Spiderman

Can a climber resist climbing a chimney of rocks? Probably not, especially when his buddy is encouraging him.
If you build it, they will come.
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The Girls

The girls came up with Steve (my BIL) and family for the week of Camp Retz. They were a lot of fun, helped out with the boys, and were very adventurous, too!
Day one on the tubes, Elton can't stop grinning.

Within a few minutes, she standing on the moving floatie...almost like surfing!

Her big sister, EllyMae takes her turn.

And of course, she's standing within a few minutes, too.

Back on shore, the adventurous girls do a bit of cliff jumping.

I have to admit, I was biting my nails from afar. But Steve was in the water spotting for them, making sure they were jumping into water that was deep enough.

All 5 kids and Steve in his boat.

Elton was able to kneeboard on her first try, too, just like my oldest nephew.

The two sisters striking a pose, just before they tried to knock each other off the floatie.

And ending the day with smores on the deck, all 5 kids on a sugar high, just before bedtime.

Jimmy called them "Elton" and "EllyMae" all week, which is perfect since I don't like using kids real names on my blog.
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Big Brother

At seven years old, big brother R shows his little brothers what water sports is all about.
Not only could he stand on the moving floatie...

he tried knee boarding for the first time and...

not surprisingly, succeeded on his first try!

The rest of the week, he rode the high-speed tubes with the girls.

They wanted to go as fast as they could. It was Jimmy's goal to try to knock them off, taking sharp corners and going up to 30mph in the boat.

We had one day on the 'slow' lake. No tubing permitted and speed limits enforced.

But cliff jumping is allowed. Just watch out for your little brother below!

A day on the slow lake gave big brother R some time on the canoe with Uncle Jimmy.

And night time smore makings seemed to be Big Brother's forté. After 3 years at Camp Retz and 1 full year of Cub Scouts, Big Brother R knew exactly how he liked his smore: burnt to a crisp.

He's showing off his prized smore with the girls and his younger brother. A great way to end the day.
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The Middle Child

Middle J, at 5 years old, is oh so much braver than he was last year. It's so amazing to watch these boys grow up from year to year.
Last year, he would walk into the water up to his knees, but upon his own will, that was the furthest he would go. This year, he was constantly in the water and up to silly little antics that a middle child would be up to.

This year, we couldn't keep him out of the water.

He even did a bit of cliff jumping. You go Middle J!!

Middle J is my photography protégé. He's telling "Elton" to move closer to me so he could take a quick snapshot.

Even though he loved being in the water, still, one of his favorite things was being in the canoe with Uncle Jimmy.

A supah cute snapshot with his friend "EllyMae". Yup, his mouth is full of oreos, just like his little brother.

Middle J, with his older brother R, watch for their baby brother in the canoe with the girls.

Middle J is a little better at keeping the food in his mouth during smores night. Just a bit of chocolate under his nose.

This is our proudest moment with Middle J. He actually got on the floatie being pulled by the boats for the first time this year. Brave Middle J, yes he is! Can't wait to see what he'll be up to next year!

And he's becoming a helpful spotter for his Uncle Jimmy, too. He plays a very important role, making sure that Jimmy knows when the person falls off so they can pick them up. He has the orange flag in hand, ready to put it up if the person falls.

Middle J and Uncle Jimmy, the dynamic duo.
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The Youngest Nephew

Little D is the youngest of the nephews, but at 3 years old, he strives to keep up with his big brothers.
For the first few hours, he was content throwing rocks into the water.

And eating oreos. Similar to last year.

But soon, he was swimming in the lake with his daddy, happy as a fish.

By lake day #2, he was diving in: his version of cliff jumping.

Here's little D taking a swimming break with his friend "Elton".

A quick snapshot with his mommy and daddy.

Riding in the canoe, feeling the water, with his friends "Elton" and her sister "EllyMae" (Jimmy's nicknames for the girls).

Time for smores! Little D didn't like marshmallows, but loved graham crackers. As you can see.

Little D relaxing on the big floatie with his Uncle Jimmy.

This little boy can strike a pose, don't you think?

I can't resist one last photo of a his precious cheese-face!
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Bird Bath

Jimmy captured this bird getting ready for a bath in the neighbor's yard.
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Santa will be happier this year: we have a new chimney!

We've just finished our biggest construction project at the hideway. I'm sure this post will be pretty boring to most of my bloggy friends, but I know several family members and friends lurk here so I wanted to share our newest cabin update here.

When we bought the hideway in 1999, we certainly weren't focusing on the chimney. Sure it looked a little worn out, but hey, the rest of the home looked great, so it was an easy oversight for us. Also, when we bought it, we saw it once, then came back to the bay area and called in our offer the next day. The 2nd time we saw it, escrow had closed and it was ours. So a lot of the details we left to inspectors. But as you can see here:
There was already noticeable disrepair when we got the cabin 9 years ago.

A few more years passed and more chunks fell off.
In fact, in 2005, some friends were visiting and a big piece fell off during the night and fell on their car, busting their bumper. Lesson learned! Tell everyone who comes to visit to park far away from the crumbling chimney and don't walk under it!

You'd think that incident would have motivated us to fix the chimney asap. Well, we would have but there were a few ducks that needed to get in a row and stars that needed to be aligned first.

Which gave the chimney more time to fall apart. So much so, that unbeknownst to us, there was a hole that lead directly into the house. A hole big enough for a rodent to fit in...So last fall, I was chillin' on the couch, reading a magazine and watching tv, enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning while Jimmy slept in. Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement at the fireplace. You see, our fireplace has vent holes that lead to the outside of the firebox. I look up from my magazine and what do I see? A squirrel peaking his little head in, looking right at me! I yell "WHAT THE FREAK!!" (insert actual profanity there). Which scared the squirrel, thank God, and he ran out and as far away from the crazy lady as possible. (don't forget to click on the pics to see the details)
Jimmy woke up, I told him the story and he filled the hole with this ugly foam to prevent any other rodents (cute or otherwise) from entering our home.

Well, finally the stars were aligned and we started talking to contractors this spring. We contemplated between real river rock vs. rock veneer. We got different bids and did a lot of pro/con lists. And in April...
the old chimney came down.

and the new chimney...
was taking shape. It took 2 semi-truck loads of rock to make this chimney (plus some extra for a wash that we needed filled). But the cool thing about these rocks is that they have a bit of local history behind them. The rocks are from the town of La Grange, a small town in the Sierra Nevada Foothills that was part of California's gold mining history. During the gold rush in the mid 1800s, miners moved millions of rocks from the river beds in an effort to strike it rich. These displaced rocks ended up in massive piles throughout the foothills and are still there today. So our chimney has a bit of local history behind it: the rocks came from over 150 years ago during the gold rush era.

Now, I have to say, that I think the contractor who did this is an artist. We could tell by talking to him throughout this project that he was passionate about his work. He wasn't there to just slap on a chimney, he contemplated each rock that went into each groove. He spread the rocks out across the driveway and looked at each piece and how it would fit into the design. He would loosely place 3 rows of rocks on to make sure they fit right, then take them all down again before mortaring them in. Talk about labor intensive: put 'em on, re-arrange, take 'em off, mortar them back in one by one. By the way, some of those rocks weighed over 40 pounds each. Most of them weighed over 15 pounds.

So about 6 or 7 weeks later, we have our beautiful finished chimney:
And thankfully we think it's a masterpiece! We can see the attention to detail that he put into it. The flatter rocks on the outside corners that subtly line the whole thing. Very little mortar shows. It beautifully tapers to the top. And that amazing cement cap that tops it off. Gorgeous!

The one flaw with it being so gorgeous that it totally draws our attention to the other eyesores of the cabin. Like that beat-up deck. Good golly that deck needs to be repaired! Thankfully it's on the 2009 to-do list. Which led us to thinking...we're hoping to wrap the deck around from the side entrance all the way to the front. Which means the deck will go right next to the chimney. So, we were playing with lighting ideas...
And we're thinking about putting recessed lights into the floor of the deck that shine up towards the chimney. Yes, we want to showcase the beautiful chimney in all it's glory. And we're not ashamed to either. Like I said, the man was an artist and we want to show it off. :)

And although the changes may seem subtle to someone not focusing on the chimney, instead of driving up to this:
where to our eyes that crumbling chimney was such a distraction,

we get to drive up to this:
and we're tempted to burst into a glorious song of "Alleluia"!

So Santa should be happier coming down this chimney this year! He won't have to worry about loose rocks bonking him on the head on his way down. Not to mention friends being able to park or walk underneath it.
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Yee Haw it's a Roundup!

Some of ya'll might not realize just how much the cowboy and Old West attitude is still a part of California culture.
I suppose that if you live in the big city like I do 95% of the time, then it's not that prevalent. But once you get out of the urban areas, if you're not in agricultural farm lands, then you'll find yourself amongst thousands of cows, horses and the good folk who ride or corral them.
Well, our hideaway is a stone's throw from gold country, so in addition to cowboys and cowgirls, it's not unusual to see some ol' gold minin' folk... like this fellow here:
And since folk like this aren't too uncommon in these parts, the town has thrown a big ol' shindig every May for the past 51 years that celebrates that old west spirit.

It's called the Motherlode Roundup and it's a big thing in these parts. When I heard about it for the first time Friday night, I knew I had to go to the parade the next morning figurin' I'd get some fun pictures.
Here's the Wells Fargo Stage Coach, taking us back to the 1800s.

Another old carriage bringing the newlyweds through town.

While rodeos are taken pretty seriously around here, there were a few cowfolk who had to ride their bulls and broncos in a more...21st century way:
For instance, Miss California Rodeo Salinas rode in on her bull with a wee bit more contemporary fashion. That is if you consider a bull's head (is it real? I don't know) attached to a Dodge pickup (is it a Dodge? I don't know) contemporary fashion. edit: I've been told it's a Toyota. (Do I care? I don't think so.)

And I'm certain that the only reason this young cowboy wasn't on a real bucking bronco is because they wouldn't want to endanger all of us parade watchers with an unpredictable wild bronco terrorizing the parade route.

All kidding aside, there were lots and lots of real cowgirls and cowboys riding their beautiful horses.
and me being me, I'm more apt to photograph the tenacious cowgirls, even when they're all dolled up in their fancy parade costumes.

But there were lots and lots and lots of horses in this parade.
This group of fine riders are The Twain Harte Horsemen.

And while I love photographing horses, after about the 220th one, they all start to look the same to someone who isn't a horseman.

I needed a little variety. So I happily got to photograph this beautiful...
mule. There weren't very many mules in this parade. They were under-represented, lemme tell you. So were the donkeys, for that matter. Ever wonder the difference between the two? Wiki can tell you here if you're really curious.

Otherwise, we can move along to the other non-horse entrants:
Not only were these girls pretty good dancers, they looked like they were havin' a whole lot of knee slappin' fun.

Aside from horses, there were a lot of cars in the parade, too. Lots and lots of cars. This particular one had some fun crazy gold country personality.

My personal parade favorite are the bands. I love me the high school bands. Probably because I was part of the drill team unit in my high school band. There were about 6 bands in this parade. Bands were under-represented.

And happily, men wearing coyote hats were under-represented, too. He was the only one I saw.
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Clark Fork

Clark Fork is a small river that flows into the much bigger Stanislaus River. It's about 40 minutes north east of our hideaway and we try to go every spring to see the difference in water level, which helps us judge how full our lakes will be during the summer months of lake activities.

Here are a couple of photos from the past 2 years to compare:

2007. Looks similar to this year's photo, but there's actually a little more water flowing in this one. But this was a very very dry summer. I posted about the drought last year here.

2006. This was a record breaking season thanks to tremendous snowfall that winter. It was glorious.

We were surprised to see how low the water level was because we had a lot of snow and rain this past winter. We're hoping that it's because it was still early in the season when we took that first photo and most of the snow in the high country hasn't melted yet.

Have a wonderful weekend.
Wishing all the mother's a fantastic, beautiful day.

The Spring Burn

Ginnie left a good comment in my previous post about comparing the photos I took in 2005 to this year. While I didn't think to do any comparison photos, our weekend was vastly different because it never would have occurred if the ground was covered with fresh snow.

Our hideway is tucked among lots of pine trees and every spring it's the duty of the homeowner to get rid of the pine needles because of the dangers of fire in the dry summer and fall months. In the rural area where our hideway is, it's lawful to burn your pine needles up until the end of May. Within our little neighborhood, 4 households were burning pine needles. So Jimmy decided to join them.Look at that handsome smile with the fire glowing on his face.

Of course, it's not fun and games when tending to a fire.

He watches over it carefully, making sure not to add too many needles to the fire and stoking it just right.

Why are there often eerie face-like photos in flames? Or do we all just have good imaginations? What stories were we told as kids that we see haunting images like this? Do you see the face howling out in this photo? It only has one eye, which might make it a little more harrowing.

Do you see the full figured image in this one? The haunting tiny head, looking right with a somewhat crooked grin, arms out, dressed in a robe of flames? Does it give you goosebumps?

Alrighty then.

Let's move on to something more cheerful...
My daffodils at the hideaway are just starting to pop up. Happy little daffodils!
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hideaway bound

We'll be heading to the hideaway again this weekend. Yipee! It's unusual when we go two weekends in a row. We're meeting with some masonry people to rebuild our chimney.

3 years ago, this is what the weather was like on the weekend of April 4th:


It's highly unlikely that we'll see the same this time.

Hope everyone has a wonderful spring weekend!
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Can we help you?

En route to the hideaway this weekend, two cows wonder what we're up to.
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Join me on a long drive

It's been quite a while since I've written a decent post, so prepare yourself for a long one.

We went to the hideaway this weekend. We haven't been in almost 2 months so it was nice to get up there again. We actually wouldn't have gone except for the need for heavier jackets for our trip to Chicago.

We left Saturday at 7:15am, a beautiful spring morning. Within 25 minutes, this was our view.We're not in the country yet, believe it or not. Big cities on either side of this grade. Fremont (population 210,000+) to the south and Pleasanton (population 72,000) to the north.

The cows don't care that they're within 3 miles of a Starbucks on either side of them.

Heading out of the more urban areas, we drive through the Altamont Pass Wind Farm.
According to wiki: "Altamont Pass is still the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, producing about 125 MW on average."
The turbines add more texture to the already beautiful green hillside and sky. However, if our rain has ended for the season, these green hills will be brown in 3 weeks.

So now we're about an hour and a half away from home, driving through the almond orchards. The trees are blooming.
Didja know that California grows almost all of the nation's almonds?

There's even a Hershey factory nearby so they can cover those almonds with chocolate as quickly as possible. This barn isn't Hershey's. Just an fyi is all.

The trees are just about bloomed out, and the blossoms litter the ground like snow.

Just a few minutes up the road from the almond orchards is the town of Oakdale.
Is Oakdale notable for anything? I don't think so. Oaks? Well, there are a lot of oak trees on the drive to the hideaway. Only about 15,500 people live there.

Along with these interesting creatures!

And lots more agriculture.

And a few more almond trees.

Then we drive to the foothills.
Lots of lava rock from a lava flow 9 million years ago.

A little detour trough Red Hills. When the wildflowers bloom, they carpet almost every foot of this area. But we're still a bit early. The flowers aren't blooming yet.

A few more cows grazing along the hillside. They'd have to travel a lot further to get to a Starbucks. Again, not that they care.

20 minutes from Oakdale, we're driving through Jamestown with a mere population of just over 3,000.
But it was a bustling town during the Gold Rush and is known as the Gateway to the Mother Lode. It's now a picturesque little town with lots of antique shops.

25 more minutes up the road, we're finally at the hideaway!
Wow. The neighbor told us that it hasn't snowed in 3 weeks. And it's been warm (40s and 50s during the day) for the past 2 weeks. But there's still this much snow left on the ground. It was the most snowfall we've had since we bought the place 9 years ago, and we missed almost all of it.

Well, the night before, our neighbor said a visitor came traipsing through our yards. His, ours and the neighbor on the other side of us.They look like human footprints, right?
They're not. Take a closer look.
See those pads on that print on the far left?

Yep. A bear came to visit.

Walked right towards our hideaway.

It's a mighty nice hideaway. We like it at least.

So we spent 2 days there, Saturday and Sunday.
Then drove home Monday morning.

Care to join me for a few more pics on our way back?
If you've lasted this long, ya might as well stay for the trip back to the Bay Area.
Here's the road going back to Oakdale.

Lots of cows grazing on this Monday morning.

When we get to Manteca, we're almost on the freeway. Just another 1.5 hours till we're home.
Their sign could use a little fresh paint.

Another half hour on the road, we're back to the Altamont Pass, my landmark that we're back in the bay area.
I can't help but take lots of pics of these windmills. I'm not sure why the obsession.

And if I can get the windmills and cows? With the green hills and blue sky? I'm a happy girl.
I'm easy to please.
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Chillin

Long weekend at the hideaway Saturday thru Tuesday.

Accomplished: Nothing.
As you can see, there was a little bit of snow left from the "big" storm we had the weekend before. We had hoped for 4 feet of snow that weekend. We got about a foot. More please.

Took these 2 pics on the way home yesterday.In the central valley, there's a particular type of fog called Tule Fog. It's different from regular fog because of the cold air from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and if you'd like more technical details, feel free to click on that link.
anyhoo, when it's really thick, it's horrible to drive through. Zero visibility. But yesterday afternoon's drive back to the Bay Area gave us just enough visibility to make the light peeking through very interesting as we drove thru the central valley.
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"I don't do resolutions"...

So I say.
I like the idea starting the new year with a fresh outlook, but I'm not a fan of pressure or commitment. And I'm not so good on the follow through. So why would i set myself up for failure? I've avoided making resolutions for several years because of this. However, the month of December brought on several excesses that definitely need to be tamed.

Shopping
My cousin has started her New Year with strict spending moratorium for 3 months. I considered joining her with some modifications. Earlier today Jimmy and I were reviewing our expenses and in the past month I had spent $5 here, $13 there, $21 everywhere, and even though each purchase was not a whole lot, multiply them by a kazillion and next thing I know, I've racked up a 17grandmilliondollar credit card bill. While I can justify some of it as Christmas expenses, I also managed to spend quite a bit on crafting supplies. For myself. Big surprise. So, realistically I know I won't be able to completely cut my crafting expenses out, but I'll definitely commit to cutting my expenses by at least 50%. (I can practically hear phin saying 'yeaaaa riiiiight'). For 3 months. Then I'll do a reassessment.

Battle of the Bulge
The first half of last year I did pretty well with the battle. Then I got a little lazy but maintained for the next 3 months. Then this crazy thing happened the end of November. It was called Thanksgiving. December continued the feasting. Well, it's time to get my focus back. And move more. I need to motivate myself to go on walks or hikes, take my camera and shoot photos. Now I need to figure out what to do with all these delicious foods, sweets and treats that are still lingering in my house.

A Load of Crap
Through the years, I've collected a massive quantity of stuff. I think it's related to the shopping problem. I have this "rule" where if I buy something, I need to get rid of something else in its replacement. I'm pretty good at sticking to this rule with clothes, shoes, bags or kitchen supplies. But I break it almost every time with crafting supplies. I really need to purge.

Anybody else attempting any New Year's resolutions commitments possibilities for 2008?

photos from the hideaway this weekend. completely unrelated to this topic. but as you can see, there was a tiny bit of snow.
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Let it snow

We're headed up to the hideaway. It's not likely, but we're hoping it'll look like this when we arrive. This photo was taken 2 years ago. California relies on the snowfall in the sierras and last winter we didn't get much. So far this winter, it's been pretty dry, too. It's suppose to rain/snow the next few days so we're hopeful.
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Well hello October, aren't you beautiful

I've got a pretty busy month ahead and I'm looking forward to the adventures.

We went to the hideaway this past weekend with our good friends the Bowen's.Ok, now aren't they one of the most photogenic families you've seen?

It was too cold to take the boat out, but the kids still enjoyed getting into the boat even though it never left the garage.Miss A does her best Titanic impression even though she's never seen the movie.

Prince W got so excited he had a devilish little grin.

He definitely loved pretending to drive it. The imaginations of children...so awesome to see in their eyes.

Miss A pretended to row the boat, all the while singing the appropriate song, but Little W continued on his journey powering down that gentle stream.

After our garage boating adventures, we headed to Covers Apple Ranch for some lunch and a ride on the little train. Apparently the theme of the weekend was transportation.Here's the whole gang getting ready for a little ride.

Just about to go into the tunnel!

Interested in a little swim? Uh, no thank you. It may almost look picturesque, but I wouldn't even stick my big toe in that mucky water.

The ranch also has a few farm animals and the kids enjoyed feeding them some corn.

This last photo isn't in focus but she is just having so much fun that I couldn't resist.
Tomorrow, we're off again for another long weekend, first to Clear Lake then back to the hideaway with one of my dearest friends and her family.

My apologies to my bloggy friends, I'm very behind on catching up with your posts. We're only home for 2 days but I look forward to reading all about your autumn adventures next week. Till then I wish everyone a blissful, carefree, feel-like-you're-flying push on that swing.
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Boyhood haiku

He's always climbing
Only stopping for a snack
Dirt mixed with Oreos

submitted to One Deep Breath Haiku Challenge
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Fall: Bring it!

I'm so ready for fall! The evenings are a little bit cooler, the air is a tiny bit crisper and every now and then there'll be a slight breeze. But we typically don't 'see' fall till mid-October or Thanksgiving. So I'll just have to accommodate my needs with these photos from a couple of years ago.
Sweet gum tree leaves on the front lawn.

SC at the apple ranch near our hideaway.
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The Long Road Home

Jimmy and I had a quiet 3 days to ourselves at the hideaway. One of the days we spent 6 hours exploring trails that hadn't yet been discovered - by us that is. We made a big loop by driving south on Highway 108, north on Highway 49, east on Highway 4, east on Hwy 89, south on Hwy 395 then back down Hwy 108. We didn't start our adventure till 4:30, so we had less than 3 hours of quality daylight to shoot some photos. However we did have the full 6 hours for quality time together...till I fell asleep about 5 hours in. But it was more like a long blink. :)

Angels Camp
One of the highways we drive on our way to the hideaway is Highway 49. Its number is derived from the gold rush of 1849 and runs along gold country in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Angels Camp is on the 49 just a bit north of where we turn off so we don't typically get to see the town. It's most noted for its Jumping Frog Jubilee. We saw a couple of sculptures in town; this one was in front of the fire station.

Lake Alpine
About 60 miles east of Angels Camp at an elevation of 7300' is Lake Alpine. We got there around 6:30 and it was a crisp 61 degrees outside. There were several campers, but compared to our nearby Pinecrest Lake, it was practically deserted. In fact, there was only 1 boat in the lake and less than a half dozen people along the shore. On Pinecrest, there would be at least a dozen boats and over 50 people on the shoreline, even at that time of day with that cool temperature.

Dardanelles
One of the coolest part of our road trip was seeing different views of landmarks we've only seen from Hwy 108. The Dardanelles Cone is one of those landmarks. This is the view we're used to. And this one, too. Gotta admit that it's cool looking from Hwy 4, too.

Mosquito Lake
Probably the most picturesque place during our adventure was Mosquito Lake. Don't like that name though. Ewww. But the sun was at that perfect 'golden hour' angle and was shining on this cabin beautifully. The lake is at a breathtaking (literally) 8300'. But we traveled higher still to...

Ebbetts Pass and Tioyabe National Forest
Just as we crested Ebbetts Pass at 8730', we saw this momma deer and her two little does grazing along the highway. She was a lot more cautious with us humans in our big motorized killing machine than the other clueless deer we had encountered this weekend. The deer in this neighborhood really don't seem that frightened by cars. You'd think they would be because many of them have unhappy encounters with vehicles. And visa versa, too. Not only should they be afraid of our cars, but they should just be afraid of us in general. Because hunting season is right around the corner and really, they are just too easy of a target. And I think that at the VERY least, the human with the rifle should have to get out of his car. Now I'm sure there are hunting rules about where you can and can't shoot your rifle, but I'm just sayin'.

Ebbetts Pass is on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and in the Toiyabe National Forest.
I just learned that most of Toiyabe National Forest is in the state of Nevada, which shouldn't be that surprising since Nevada is probably less than 25 miles as the crow flies from where we took this photo. (V, if you've read this far, that link was for you!)

This remote cabin is probably boarded up for the winter and won't see its owners till late spring unless they have a snowmobile. The highway closes at first snowfall and doesn't re-open till May or June.

This was the only waterfall we saw during our 6 hour road trip. We joked that now we could go home! And we were about half way thru - it was 7:30pm.

Carson River
We stopped along the East Carson River to eat dinner - sandwiches I had packed. It seemed like a relatively popular place to camp and fish. Personally, it's a bit rural for me. This was the last photo of the evening. Darkness quickly fell upon us. But we decided to drive the 6 miles out of our way to Markleeville, the county seat of Alpine County with a whopping population of 197. We figured we should at least drive thru the town since we were so close and will never be in this area again.

We got out of the car one last time on Hwy 108 at Sonora Pass. It was after 9, we were at an elevation of 9624' and it was a chilling 51 degrees outside. But the stars filled the sky. Jimmy even saw a shooting star.

A long and winding road
Along the way, Jimmy's trusty Volvo crossed 194,000 miles. That car has seen us through quite a lot of adventures. It's been to New York, eastern Canada on the Trans-Canadian Hwy, and countless trips up and down California. I hope it will see us through quite a lot more.
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The youngest

The youngest of three,
Left behind while the two swim.
Has fun on his own.
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Drought

(click on photo to enlarge).
We had a d.r.y winter and our lakes are at near record lows. Last year, however, we had near record high's. What a contrast.
This year, we had to launch the boat in the dirt. We've never done that before. Putting the boat into the lake was a breeze, but taking it out was another matter. Especially in Jimmy's front wheel drive volvo. But by day 2, we realized that all we had to do was put more weight on the front tires. So my BIL Steve, and I sat on the hood of the car, and Jimmy easily drove the boat out of the lake. I'm sure it was quite a sight for all the onlookers. Especially when Jimmy quickly stopped at the top of the makeshift ramp and I nearly fell off the hood in the front of the car.
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