Summer adventures...at home.

I was trying to post at least once a week, but I'm already failing that resolution.

So, since we got home, my nieces Jenny Bailey and Amber Waite came with Amber's adorable kids to see us. We had a lot of fun. We went to the aquarium one day, and the next morning we went tidepooling in Davenport. It was so fun to see them all, we haven't seen Amber and the kids in almost a year, and it's been longer for Jenny.  

A few pics:  First, the Aquarium's Open Sea exhibit.

Davenport tide pools, north of Santa Cruz.  Sam probably got cool pics of the critters we found, but who knows when I'll see them.  So, if you wanna see, check out this entry  a couple of years ago and you'll see what we saw.  Same place, different day.

Sam and Penelope were buddies from the start.  He is pretty "squishy", lol.

Evelyn and Preston at the aquarium.

Jenny with Penelope.

Amber and Penelope.  

  

On the afternoon before they left, we went to a local berry ranch and bought ollalieberries and Amber learned how to make jam.  We had a great time and I hope they come again soon.  

Ryan and Susan are here now, after their adventures in Santiago in June.  Ry has an internship at the Monterey County Legal Counsel office for the summer, so they'll be here until August.  Yay!  It's always fun to have them here.  Except we cook too much, eat too much and get too fat.  We're trying to be careful, with varying degrees of success.  Susan is, as I type, teaching Meghan to make chocolate mousse.

So, our big adventure this week was the Lobster.  My sister Julie called and wanted to send Dad a Maine Lobster for Father's Day, because Dad loves lobster and Mom hates seafood, so she never cooks it.  Also, growing up in the middle of the desert, live lobsters are rare, you know?  Anyway, she called to see if I was brave enough to cook the thing.  I wasn't sure, so I asked my other sister, Kate, who is next door at mom's this week.  She was waffling, so I called Sam and figured "he's a man", but really he gets home from work kind of late.  Finally Susan volunteered, so I told Julie to go ahead and send it.  But that was after I told her I could buy a live lobster down the street, it seemed silly to send it from Maine.  And, if she just sent me $100, I'd take Dad to Red Lobster for lunch.  She sent the lobster, Dad brought it over and Sue was the designated executioner.

And on that note, I'll wrap this post up.  I have to write a talk for church tomorrow.  As do Sam and Meghan.  It's the Bailey Show at church tomorrow.  I'll write more later.

The rest of the story....

So....the next day we drove to Boise, where we stayed with my niece, Amy and her family.  That day we had a big picnic that the Waite girls organized at an amazing park, where there was a giant waterslide.  The kids loved the slide, it was fun to visit with everyone, the weather was perfect and the park was beautiful.  I apparently took no pictures there, and I don't have time to go through Sam's pics, so oh well.

Sunday, after church, Sam, Meg and I went for a drive to find a waterfall that he'd heard of called Jump Creek Falls.  It was much further than we'd anticipated, but we got to pass an entire field of mint (which smelled heavenly) and Chicken Dinner Rd.  The waterfall was in this canyon:

 

I was still suffering from allergen overload from the Cottonwood trees at the park the day before.  So, I sent Sam and Meg to investigate.  They were still in church clothes, so Meg was wearing her spikes. Silly girl, amazing she didn't break her leg.  They found it. 

We went back to Emily's for dinner, but were so late, everyone else had already eaten.  They obviously know Sam and didn't wait for him.  (I wouldn't!)   We sat around and visited for quite awhile.  Meg got some of the 17 kids to play Sardines with her, which they apparently had a great time at, as there was much giggling and squealing.  When the adults were sitting around visiting, Nyah came in to chat.  She was very funny, trying to guess everyone's age (she guessed Grandma Bailey at 20).  Her English is amazingly good for only a few months here, and she's very outgoing, funny and loving.  We didn't get to visit with Nate much, because he's a five year old boy - he never stops moving.

When we left, Meg was sad to leave Kennedy, who is her favorite cousin.  Hopefully, now that they live closer, we'll see them more often.

The next morning, we left early to head home, via Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California.  We drove through Eastern Oregon, which we expected would be Nevada like but turned out to be a lovely drive.  Lots of rolling hills, some of them forested, some not.  

We saw a couple of pretty lakes.  This (below) is lake Abert, an alkaline lake....sort of like the Great Salt Lake.  It was raining off and on, but otherwise a pretty day.

We passed this sign somewhere in Oregon.  Sam says he'll skip Poverty Basin and go directly to Bacon Camp.

Eventually, we got into the piney forest of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California.  But, it was raining harder now.  This was taken from a moving car, through a wet windshield, but you get the idea.

Our last stop before our hotel in Fall River Mill, was McArthur-Burney Falls.  This was spectacular, and we didnt even mind being out in the rain.  Sam hiked down the hill a bit in the rain to get a better shot.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

I could have sat there and just watched/listened forever if it wasn't so cold and wet.  I love the sound of water, I'm not sure what it is about it.  My favorite part of going to the beach is the sound of the waves.

We stayed in an old hotel in Fall River Mills, above a restaurant and bar.  It was a small suite, and was very cute with handmade quilts on the bed and 1930's furniture.  However, there was SO much noise upstairs.  We all laid in bed and speculated as to what was going on.  Some possibilities:  football game watchers, sumo wrestlers, rain dancers, tap dancers, construction, polka contest, horse wrangling, goat herding, etc etc.  

The next morning, we had breakfast in the cafe below us, then headed towards Lassen National Park.  Sam has been wanting to go there to photograph for years, so he was pretty excited about this opportunity.  Unfortunately, while it had been raining on us, it was snowing on them.  Consequently, the pass was closed through the main part of the park.  We did get to see a volcanic lava tube cave.  We took a little hike around and through it, about 1/2 a mile, I guess.  It felt longer.  I haven't hiked anywhere above sea level in so long, and we were at about 5000 ft.  But, it was very cool, and we had fun.

When we came out of the cave, it was hailing and sleeting and colder than it was in the 48F cave.  We had been hoping that as the morning went on, the pass might be opened, but it appeared that it was getting snowier and colder.  We drove up as far as the road was open, and took a side route down the mountain into Redding.  Just before we headed down, I took this pic at about 6000 ft.

About 30 minutes later, at about 1000 ft, I took this picture.  A lot changes in a couple thousand feet.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for a stop at a Sonic (yay!  we don't have a Sonic at home).  

We learned on this trip that Nevada can be sort of pretty in the spring, that Idahoans like Ranch Dressing on their pizza, or at least the people at Gertie's Brick Oven think so, that we could live in Boise if we had to because they have a Sonic, a Texas Roadhouse and a Walmart.  Plus a zillion relatives as a bonus.  Eastern Oregon is not the vast wasteland we expected it to be.  And it can snow in June.  

Ranch Idaho Pizza and other stuff....

My niece Emily M, adopted two kids from Ethiopia last fall.  Today, they were all sealed in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple.  So, we decided to take a road trip to Idaho. Not our usual vacation destination.  We went via Carson City, where we stayed overnight with our friends, the Halls.  The drive over the Sierras was beautiful.

We had lovely BBQ at their house, and a couple of games of Butthead (yes, really) and BS aka Liar aka I Doubt It.  Their girls are fun, and it was fun to see them again.  I wish we lived closer. 

We were supposed to be in Twin Falls by 4:30 or so for a 5:00 pm time at the temple.  We figured it was eight hours from Carson City, so we left at about 7:30 so we'd have lots of time.  The drive through Nevada was just about as exciting as you would expect.

Although the skies were gorgeous.  We found out that Winnemucca bills itself as "The Gateway to the Pacific Northwest".  I know I always think of Winnemucca when I think of the Pacific NW.  

Unfortunately, in our planning, we forgot that Idaho is on Mountain Time, not Pacific Time.  As we crossed the border into Idaho, big sign saying "Mountain Time".  Uh Oh, now, it's not 3:00, its 4 pm and we're still 25 mins from Twin Falls.  We got there, checked in, changed quickly and headed to the temple, which was fortunately not too far away.

Em's family looked beautiful all dressed in white, and she was surprised to see us.  I didn't tell her we were coming.  Nyah and Nathaniel are fun, happy, delightful kids and it was great to finally meet them, and to catch up with their siblings, who we haven't seen in a couple of years.  

After the temple, we went to Gertie's Brick Oven Pizza for dinner.  It's a pizza buffet, but instead of a buffet table, they send servers around with different kind of pizza and you just take what you want. We got our salads and sat down.  The first pizzas by were; Hamburger Ranch, Chicken Bacon Ranch, Veggie Ranch, Chicken Cashew Ranch and Pepperoni Ranch.  I finally asked if they actually had tomato sauce...by this time Sam was speculating about the Great American Tomato Shortage.  Later, they came by with Ranch Idaho pizza...ranch sauce, hash browns, bacon and onions.  Then dessert pizzas;  strawberries and cream, Oreo, Butterfinger, Smores, Reese's.  I didn't try most of those, they seemed like sugar overload.

After dinner, we wanted to see Shoshone Falls.  It was close by, so we all went.  It was spectacular.  These pics are just with my cellphone, Sam used an actual camera and they will be much better.

Then we drove over to where the bridge goes over the gorge.  There were BASE jumpers parachuting off the bridge into the gorge, but we watched a spectacular sunset there.

Tomorrow we drive to Boise to hang out with whichever Baileys happen to be hanging out there, too.