend doing things that they usually do, which means we were pretty busy.

While Zach was in school Friday Calvin and Austin finished assembling drawers for Austin's new dresser.

Austin got out his toolbox and went right to work.

And he is a good worker.  He stayed right with the project until it was finished.

We got to watch two soccer games and see Austin score a goal.  Zach's team was really starting to understand the game, but when one player accidentally headed the ball, the flow of the game ceased while everyone went over to visit with him about the experience.  The ref had to remind everyone to start playing again.

Between games we went to Rocket Park where Calvin climbed up into the rocket along with Zach and Austin.

Back at home Calvin introduced Zach to rubber band target shooting with dinosaur targets.

And, of course, there was a little time in the sandbox with the diggers.

We enjoyed pizza and ice cream one night and I couldn't resist the ice cream faces. 

What fun it is to see everyone.

Friday Fun Day

On Friday we had our first kayak outing of the season.  The weather was in the 70's at the lake and the wind was taking a break, so we had a perfect day to kayak.

The view from the front heading out of Sand Harbor

Calvin in the classic back of the kayak shot as we head out.  The water is so clear you can see the boulders in the water behind Calvin.

We paddled to our favorite beach, put up the blue umbrella to warn away encroachers, and spent an idle afternoon looking at the clouds.

Calvin looks a little more actively than I do.

The best sight on the beach

Our mergansers are back, but no sign of nesting osprey yet.

I love Friday Fun Day

New Jersey?

We spent last weekend in New Jersey.  Dan and Margot Higginson's wedding prompted the visit.  I can't say that I have ever really considered going to New Jersey just for a visit, but it seemed like a nice place.  The wedding was lovely and we got to see lots of extended Smith family and meet Margot's delightful family.  Once again I discovered that if a person wasn't in near proximity to either Garrett or Clare they didn't get much photo time. Fortunately Calvin at least got one shot of the bride and groom.

On Saturday morning we had an adventure to a park on the Hudson River.  It was quite lovely there and Calvin and I memorialized the visit to prove that we really had been to New Jersey.

The wedding was in a restored Victorian mansion with beautiful grounds. Clare was dressed up and feeling as beautiful as the bride.

But she also required a few breaks for boulder climbing with her Goolsby and Higginson cousins. Here are Clare and Soren at the top.

Since everyone was dressed up I made Sarah's family pose for a few photos.  You can actually see Garrett's face in this one.

But just in case I got a close up of his big blue eyes.

Sunday morning Margot's parents hosted an Easter egg hunt for all the little cousins.  I think there were just 6 "hunters" and 300 eggs to find.  Here Clare is just about to start the hunt, dancing with excitement.

All in all it was a very good weekend.

April in Alexandria

I got to spend a few days in Alexandria with Sarah, Clare and Garrett while Toby was out of town last week.  I arrived during the peak of the cherry blossoms, so one of the first things we did was take an outing to the mall to see the blooms, along with a few thousand other tourists.
Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

You can see the cherry trees in the background, I was trying to get the Washington Monument in this shot, but it is a little to the right just out of the picture. In the picture with the Washington Monument in the frame all you can see is the top of Garrett's hat, so I opted for people over monuments.

Clare climbed way up in a tree for this shot.  She is a fearless climber.

It looks like Clare and I are ready to go after taking a break on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.

Garret held up really well being dragged all over the place

But we were all a little tired by the time we got back to the car.

Clare and I went to the park.  I loved this swing picture.

Friday we took the water taxi from Old Town Alexandria to National harbor, which is just across the river.  Another little girl, Trina, and her grandmother who was visiting from Germany also made the trip and Clare quickly made friends with Trina. She is a few years older, but is very outgoing herself and was very good with Clare.  We had lunch, rode the carousel and took the water taxi back. It was a really fun outing and a really fun visit.

Springtime in Nevada

It is springtime in Nevada, that means snow one day and 70 degree weather the next.  Last Friday we timed the snow just right for a great ski day.  Fairly soft snow and perfectly groomed runs.  I felt like the champion of the world and got in ten runs in two and a half hours of skiing. Calvin had 6 great runs in the "Chutes" which is a season best for him.  Calvin, Peter and Roque went up the next day and had icy slopes and gloomy weather.  Timing is everything.

Spring also means it is time for Calvin to do spring pruning.  Sunday he convinced Peter to help him take down the blue spruce in the back yard.  It was a lush tree, but had some serious structural problems.  Looking at it without branches I am amazed it has stayed standing all of these years. 

It is hard to capture all the twists and bends in the trunk.

 Believe it or not, it is not resting on the the ladder.  That is its natural angle.  Calvin and his chainsaw made quick work of the branches, but he is still figuring out how to get the trunk and roots down.

It seems a shame to cut down any living tree in Nevada, but the time had come for this spruce.

Maui sunsets and a few pictures of Alice

We had a fun week in Maui with Rosie, Jay and Alice.  We went beaching, snorkeling, and hiking in the rain.
Jay and Calvin rode bikes, Jay making the epic ride from sea level to the top of Haleakela, with Calvin joining him at 7,000 feet for the final climb to the top at 10,000+, but when I got home I discovered that all my pictures turned out to be of Alice. So if you weren't holding Alice or in very close proximity to her there is not really a photographic record.  So here is Maui mostly with Alice.

I always think Maui should somehow be exactly like this poster in the condo, and it always surprises me that it is mostly full of over tanned people deep into their downhill decades, which is not nearly as pretty a picture as the poster.

Our condo looked straight out on the ocean and we could watch whales spouting and splashing and beautiful sunsets right from the lanai.

And I saw other beautiful sites, mostly Rosie and Alice

But we did go snorkeling at a wonderful spot Rosie and Jay told us about where we saw turtles swimming everywhere. (Calvin took this picture so no Alice)

We had a beautiful to day to drive up Haleakela, sunny and clear.  Here are Calvin and Jay at the 8500 foot mark coming up the hard way.

And Calvin looking strong at the upper visitor's center getting ready for the descent.

It was a long day in the car for Alice and somehow her pacifier didn't make it into the car with her, so she improvised with her toe.

Alice is of an age where everything goes in her mouth. Here she is splashing in a tide pool and gumming a sea urchin spine and finding it not quite to her liking.

We made a day trip to Lahaina for the classic photo at the banyan tree. I was taking phone pictures while Calvin was taking pictures with the official camera. 

I love a week in Hawaii, but a week getting to play with Alice would be fun anywhere.