Labor Day Weekend - Nauvoo and Springfield

After 20 years of camping in Big Sur over Labor Day weekend, this year, being 2300 miles away, we (well, most of us) decided to do something different. While Ben enjoyed the Big Sur camping trip with our dear friends in California, Becky, Hope and John went to Nauvoo, Carthage, and Springfield, Illinois. We had a wonderful weekend sightseeing, playing old games, going on a horse-drawn carriage ride, and visiting the Nauvoo temple. Our new good friends - the Elberts - recently bought a home in Nauvoo, and we spent a delightful evening having dinner, swimming, looking at classic cars, and biking through Nauvoo with them. On Sunday we visited Carthage, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed, and then headed to Springfield, in the heart of the "Land of Lincoln." We visited Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's home (the photo shows the doorbell that Abe made, and a replica of the nameplate on their front door). We also visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum - a spectacular museum with many relics and impressive multimedia productions.

Hiking the Lost Coast

Last week, Gordon, Sven and I spent four beautiful and relaxing days hiking 25 miles along the beach and bluffs from the mouth of the Mattole River to Shelter Cove, a location commonly known as the California "Lost Coast." We hiked an average of 6 miles a day, camping at Cooksie Creek, Big Flat Creek, and at Buck Creek. The first couple of days were very windy, and we were grateful to be hiking from north to south, with the wind at our backs and the flying sand hitting the backs of our legs rather than our faces. Although there are several places that are impassable at high tide, we were conveniently able to do most of our hiking in the morning hours, when the tide was low. We saw sea lions and seals sunning on the rocks; we explored tide pools and found sea stars, sun stars, hermit crabs, muscles, anemones, sea urchins, and even a few gumboot chitons (aka the giant pacific chiton). I confess that the first chiton that I "found," after cleaning it off and trying to lift it, turned out to be a rock. We had a wonderful time!

Hope's first piano recital

Hope performed in her first piano recital today. Her piano teacher had close to fifty of her students perform in just under two hours. I admit to a small bias, but I, and expect everyone else in attendance, enjoyed Hope's performance the most! Hope played "The Merry Bobolink" by C. W. Krogmann, adapted by Olive Bentley.

Spring Break 2010

While Ben was busy mastering economic theory at the University of Oregon, Hope, Becky and John escaped to Monterey for a couple of days during Hope's spring break. After a quick visit to the San Juan Bautista Mission, Hope and Becky went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium while John headed out on a bike ride along the coast. With a blue sky and crashing, high surf, it was hard to imagine a more beautiful location. We met a few hours later for our afternoon snack - ice cream at Ghirardelli's. We all went for a short bike ride, and took a few minutes to throw around a football at a local park, followed by a wonderfully relaxing visit to the hot tub at our hotel. The next day, John and Hope returned to the Aquarium, where Hope showed great patience while John gave his camera a good workout. A picnic lunch on the beach and a brief visit to Point Lobos rounded out the day!

Business in Korea

I was able to spend a week in January working in Seoul, South Korea. Both the work and the sightseeing were great, and I'd love to go back. I ate lots of interesting foods (who knew there were so many forms of kimchee?), and even got to play some good competitive ping-pong for a couple of hours.

Family Tree Photo Project

Hope found this Family Tree project in "The Friend" magazine that she wanted to do. We found and printed the template from the online version of the magazine, and Hope happily wrote in the names of her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. I took it a step further and did the project in Photoshop, with everyone's photo, then printed and laminated the result. It was a great project!

Aspen Grove in Utah and Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite

I'm finally getting around to posting these photos from our wonderful week in Aspen Grove, and from my 3 days of backpacking and hiking around Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite.