Rainy Day Chico

Chico is currently experiencing the wettest storm event since 2005. The creeks and rivers are filling or over flowing. Strong winds are knocking out power and blowing down trees. There is so much snow in the Lower Cascades that Mt. Shasta ski resort is closed and without power, and I-5 north of Redding is closed to big rigs. I went out around 10am to snap a few photos.

One Mile Pool overflowing its banks.

Large puddles forming.

Power is out at the corner of Vallombrosa and Mangrove.

Chico Creek at Annie's Glenn.

Happy fungus colony.

Five minutes after concluding my rainy day tour around One Mile, a large oak fell across Vallombrosa at Arbutus!


Other tree fall in the park near the 99 overpass.

January visit to Eureka

The Eureka contingent is happy, healthy (if a bit snotty), and busy. I was able to visit for a few days and have included a photo journal of our usual activities.

Michaela's new favored mode of eating snacks is out of a beer cozy. The girls put on a little hat fashion show for me.

During my visits, we like to go to old town Eureka for coffee, then down to the waterfront to run, chase pigeons, and pet three legged dogs.

Scott was out surveying damage to the city following the 6.5 quake on Saturday.

Jamie feeding the pigeons.

Back at home the girls spent twenty very focused minutes building with the bristle blocks.


Grammy gave the girls a big box of play food. Michaela is very much into pretend cooking and eating. Below she fried up some grapes for daddy.

I hope to run with Jamie on my next visit or possibly help out with the move back to the Fortuna house!

Trip to Turtle Bay

Suzanne, Brody, and Owen arrived for a visit to Chico on December 28, and settled in at Meemaw's. We had several nice dinners together, but were stymied by a Thai conspiracy one evening. Katya joined the cousins for a sleep over at Meemaw's, everyone went swimming at Ross's pool, and the kids also visited the Chico Nature Center. Saturday January 2nd, we piled in two cars, Peg and Suzanne (and the kids) in one car, Ross and I in the other. Strangely, Suzanne and Peg weren't able to listen to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on the radio??? The weather cooperated enough for us to enjoy the outdoor portion of the museum as well as the indoor exhibits.

Katya, Owen, and Brody on the Sun Dial bridge.

The kids checking out the aquarium.

Family photo in front of the cool water & glass sculpture.

Suzanne and Ross having fun at Paul Bunyan's lumber camp.

In the arboretum on the way to the Tree House.

If you look closely you will find: Ross, Suzanne, Katya, Brody, and Owen in the Tree House. The structure is built of willow and took approximately 3.5 weeks to construct.

We all had a wonderful visit and hope that the next get together will be soon!

New Year's Eve Extravaganza

Dave and Vicky hosted a highly festive New Year's Eve blacklight party (cfl bulbs) up at the Serene Lakes cabin. There was much hilarity at dinner, mostly revolving around chicken stories, as we fueled for the agenda Dave and Vicky had set for us. (Apologies to Martini whose head is cut out of the photo above.

After dinner, we installed the blacklights, moved the furniture and commenced the dance party (much to early was the group consensus). Ross kindly let me dress him. Below are before and during blacklight photos.

Sometime around 10pm we moved the party down stairs to play the salad bowl game (combination of charades and word clues to guess the word or a phrase). Although creative and amusing there was definitely group think happening. It was Girls v. Boys, and the Girls dominated.

Salad bowl ended shortly after eleven. We changed costumes into cold weather gear and walked out to the lake to welcome in the New Year. Several groups on the lake were shooting off fire works and the blue moon peaked out of the clouds. The Martinis blasted off dragon rockets for our group.

Dr. Adventure was on call. As he says, neither sleet nor snow nor dark of night shall deter him from duty.


Ross and I spent New Year's Day at Sugar Bowl. Conditions were slightly sub-optimal, but the crowds were nil and the skiing was great. We wish everyone a happy new year and hope to adventure with you in the months to come.