Jackson Jabber

Labor Day Weekend - Nauvoo and Springfield

2010-09-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-04T15:22:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-08T20:00:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-12T12:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Ben to University of Oregon

2009-09-25T13:50:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we dropped Ben off at the University of Oregon (in Eugene). I can't believe my son is now a college man!
He got off to an memorable start. There were two campus-wide power outages his first evening. Then, at 11 pm when he was ready to go to bed, he found that his dorm room key wouldn't work. A maintenance man showed up about 1 am with some lock lubricant that solved the problem. This morning Ben got up at 8 am to hit the gym - only to find out that they don't open until 10 am (but will be 8am once school starts next week). So he tried the track - but they were closed, too. Good luck, Ben!

Lassen Volcanic National Park

2009-09-04T11:03:00.001-07:00

I'm a little slow publishing some of my summer adventures. This was my trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. I hiked up Brokeoff Mountain and Lassen Peak, and enjoyed a 3-day, 2-night backpack trip to a series of lakes. Lassen is no Yellowstone or Yosemite, but is a nice place nonetheless, with some beautiful views of more mountain ridges than I've ever seen.

I've now visited all of the national parks in California (if you consider the Channel Islands visitor center as actually a part of that park)!

Hope's first backpacking trip - into Emigrant Wilderness

2009-07-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hope and John went backpacking with the Schneiders and two of Kevin's friends into Emigrant Wilderness. It was Hope's first backpacking trip, and she had a wonderful time, as did the rest of us. The uphill sections were a bit of a challenge, but we learned that Stan's storytelling helped the miles fly by. We camped for two nights next to "Chewing Gum Lake," where we went swimming and exploring. The meadows of wildflowers were amazing. Here are a few of the photos. Enjoy!

Picnic on Angel Island

2009-07-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today Hope, Becky and John rode the ferry from Tiburon to Angel Island, where we rode our bikes around the island and had a picnic. We enjoyed beautiful views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge.

Ben Graduates from High School

2009-06-04T19:37:00.001-07:00

Ben graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School today. Congratulations, Ben!

Ben's Golf

2009-05-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

Ben wrapped up his high school golf career earlier this month.
At the California Central Coast Section (CCS) Regional tournament, Ben led his team to a second place finish with a 2-over-par 73. Ben's individual score was 4th of the 84 golfers that day. Ben's high school team finished the season with a 12-0 record in league play, and a 14-1 overall record. At the La Quinta High School Championships, the team finished 7th of the 35 teams who participated from throughout the western states.

Spring Break - hang'n with Shamu

2009-04-14T19:07:00.001-07:00

For spring break this year, Ben headed to Indio (by Palm Springs) for a golf tournament with his high school team, while Becky, Hope and I went to visit Mickey, Shamu, and some great friends in southern California. As you can see, we had a great time!

Berry Creek Falls

2009-03-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since I put on my backpack, so I packed up and headed to Big Basin State Park for a 12 mile, 2 day trip. The waterfalls were going fairly well, although they were not quite as strong as I had expected. I guess the key is to go soon after a big rainstorm, not a week or two later. Still, the trip was beautiful, and was a great "escape" from the daily job-hunting efforts.

Picnic at the Park

2009-03-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Hope and her daddy rode their bikes to the park for a picnic and some play time. Hope saw four of her friends there, and she enjoyed playing with a couple of them. The picture shows Hope on the "zip" line.

A few days of R&R in St. George

2009-01-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

At the end of December we headed to St. George. Ben golfed, while the rest of us visited Zion's, Snow Canyon, and some of the local parks in St. George.

Quilters' Retreat

2009-01-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

My mother's 9th annual quilting retreat.