Time to go home (July 30, 2024)

 

St. Mary's bell tower poking through the mist behind Fox, Willoughby, and Mya. 

Leaving on a jet plane from the San Francisco airport. Thanks so much for a wonderful time, Ryder, Brandy, Mya, River, Piper, Willoughby, and Mylo!

Surprise visit from nephew Justin Lewis (July 28, 2024)

 I missed out on the trip to the Muir Woods on Saturday, July 27, but got to visit with Justin, who visited on Sunday, July 28. Ryder, Justin, and Fox, and Brandy's hands and phone.

Cousins Fox and Mya at dinner on the patio at the Lewis' house.

Incomplete 71st birthday hike (July 26, 2024)

I fought the rock and the rock won. About two hours into the Joaquin Miller Park hike, I face planted on a big rock. Lesson learned: even if there are no public restrooms, don't refuse to drink water. Dehydration leads to lightheadedness. I was walking toward the rock to sit down but blacked out before I got there. I broke my glasses and my nose. The glasses jabbed the side of my nose requiring two layers of stitches. Medical care was a team effort. Mya and Fox directed Brandy to the nearest hospital and came inside with Papa and me. The doctors and staff at the Highland Hospital ER in Oakland were fabulous. It could have been so much worse: cracked skull, teeth knocked out, etc. Luckily I fell to my knees first (evidenced by skinned knees) and landed on my right hand (evidenced by huge bruise on the back of my hand). Probably would've gotten away with a broken nose if I hadn't been wearing glasses.
 

Ready for my post-fight with the rock (not The Rock, thank goodness) interview.

The day started so wonderfully though. Piper presented me with this card that she made. Thanks, Piper!

Same pose on Tuesday, July 30, four days after the fall. The good news was that on my follow-up at Highland Hospital on Monday, I was given clearance to fly home. Apparently cabin pressure can be an issue for broken noses. 

Joaquin Miller Park Overlook (July 26, 2024)

 On my 71st birthday hike at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. To represent his belief in the Ten Commandments, Joaquin Miller erected this pyramid to Moses in 1892.

River, me, Piper, Papa, and Mya in front of the pyramid. Fox and Brandy were there too. Joaquin Miller was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras," after the Sierra Nevada, about which he wrote in his Songs of the Sierras (1871). In a fight with Native Americans, he was shot through the neck and cheek with an arrow. While a newspaper correspondent in the Yukon, he lost two toes to frostbite. He was also a mining camp cook, lawyer, judge, Pony Express rider, and horse thief. 

Mya and Piper atop another of Miller's monuments. Willoughby stands by.

Papa views Oakland Bay and San Francisco from the park's Lookout Point.

Mya, Brandy, Willoughby, and Piper at the Lookout Point.

Mya and Piper in the Lookout Point tree.

River and Willoughby with Papa and me. Fox was on most of the hike with us but had returned to the car by this time.

Mya caught a lizard.

Piper in the Lookout Point tree.

The Winchester Mystery House (July 25, 2024)

Fox and Papa in the garden room of the house constantly under construction from 1886 to 1922. Sarah Winchester, the widow of the Winchester repeating rifle heir, believed the souls of all those killed by the rifle would haunt her unless they were driven away by the constant noise of sawing and hammering.
 

Piper with our tour guide. The original 8-room farmhouse is now 24,000 square feet with 160 rooms, including 13 bathrooms, six kitchens, 47 stairways and fireplaces, and 2,000 doors. 

The bell tower behind Fox was used to call the spirits to a nightly seance held in the seance room. The room has a "secret" entrance/exit through a closet.

The mansion has 10,000 windows. Sarah Winchester's lucky number was 13, like mine, so designs usually incorporated 13 of something. In her living room, the chandelier has 13 globes. The saddest part of the story to me is her years of grief following the death of her infant daughter and her husband in his 40s. Upon her death, her safe was opened. It didn't contain jewels or cash. It only contained the obituaries of her husband and daughter, and a lock of her daughter's hair.

The grand finale was a visit to the Cheesecake Factory, a few blocks from the Mystery House in San Jose. Piper, Mya, Fox, me, River, Tom, and Brandy split orders of chocolate chip, mango keylime pie, chocolate cherry, and coconut creme cheesecake. To me, the whipped cream was the best part.

Pool time in Moraga (July 24, 2024)

Mya and Fox in the pool, as viewed from the second floor balcony. A very productive beehive buzzed next to the pool. A few weeks later, a beekeeper would remove it, first calming the bees with a smoker. He left the Lewises with at least of quart of sweet smoky honey.
 

Visiting the Moraga Lewises (July 24, 2024)

The original height chart was left on the pantry door frame at 1101 Chicory in Asheville. But Brandy made a portable copy to use in the Moraga house and to never again be left behind.
 

Fox's turn!

Mya's catching up with Mama.

What do you think? Is River there?

Fox's beautiful hair (July 23, 2024)

My hairdresser Brittany is the co-owner of The Room, the only totally organic salon I could find in Austin. Fox wanted purple and pink in her hair, which would have to be bleached for the colors to be vibrant. Here we go!
 

Brittany cut and colored Fox's hair. Those are natural curls, lucky girl.

Curls all over!

Celebrating the Sharon birthdays (Monday, July 15, 2024)

 Sharon relaxing on Lynn and Bill's deck. Her birthday is July 7th; mine is July 26th. Her friend Lynn had us over to celebrate. Sharon brought fajita fixings and I brought honey for everyone.

Sharon Reed. We rode past the ranch that used to belong to her great-aunt, before the Colorado River was damned to form the highland lakes. Much of the ranch is now under water but with about a mile of lakefront property.

On Lake LBJ, close to the 60th anniversary of LBJ himself signing the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. 

Jimmy, Sharon, Bill, and Lynn behind me, The Other Sharon

Our very special visitor (July 12, 2024)

Owls nest in our next door neighbor's pecan tree. Yet another reason to bring the cats in at dusk! We regularly find owl pellets with tiny bones on our deck. The owls must dine in our elm tree. 

 

One bee sting to the forehead....(July 8-11, 2024)

 I've had dozens of bee stings in our 5 years as beekeepers. Anywhere else on the body, the stings are barely worse than mosquito bites. But one sting to the face, and the eyes swell. 

The hives were mad as hornets when we took the girls sugar water on July 8. See all the stingers in my gloves? Somehow, about four bees got under my veil. One of them stung me before I could mush (sorry!) them all while running down the dirt road to get away.

The miracle of healing. All good again on July 11.

Until next time, Portland (July 6, 2024)

Bye-bye, Portland family! Bye-bye, Mt. Hood in dawn's early light! Mt. Hood reaches 11,249 feet. I guess our Southwest flight was just above that, nowhere near 30,000 feet?
 

Ziplining on Pumpkin Ridge west of Portland (July 5, 2024)

Fox is ready to zipline for the first time.

Papa's ready to compare the Portland experience to the 2023 Costa Rica experience. 

Flying Fox.

We took a few swaying bridges between platforms.

Perfect landing!

On the 120-foot high platform.

On her way up, up, up.

We did it!

She did it!

 

July Fourth in Portland

Fox, Mia, and Otis, ready to celebrate our nation's 248th birthday, if you count from the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But we didn't defeat the British until September 3, 1783. So coming up on our 241st birthday?

Time to blow away soda cans with BBs. 

Laura, whose family has roots in Texas, watched the crew get their Texas on.

Who's taller? Does hair count?