August 2023

 

Today is the 21st -- we're closing in on September, which (to me) means cooling-down time, even if some of the hottest days of the year occur in September.  But the heat IS on its way out then.  Here in the West many of us dislike hot, dry summer days, fire weather.  Knock wood, we have enjoyed one of the nicest summers with cool nights and warm, not-smoky days.  Why, we're even enjoying rain from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary today, with truly cool temps.  Amazing August.

Jimmy and Matt have talked for years about taking our Sea Eagle down the American River like Matt and I did in 2015 (click here to see that run).  Jimmy and I haven't had it in the water for a long time.  Well, today was the day!  And it was a hot one.  Speaking of hotties, check out these two, above!

After pumping up the kayak (raft?) at Marshall Gold Discovery SHP, they had to figure out the best way to get it down to the water.  Some guy had plopped two chairs and an umbrella in the path at water's edge, but he agreed to move 'em out of the way.  A number of small kayaks were in the water, having fun shooting the rapids.  The guys were careful not to run over any of them!

Also, don't run over the duck!

Good luck, guys.  Hold onto your hats!

There's plenty of white water ahead!

A smiling selfie after tackling the first rapids.

Meanwhile, Evie and I drove to Lotus Park to await their stop.  We waded in the cool/cold water a bit, ate some lunch, drank an energy drink.  We didn't have to wait long before they zipped in.

The only day the guys could get together was Sunday, and you see how crowded the river was!  Mostly commercial outfitters with six- or eight-person rafts.  And then there was our little two-person Sea Eagle!  Plus a few SUP's!

Once ashore, they dumped the water out of the kayak, just like Matt and I had to do when we did this same trip eight years ago.

And then, it was back in the water.  Their take-out point would be Greenwood Creek River Access where Evie and I'd be waiting (they figured it might take an hour-and-a-half).  In the above picture, the main river current is close to the opposite side.  I don't remember how many Class II rapids they went through, enough to make it a fairly thrilling ride!

And here's where they ended their run.  But they finished within an hour and called me while Evie and I were still at Lotus Park playground!  As I pulled into the parking lot, they were carrying the kayak up the hill.  We walked down to get the rest of the gear, and then returned to Marshall Gold Discovery SHP to Matt's car.  We'd talked about late lunch afterwards in Auburn, but decided against it.  I know the guys had fun!  Maybe we'll do it again.  (Love those golden hills!)

One Saturday in August, I bought a box of Sun Crest peaches from the farmers market, peeled and quartered them, filling the giant pot with 14.6 pounds of ready-to-process peaches, and netting 13 pints and freezer bags of delicious peaches for winter.  Good job, Nickie! 😊

Next came the Nevada County Fair, from Aug 9-13.  This year's theme:  Country Roots and Cowboy Boots.  Again, we picked a Sunday, the last day of the fair, because that's the only day we could all get together.  I hope you can read Jimmy's shirt.  Enlarge the pic if you have to.  It's cheaper for old folks to get in.  Seniors is the word.

Every year the central walkway is lined with gorgeous Marigolds.  Jimmy is watching people careening down and getting soaked on the White Waterlog Flume.  I had to enlarge the pic to see what the other guy was carrying:  A little kid!

We got there around 11/ish before it got hot, but the day did heat up into the 90's ... too hot to spend any time in the sun!  Of course we stopped at the prerequisite photo ops, as seen above.

All the piggies in the AG livestock "exhibit" were all asleep, panting.  Fans blew air over them, but they were hot.  Kinda stinky, also.  Raised by 4H kids, they were shown at auction and won ribbons for best of (fill in the blank).  They probably didn't know it, but the green stripes down their backs meant "custom," as in prime bacon and ham.  The kids were very proud of their pigs, er, hogs.

We saw horses and cows and pigs and bunnies and, yes, chickens.  This handsome dudette, above, produced an egg, which the owner gave to Evie, below!  She was thrilled to hold it, a real live egg from a real live chicken (I think it was the above bird).  She didn't break it, either!

Look, Mom, what I have!  I think we all carried it for a while, Jen, me, Matt.

These two!

Matt and Evie

Other than lots of hikes around the neighborhood, there's not much else to talk about in August.  We are really enjoying our 65° daytime temp today, with light rain falling.  Highly unusual, but we'll take it.  As you can imagine, we're very dismayed about the devastating fire in Lahaina, where we were in May.  Horrible.  Sad to see the flooding from Hurricane Hilary in SoCal, too.  Everyone on earth needs to take care of our planet home.  It's all we have.

Rogue River, Oregon Mon-Wed, 7/17-7/19

Here's a new one for you -- Jimmy and I arrived between Noon and 1pm at Valley of the Rogue State Park in Grants Pass to check-in for our three-night stay.  That's when we found out that check-in at this park is 4pm ... kind of late, wouldn't you say?  We were directed to a large open area to sit in full sun (with other rigs) and await the magic 4pm hour, then we could go to our site and hookup water and electric.  A/C was desperately needed by this point!

Jimmy and I had been invited to Grants Pass to visit with friends, Sue and Mo, and to check out the new house they're building, or I guess I should say, having built.  We'd camped at Valley of the Rogue St Pk in 2014, so we were familiar with the park (just not it's check-in time!)  After we got Tergel set up, we drove to their new house for dinner.  Sue managed to put on a pretty darned good feed, considering that she's trying to operate out of the motor home, a fridge in their large storage building, and putting it all together in the new place. We ate in the "kitchen," beside cans of mud, the kind that's used on dry wall.

The new home will be built Craftsman-style and I'm sure will be a work-of art.

Above is a section of the great room.

Trying out a timed photo.  Not too bad for a first try.

Sue, Mo, me and Jimmy ...

... and Mattie.

The next day (Tuesday the 18th), we four met at Hellgate Jetboat Excursions at 8am for a five-and-a-half hour "cruise" up the Rogue River.  Think:  Fast! Loud!  I've never been on this kind of boating excursion before.  Indeed, I'm not one for fast or loud boats at all, but I thought this would be a fun, one-of-a-kind adventure ... and it was.  Our early (and cool) departure meant we had the river to ourselves; later on we'd encounter lots of rafts and kayaks.  These jetboats leave one heckuva wake, too, which isn't good for the shoreline and they had to slow down every time we met other watercraft or they'd be swamped. Still, I'm glad I went and the four of us enjoyed the whole experience.

76 miles, round trip!  The Rogue River is a beauty as it wends it way from its headwaters at the edge of Crater Lake west to the ocean.  Although we began in urban Grants Pass, the wild and scenic river flows largely through hills and coniferous forests.  We traveled upstream and passed through the Hellgate and into the Canyon with it's steep-sided rugged scenery.  The sun continued to warm us and I think the temp topped out at 90.  We spotted lots of Ospreys and several Bald Eagles, and a token Western Pond Turtle.  Sue and Mo saw salmon, but I missed that.  A couple of Class I and Class II rapids had everyone in the boat hooping and hollering!  Yeehaw!

Our turnaround point was Grave Creek.  Beyond that only a certain number of permitted boats are allowed to continue upriver.  On the return, we got out at Morrison Lodge for a tasty buffet lunch served on the terrace, overlooking their expansive lawn and the Rogue. That was nice.  

Hellgate Excursions' brochure stated that people shouldn't take a camera that "costs more than a Prius," (snicker, snicker) because we were gonna get WET.  I left my camera in Tergel.  I wish I'd taken it, since we had plenty of photo-ops when Joel, our captain, wasn't navigating the boat through rapids or spinning it around.  Other folks had cameras they'd pop out of a plastic Ziploc when it wouldn't get wet. Never mind, I spent enjoyable hours gawking at the wonderful landscape.  If you're gonna ride this boat, however, be aware that:  You.Are.Going.To.Get.Wet.  Soaked.

So, I have no pictures, but delightful memories.  

We got back to Tergel about 3pm and decided to hop on our bikes to ride the Greenway trail a bit.  We rode to the bridge over the Rogue River and then home again, over eight-and-a-half miles, giving Jimmy's new knee a workout.  The afternoon was fine.  Below are a few pics I took along the way.

Cute Bucky Beaver signpost on the trail.

A great time in Grants Pass!

Tomorrow is a new day, with new ground to cover!

Family Time! on the Truckee, Thurs, July 3rd

It's hot in NorCal again.  When the young'uns drive up from Los Angeles to spend the Independence Day holiday with their parents, naturally all our great minds think alike -- rafting the cool Truckee River.  Flowing out of Lake Tahoe, I can tell you the water is COOL. We made reservations for Thursday, knowing full well the river would be crowded with holiday-goers with the same great thought.  No matter -- the fast-moving water felt wonderfully fresh to be either in or on!  None of us dunked in, but all of us either dangled our feets in or waded up to our waists.  We spent three hours cruisin' down the river on a Thursday afternoon!  

 

Let the fun begin!  Tom (L) and Matt (R) in front, Jen behind her dad and I'm behind Matt. Jen's mom, Alice, stayed home 'cause she didn't want to spend hours cooking in the sun! Jimmy was our point man.

A family affair here!

Common Merganser parent ferrying the kids across the river.

 

 

Minions, big and small, under a bridge, occupying their space by the water.

Jennifer and Matt, Jimmy and me posing waterside on our lunch break. 

Mom & Dad successfully led their four kids thru the multitude of rafts. 

 Me and son, Matt, wading up to our knees.

This Mom and her kids stuck close to the river's edge.  Safer there.

The newlyweds are having a fine time, despite too much sun. 

 

Jennifer's dad, Tom, seems to be giving the photographer (not me!) instructions.

Back on the river, Jimmy's steering keeps us safe!

Above -- the debate raged:  Go right or go left?  Hah!  Neither one!  We banged smack into the middle stanchion.  Turned us cattywampus in the water, but no harm was done.  We did get hung up on the fair-sized boulder (where Jimmy's paddle points).  Matt had to get out and push us off.  I took this picture after the fact.  Kinda exciting!

Shallow ... sometimes placid, with just enough YEE-HAW! white-water, but always moving.

We had a grand time rafting the Truckee River.

Hmmm, the next morning outside our backyard fence (thank goodness), we spied this Mom and her kid. Aww, how cute, right?  Then I looked out the front door and saw they'd devoured my front yard petunias AGAIN.  War is declared.  I bought Deer B Gone spray for my flowers.  I will WIN!

 Tomorrow -- a July 4th backyard family cookout in Roseville.  O boy!

Welcome to tropical Costa Rica! Muy bien! Dec. 11th

Wednesday, 12/11 -- P/C. Sea temp is down to 84°. Daily air temp hovers in the 80°-82° area. Humidity remains at 100%, but the breeze is wonderful, saving us from totally overheating.  Tropical Costa Rica!  Observing the ship come into the harbor, do a 90° turn and dock at a long narrow pier is truly an amazing sight.  All of us up top marveled at the maneuvering.

We scared up some birds!

Our massive ship is going to make a sharp right just past the square thingee ...

and then come alongside the tiny pier ...

like so ...

(Brown pelicans must live everywhere in the world.)

... And tie up. We're watching the entire docking process.

Magnificent Frigate birds, they circle and circle.

We booked a day-long excursion for today. After a scenic hour+ journey on the one-lane-each-way Pan American Hwy in one of those nifty, air-conditioned buses, we arrived at the Corobici River for a two-hour, action-packed adventure/float. In an eight-person whitewater raft, we alternately paddled and floated, with a guide who could spot iguanas and knew where the noisy howler monkeys might be high in the treetops (we heard them before we saw them). He named trees for us, inc the Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s national tree, and he pointed out the crocodiles in the shallows, as well as birds: Ospreys, egrets, and herons, inc a boat-billed heron. We missed the mot-mot, darn. It was grand fun, tho the folks on the right side of the boat got drenched when a wave came up over the side… too bad Jimmy was on the right! The hours literally flew by. Lunch for the entire group was back at the put-in place in a beautiful open-air restaurant with a river view. Two of our fellow rafters were from Canada and they joined us for lunch. Great company, glorious excursion.

Cute couple, huh?

No guts, no glory - into the water!

The Corobici is not a calm river. Great to raft on.

Fine day to be on the water.

Serious rafting, esp by the gal in blue shorts. 😃

One of the guides having a bit of fun in his kayak.

Bueno!

Howler monkeys - a whole family (three in this pic, I think).

Howlers live in the tree canopy - they rarely touch earth.

Nice prehensile tail - these guys can fly thru the trees.

Girly-girl iguana. Her boyfriend was to the right out of this picture.

Ahh, here's the gent in question. Ain't he a proper-looking dude?   We saw a lot of iguanas.

We were slow returning, late afternoon traffic, doncha know, and didn’t get back to the ship till after 6 PM (dark!). Jimmy and I didn’t make it to our dining room on Deck 6… after showering (boy, did that feel good) we ate on Deck 14 at the Horizon Court, sharing a table with two charming ladies from Australia. We surely have met lots of interesting people. Someone told us 60 nationalities are aboard the Princess. Speaking of Princess, while we ate, she weighed anchor @ 7PM and pointed her nose south. We have three full sea days till our next port-of-call: Lima, Peru.  Whew, we're tired tonite!