Roller girls again and a plane ride!

The Redwood rollers had another bout. It was really fun!

The 1975 Piper Cherokee, CD has become part owner! Time to fly:

Thanks to Eunice for posting with a slide show and giving me the idea. It sure makes it easy for everyone to see the pictures all at once!

Confused and dismayed

I just have to share today's feelings. Usually I blog about trips and household activities and every once in a while some current event. Today I was upset by the falling numbers of vaquitas! These Sea of Cortez porpoises are disappearing at an alarming rate. There are suspected to be less than 300.

Less than 300!!!

It might be how cute they are, it might be their name, but it's also the fact that they are "evolutionarily distinct".

Also in the category of disturbing (this is sorta funny, sorta scary): I meant to type in 'cnn' to google, but instead I typed cbb. What did I get? Celebrity Baby blog! Scary indeed!

Bookclub Reunion: PDX!

We planned it a long time ago and it was so very worth it.


This weekend CD and I drove to Portland, Oregon for the reunion of the "Foodfight Bookclub". When I lived in Seattle, I was lucky enough to have a great group of girlfriends who would gather monthly for food and literary discussion. We rotated choosing the books and hosting the get-togethers. We would all bring a dish to share, usually somehow related to the book being discussed. Some members came and went, some were permanent fixtures and then suddenly, some us moved away and it (sort of) disintegrated. Robyn, the main instigator, moved to Portland and then I moved to Eureka. It made sense to meet in the middle, so Robyn hosted a lovely afternoon of, you guessed it, food and books. We read "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz.




We feasted on berries, cheese, pate, baguette, peaches, an assortment of cookies and a refreshing cucumber agua fresca. It should have been Dominican food, but since the temperatures over the weekend reached into the 100's, I don't think anyone wanted to cook anything hot! I enjoyed the book, some hated it, some didn't finish it; in all, it felt like old times! It was so wonderful to see Anna, Meredith, Robyn, Sarah and Shelly!













After the bookclub, Robyn hosted a cookout for all the husbands and other friends that had made the trek down from Seattle. It was also awesome to see some of the locals: Craig, Jason, Jenna, Frank and to meet some new faces.















Thanks again to Robyn and Craig for hosting such a great party and for letting us pitch our tent in their backyard. CD and I had a great time!

Idaho and the Sawtooths

Last time we saw my aunt Sherrie and uncle Rod, they invited us to stop in to see them anytime we found ourselves near Boise, Idaho. So, we made a point of making our way there this summer. Our friends Jay and Eunice were eager to get together for a backpacking/camping trip and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine the two!

We drove 13 hours straight to get from Eureka to Boise and were warmly welcomed by aunt Sherrie. We stayed there a couple of nights: ate delicious elk hamburgers and peach ice cream, swam in their pool to beat the heat and talked and visited a whole bunch. It's always so good to see family.

Next we headed to Stanley (the gateway to the Sawtooths, surprinsingly not the Sawteeth) to meet J + E. We had our packs all loaded with warm clothes and lots of food. We drove to Redfish lake where we caught a boat shuttle to the other side of the lake. We hiked for a little over an hour at a mild pace with mild incline; then we went straight up for what seemed like an eternity. It was grueling, but once we hit the Saddleback lakes we knew it was well worth the effort. We found a great campsite and settled in for dinner and hot chocolate!

We spent two nights there and one more night car camping at Lola campsite. It was fun and crazy! The time went by so quickly- we were sad to say goodbye to E and Jay.

We drove back to Boise to visit with uncle Rod and cousin Joe who had just returned from an exciting fishing trip in Alaska. They had lots of stories to tell, pictures and videos to share. It was thrilling to see the bears and the bear cubs! It was also great to finally meet Amy, Joe's wife. She is as lovely as in the pictures we had seen and glowing even more now that she is expecting their first child- a boy!

The trip felt too short and we could have visited much more. As usual I missed key picture-taking moments. Somehow I didn't get any with the family- I guess I was just too relaxed and felt so at home.... silly girl!

Here are the pictures of the hike/camping!