Eclipse 2012

I saw my first solar eclipse 18 years ago at Stanford.  I remember how cool it was with all the professors and staff and students.  Some had pinhole viewers, others had special equipment but we all stood around watching it.

Today, we weren’t at Stanford but the neighborhood all came together and met to watch the eclipse. I was all set up with a pinhole in a postcard — I finally got the family to come out and watch, too. Then the neighbors came out and we were looking at it. Our neighbor, Jerry, brought out his welding helmet and we watched it through that (evidently, if you have it set to at least shade 13, it’s safe).

Pretty soon, other cars were stopping and joining us. Jerry brought out Doritos and suddenly, it’s a party.

My favorite part was when the redwood trees started acting as their own pinhole viewers. Love these patterns.

Eventually, the show, and the party, were over.

Can’t wait for 2017.

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We’re heading off again . . .

Follow our adventures on our travel blog:  The Journey is the Thing!

Playing on Spring Break!

They played on the rocks while I played with my new camera.  Win-win!

Snow = Fun!

You should have seen the snowballs flying!

One misty moisty morning

We woke up early and headed off into the foggy morning and drove up.

Up and above and into a new world.

The fog seems like ocean.  The mountains become islands.  The distant Monterey peninsula becomes an exotic faraway island.

An Annual Tradition

We usually get our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving.  We go up to Crest Ranch in Bonny Doon, California.  It is on the ridge above our house.  It’s a beautiful location.

We have to examine each tree.

Carefully.

We have fun along the way . . . all of it totally safe and legal.

(Or not . . . oops!)

In the end, we are successful in choosing a beautiful tree.

And have some special family time.

And some eye-rolling good jokes . . .

Still, I can’t imagine a better way to spend a cold, blustery Saturday morning. Fueled with hot chocolate and donuts, we drove up the mountain and found our symbol of the season this year. Success.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Mice and Men

Greg is off camping tonight.  I cleaned up the motorhome last night and found mouse droppings (actually, they were pretty old and Ruby wasn’t interested in them so I don’t really think that Greg is camping with a mouse but one never really knows, does one?)

In the best laid plans department (the above taking care of the mice and men department), he is not camping where we had reservations for the weekend.  He’ll be camping a few hours south of that spot.  The campground where we had reservations was inexplicably closed.  Our friends arrived and were turned away.  Wacky.

We’ll be joining Greg (and any mice he may be camping with) tomorrow evening.  I am teaching all day and my day includes a field trip.  My class is going out on a boat in the Monterey Bay . . . so much fun!  We will be seeing all sorts of cool critters — birds, sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, and more.  Can not wait!  Then I drive home, hand the kidlets to their parents, and pick up my own kids, the dog, and my 17-year-old nephew and we drive, drive, drive.

I know it’s not a mouse but it’s a rodent and it’s all I could find.  This is a squirrel that was really angry with me in Montana.

Scenic Byways

Miller, Nebraska was a nice little town.  We drove through it as we wound our way up the state towards South Dakota.  I’m missing being on our trip.  Even with the disadvantages of driving a vintage motorhome, I miss my biggest worry being whether or not we have enough chocolate for s’mores!

Funniest Cuddler Evah . . .

We spend a remarkable hour or two at a fantastic petting zoo in Southern Oregon.  There are lots of things to share from there but this surprising cuddler sticks in my mind.

What’s not to love about a baby possum who likes to snuggle into a knit hat?

Oh, if you are in Oregon and want to visit the home of the possum in a hat, go to Bandon and visit West Coast Game Safari.  We loved it!

Sweetest Sight on our big Trip

We saw lots of bunnies on our trip. Bunnies like campgrounds, we discovered. This bunny, however, was a bebe bunny. It hid under our motorhome while we were packing up to leave. It was curled up next to our “Brake Buddy” (which applies the brakes in my car when we are towing it to help out the motorhome). The black thing next to it is the cigarette lighter plug-in for it. That’s how tiny that bebe was.

We had to chase it out before we started up the motorhome . . . it would have been terrified when the engine roared above it. It ran and hid under another motorhome. I hope it’s momma showed up soon and took it to a safer place.