Labor Day Weekend at Campland

There was no mistaking the arrival of the last holiday weekend at Campland. The place filled up to capacity and the beach was packed. I did some quick calculations and am pretty sure more than a kilocase of beer was consumed.

Friday brought me new neighbors, Rick & Terri. It was Rick's B-Day and Terri made a cake. I don't know how many candles, but we all enjoyed the celebration. They introduced me to at least 20 friends and family and welcome me as one of their own.

Carol, Bill and Desmond came to visit Saturday and enjoy the sun. We had a great time at the beach relaxing. Desi found a girlfriend (one of Rick's clan of course) Kaya, and they had a great time playing with Ripley.
Bill helped me launch the kayak.And he was proud to see Desi and I off on a voyage...Desi had a great time on the water. He called me captain, and gave me orders to chase the ducks, go to the beach; he wants to be in charge.Desi and Ripley rode the bike trailer around camp. You can see the crowd at the beach in the background. The next day Desi was back and here you can see him directing me where to go once again.
April and Joe came out Sunday for a little beach time with Maya, Mason and Desi.
Rip was trying to look cool for the ladies...And Mason was making bubbles all day long. Desi loved feeding the ducks.

Here is part of Rick's clan - the Sunday night crowd... "It's a disk, with a card inside, displaying a couple words and all these happy people take turns to guess the answer and pass the disk before that dang buzzer goes off!" What's that game??? Please someone from Rick's clan, post a picture of the midnight baseball game.Jimmy proudly displays his big catch. And this is our view of Sea World after the fireworks were done and all the boats were docked.
So, it all came to an end on Monday afternoon. Campland was a ghost town Tuesday morning, and I was nursing a swollen foot. I got over my brief depression, had a great time Tuesday night, and departed on Wednesday.

Three Birds Identified

Welcome to Campland!

Ripley and I have settled into space Q3.

This park is huge and vacant until today when the holiday crowd began to show. And the party has only just begun. Rest assured, there will be a need to post before this is all over.

I have a sweet spot at the park. At the corner of the marina beach and a channel. Low tide exposes a channel beach that is somewhat private. Please join me in the enjoyment of these birds that were on the beach at low tide this morning. This Marbled Godwit was feeding with a dozen others in a group. The bicolor, upcurved bill were distinct. These guys are feeding almost continuously at low tide and I had difficulty capturing the complete bill in a photo. Among the Godwits was this Little Blue Heron. The slate blue non-breeding plumage is very well groomed. This guy takes much bigger steps than the little Godwits and covers more ground. Then came little miss Snowy Egret. She saw the heron eating so well that she pushed him out of the way to take over. This photo on the abandoned dock shows off her yellow feet.

I also observed an Osprey fly in a circle over the channel then move on to the wildlife preserve on the other side of the marina. The white head was distinct from a hawk or vulture. Only after it was gone did I learn to look for the prominent dark eyestripe. I'll keep my eye trained to spot another.

I will not elaborate on the possible American Avocet sighting... or was it a Sanderling?

But I will comment on Captain Ripley.

This posture may not look too comfortable to you and I, but Rip is in neck support heaven! He has an effortless view of the high seas. Our private beach was the perfect spot for Rip to get comfortable with the kayak on the water.

We have been out the last three days. Today, we paddled with the wind to Fiesta Island. On the way I spotted a group of parafoil kites flying, so we headed in that direction. Once we got close, it was clear that the kites were on the other side. We were facing a stiff headwind back, so decided to land on the near shore.

Among the 5 or 6 cars and a motorhome, only two people were around. The beach was taking the wind directly into the shore and Ripley took a heavy splash when we landed. The RV flags were flying stiffly showing the wind had shifted to come out of the North then West at a much better pace, about 13mph according to windfinder.com. The forecast calls for 15 tomorrow, so I'm planning to ride the bike over to the other side.

The 2.0 kite flew well with good pull. Tracks were muted due to flying in the wet sand with the pull toward dry. It is hard to manage the changing surface on this steep beach, and my tailbone can tell a story... The five footers were fun, and I practiced jumps too. This is the best wind I'vee seen since Oregon.

Ciao

Time For Some Statistics

July was a busy month!
After a big road trip, I have taken a beak from the open road.
No! I am not being lazy and getting fat.
I have taken up residence at Mission Bay and will head to Whistler soon for an adventure.
Next road trip should begin with the Colorado River in mid-September and get me to Yellowstone - finally!

Here are some data from the first road trip to the Pacific Northwest:
36 days
4,407 miles
438 gallons of gasoline
13 sites I called home
5 rainy days
1 great windy day

Select statistics:
Average MPG = 10.1
122 miles per day
12 gallons of gas per day

But my golf handicap is well over 20 - yikes!

Statmaster Rob

Visiting Our Nation's Capitol

aka The Washington Post
(pardon the length, I had a 5 hour plane ride)

It was a very nice side benefit to the wedding that I was able to do some site seeing at Washington, DC with my family. It was the first time in about four years that all four siblings have gotten together for fun. We ventured in and around the city several times; by train; by car; by taxi; and mostly by foot. Notwithstanding the broken train and the closure of the parking garage (with our car inside), the getting around went pretty smoothly. I forgave Mr. GPS for the few errors since there was so much construction underway.

We covered a lot of ground in 5 days. Here are just some of the highlights.

The Declaration of Independence original document. It is in surprisingly good shape compared to the Constitution and Bill of Rights documents. Of course, they were written before Papermate invented Lubriglide Ink. The other photo is the memorial to those brave patriots that signed the document. Each of the stones has one of the 56 signatures engraved.

We saw the Mall at night which was very cool. And the Washington Monument is fun to shoot.

The new WWII memorial:
at night. And during the day it was a great cool down for the feet

We also saw the Korean War Memorial: and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (currently 587 remain MIA).

It was pretty dark when we walked through the FDR Memorial. There were many quotes carved in the stone that Carol pointed out seem quite relevant today. I concur.
The darkness made for some nice shots of the Jefferson Memorial.
By this time everyone's feet hurt and the Metro station was still a mile away.
We all kept moving and made it back to our new hotel, Four Points.
I believe the four is out of a possible ten. We noted deductions for poor restaurant service, incomplete pool facility, dirty bathroom, food left in the fridge, no beer at the local 7-Eleven, and the behavior of local ladies of the evening. No photos here.

We made a unanimous decision to move back to the Homewood Suites. We knew their 7-Eleven had beer.

I had to see the Capitol Building. Ms. Feinstein was very funny on the phone, but she would not invite me in.

So I moved on to the Supreme Court, Scalia was out of town so I was turned down here too.

It didn't look like George was home either... But the locals all welcomed me at the pub... I talked to Smokey at the Forest Service Museum. He kept pointing and putting all this pressure on me to prevent fires. I thought lightning was largely to blame. Now, I know what you're thinking, but I can only produce a spark here and there, no lightning.
We stopped by Ford's Theatre to see the scene of the crime. It is in renovation, so no luck. I went around back to see where Booth had a stage hand hold his horse for escape, but it is all built up now with high-rise buildings. The Peterson House across the street is still there where Lincoln died the next morning.
We finished the trip with a visit to Mount Vernon, the home of our founding father, General Geo. Washington. The plantation on the hill has a great view of the Potomac River. It is incredible to look out over the river and see the same view that George and Martha did over 200 years ago. No development on many miles of shoreline.
There was a team of archaeologists working in the garden area. They were looking for artifacts to determine the exact type of plants grown by Washington in the 18th century.
This was a great trip and I saw much more than I expected. I must come back to see the Mint and the American History Museum after renovations are complete. And I will make advance plans to tour the White House and Capitol Building like Lynn did.

Ripley didn't get a chance to join in on this trip.
He has been at the Hernandez Hideaway. It is an all-inclusive resort.
We were welcomed by the old neighborhood to an evening of reminiscing for his drop off.

Next stop... Santa Monica!

Congratulations Jason and Jamie!

Dateline Washington, DC, August 17, 2008.

Yes, it is the wee hours of the wedding day.

And the boys are enjoying a toast to the groom.

J is happy for his friends and family to party together.

Just beware of the number 18.

We know the girls were having a hoot, but they won't share the pictures.

We were all able to roll out of bed in time to make it to the church.
It was a fine, sunny day and the church was beautiful.

J is the luckiest guy on the East Coast
And he knows it!
And Jamie is so beautiful that the Oswalt Clan had to get a photo with her.
That is Michael in the foreground.
A handsome young man of six.
So they make a happy family of three and my bro is now Grandpa Johnny!

It has been fun to have a family reunion.

Thanks Jason and Jamie. Enjoy your honeymoon in Mexico!

All the best forever! You have great family and friends around you.

Heading South in California... Home?

It was nice to head South in California.

Getting warmer all the way.

We stopped in Half Moon Bay...

Ripley and I hiked a few miles up toward Pacifica Peak, found a loop back to the coast highway to make a nice 4-5 miles.

It was pretty much straight down to the beach below as you can see in the picture.

Then we headed to the beach where it was foggy and cool.
Nice after a tough hike.

And Ripley really loves to run free on the beach.

I have always wanted to stop at Gaviota Beach.
So we made a go for it.
The campground is fist-come-first-served.
And the ranger was absent when we arrived.
By the time he got back there were five cars waiting and we were first in line.

We got our choice of the two available sites.

We chose number three, set up and started a campfire.

Hanna and Theresa were second in line.
So we got together and celebrated our success in getting a site with Malibu Rum cocktails.
I did my best to set a good American example for my German visitors.

Prost!!

Hanna and I went running in the morning.

Next stop - Ramona!

This is what three weeks of mail looks like after sorting.

Bills.

Statements.

Disclosures.

Prospectuses.

Where is the fun mail?

It felt a lot like work to get through all this.

And a couple days later it was over...

Up-to-date.

And getting ready for my 30th High School Reunion

The subject of a future post perhaps...

Be well.

Rob

Let's start with a message from Ripley.





I stole the bread yesterday and broke into papa's lunch today.


Why won't he just feed me more???



Appreciate the Redwood Tree.


It grows over 360 feet tall.


Lives hundreds and even thousands of years.


Is bigger than most anything else.

...and grows only in California and Oregon.


I decided to take this one home with me.


It looked doable.


I got my arms around it.


And showed it my skinny legs...
All my pulling caused a big one to fall.


This little 350 footer.

Ripley and I enjoyed the Avenue of the Giants today.

We drove through Burlington Camp Ground.


This is one of the spots we camped 11 years ago.


Kev, it is amazing we got that motorhome into this place!

We left the Giants to head for the beach.

Drove through the Victorian town of Ferndale to get to Centerville Beach. This is the gateway to the Lost Coast where there ain't much of anything but coast.

The wind was steady, but a bit on the light side. I estimate 5-10 knots. A good wind to fly, but not enough to really pull.

A passerby approached with a camera. When I asked if she wanted to photograph me flying, she said no, but would I allow her to take a picture of the Whippet. I leveraged her request into an agreement to snap some shots of me flying.

So here are a couple shots of today's flying.