Anderson River Park

Our favorite place in Anderson is by far the Anderson River Park. Right on the Sacramento River (hence the name "river park"), it has many meandering trails, several ponds, and great spots to just relax at on the river. It happened to be a beautiful day yesterday so Mom, Vanessa, and I decided to have lunch there.

We came prepared,

and enjoyed our lunch of cheese, pepperoni, and crackers.

Vanessa enjoyed some soccer practice with her volleyball. Then we set off on a walk around the park.

First we watched a lady feed the geese (do you remember them, Jen and Michelle?),

while a Double-Crested Cormorant dried it's wings.

Then, while we were watching a turtle bask,

we saw these huge fish. We think they were carp and they were at least a foot long, probably closer to a foot and a half long. HUGE! How we wished we had fishin' poles!

We continued on,

found some gorgeous wild iris,and a beautiful spot on right on the Sacramento River!

After a while, we walked into the woodsand saw not only a beautiful blue flowering bush,

but some blooming blackberry vines!

Where a dragonfly rested, butterflies danced above,and birds sang from the bushes. We came to a pond and saw another basking turtle,

and an American Coot.

And on our way back to the truck, we noticed that there was snow on the ground! Actually, it is cotton from the cottonwood trees.

What a great day at the Park!

Sunday's Adventures Continued: The Drive Home

Not only was the time spent at Whiskeytown fun, but so was the drive home! We decided not to take the usual Highway 299 route home through Redding. Instead we decided to drive home by way of Igo on a little used road out of Whiskeytown. Before we actually left pavement, we stopped at a very pretty and apparently often visited cemetary.

Mom and Dad found two gravestones they thought were very neat.

This fancy cross,

and this cowboy's stone from 1895.

Their favorite grave however, was this one:
Family and friends had made a bunch of tiles and placed them around the grave. Not only is it a neat idea, but this guy spent some time in Hawaii judging by some of the tiles.

Besides neat graves, there were some beautiful flowers.

Iris,
more iris,
and something else (lavendar I think).

Just when the flower photographing reached its peak, a huge storm began to move in and we had to leave.

Then the paved road to Igo became a one lane dirt track,

and our 2x4 Ram 1500 only had a quarter tank of gas!

Just when we thought things couldn't get any more tense (or fun!) the storm really started to move in,

and it started to rain!

However, we managed to outrun the storm back to paved roads and home with time to play some chess before bed.

Can a single day be any more fun?!

Sunday's Adventures

Sunday: often considered one of the worst days of the week because it is the end of the weekend, but perhaps the best day of the week for us! Sunday is our fun day and we had a great time at Whiskeytown Lake. One of the beautiful things about Whiskeytown is that there is not only a huge variety of stuff to do--you can hike, bike, ride horses, boat, swim, fish, camp, picnic, gold pan, etc.--but you can do it over 42,497 acres of shrubland, oak woodland, and forest. Does it get any better?! Not yet anyway. :)

We finally decided to have our fun at Crystal Creek and set up the barbecue. Hamburgers and hotdogs have never tasted so good! While Mom was busy cooking for us, Dad, Vanessa, and I got our new bikes ready for riding.

Vanessa got an orange Diamondback Response,

I got a blue Diamondback Response,

and Dad got a flame Specialized Hardrock Sport.

Not only did we enjoy our bike ride, but we enjoyed the hike we later went on.

we saw all kinds of things including beautiful flowers

and HUGE slugs.

We also did little bit of gold hunting.

Are they just rocks,

or is there gold?

On the way out, Dad got these great pictures of a busy bee in some vetch.

And I hate to end this here, but part two will have to come tomorrow! Enjoy the pics:)

The Sun Has Set On Our Hawaii Adventure

After two wonderful years living on Maui, we have moved. Several things prompted the decision to move, mainly expense and family. Maui is an awesome place to live, but it is expensive. The other thing about it is that we were too far away from family. We have close family we haven't seen in over two years and it is rough getting to see other members only once a year if we're lucky.
Taking these things into consideration, we moved to Anderson, CA. It is much more affordable and accessible to the rest of the country and as cool as Maui in its way. We can't wait until we start getting visitors!

Posting Again

Hey All,
It's been quite a while since I last posted. I have decided that I am going to try to post to the blog at least twice a week. I mean, we have it so we might as well be using it right?! Plus, it is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends. So anyway, just an update that I will be posting more frequently. Now that it is out in the open, I have to do it!

My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to ME! Yes, today, March 8, 2007, is my 18th birthday. As everyone keeps reminding me, I am now old enough to buy cigarettes, porn, to vote, go to jail, have a full on license-not just a provisional-and many other things that I cannot now remember. It does feel diferent to be eighteen because of all the stuff I can now do and because today was big not just because I am now eighteen, but because it was my last ever day of high school. Yes, I have disenrolled from high school because we are moving to Redding, CA on the 22 of March as you all know. I was sad today because it was my last ever day of high school and because I won't be seeing a lot of people again, but I was also excited because it was my last ever day of high school and who knows what awaits me now! The possibilities are endless! I am quite excited. I am also sad because I won't be graduating valedictorian in May-shoot, I won't be graduating-and this is a first on the female side of the family. Grandma Dowling, Mom, Jennifer and Michelle all graduated valedictorian of their high school classes and I'm not even graduating. Though if I were, I would be valedictorian, so that's something. Anyway thanks for all the good wishes, positive input and everything. Love you guys!

R.V. Hi'ialakai

On Thursday, November 2, 2006, Vanessa, I and three other classmates got to go on an all day education cruise aboard the Research Vessel Hi’ialakai. We can both safely say that this was one of the most awesome experiences we’ve ever had!

The 224 foot vessel with a cruising speed of 11 knots was built in Tacoma, WA and launched in 1984 as a U.S. Navy vessel. Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1998 it was used as a border patrol vessel in the Caribbean but it was too slow to really be effective. In 2002 it was sold to NOAA and its home port became Honolulu, HI. It is currently used as a research and educational vessel.

Hi’ialakai is Hawaiian for “embracing pathways to the sea” and “guiding leaders of the seas”, an appropriate name! Our day aboard the ship was full and fun. Vanessa’s favorite part was the ride out on the jet boats, which once we got out of the incoming/outgoing lane was quite fun. Climbing up the ladder to actually get on the Hi’ialakai was a different story. Vanessa scrambled up ok, but I pulled the rope ladder out to me and then stepped on. Luckily I didn’t swing into the side of the boat too hard, but I think I had the crewmembers wandering about me!

First on our agenda aboard the ship was a Scavenger Hunt. Basically we toured the ship, getting to see the fantail (stern), the bow, the navigation area, the sick bay, the firefighting area, the decompression unit, the wet and dry labs and the sonar area. Really cool stuff and the crews’ quarters are really nice too. Shoot, they have a big screen plasma T.V.!

Water quality was up next. There we learned about the various tools, like refractometers, used to measure pH levels, salinity, temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen levels, nutrients, and density. We also learned about CTD units. Conductivity-Temperature-Depth units are the main way to measure salinity, temperature, pressure, depth and density. The ship even had one! Crazy piece of equipment.

Lunch was decent considering it was tuna sandwiches, cold fried chicken, crackers, chips and Oreos.

The plankton section of the day was on of the most interesting. We looked at plankton they had netted earlier in the day under microscopes. There are some crazy creatures out there! Saw both zooplankton and phytoplankton, and a couple we couldn’t identify. I had given Vanessa and one of our friends, Aliena, a run down on plankton information earlier. During this presentation Vanessa and I were banned from answering questions, even though Vanessa was just regurgitating word for word what I had earlier told her. Oh well, I don’t mind being banned from answering questions!

Last on the agenda, the sediment/live rock section was really fun. Basically live rock means the stuff that is living on the rock: the algae and animals. In this activity we had to find, observe with the bare eye and then with the microscope animals that were living in the rocks. They had a slipper lobster, rock boring urchins, sea hares, worms, crabs, and star fish. Lot of fun looking at and drawing these animals. I also learned that slipper lobsters are particularly good eating and that not locking my knees really does help me stand straight on a rocking boat...

We ended the day with a question answer session in which Vanessa (my parrot) and I impressed many of the scientists with our knowledge and won several prizes. Squirty turtles, a lunch bag, a shoulder bag and verbal amazement were ours! We were also given a poster of Hawaii’s marine mammals, a much sought after item.

Our group was the first to head back to shore and it was an interesting, but fun experience. That morning had been nice, but as the day progressed it started down pouring and the swell had grown. They had brought the jet boats into their on deck holdings and now lowered them down, but only halfway. They had us climb in suspended boats and all sit on one side. We, having seen way too many movies, were very nervous and were preparing for a rapid drop and a sudden, soaking, splash as we hit the water. How mistaken we were though! They gently lowered us into the water without hardly a ripple and we were on our way back to land. It was fun, but sad really leaving the Hi’ialakai. I wish I could go on it next year!

Barbecuing

As you know, we recently moved!! Much nicer place and one of the reasons is that not only is our lanai bigger and we have a yard, but we can have a barbecue! Dad is the barbecue master! Steaks, chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, pan cakes, eggs, sausage, potatoes, all have been grilled. Now if Mom and I could just convince him and Vanessa to let us do some fish and shrimp... :) These pictures are from the first use of the grill ever and the hamburgers and hotdogs were absolutely delicious. Since we've gotten the grill everything has been delicious! In fact, we're having barbecued steak tonight, yum. We haven't eaten so good since we left the farm and needless to say we're really enjoying it!

Maui County Fair

This post is a little late considering that the Maui County Fair was in mid-October, but hey, better late then never! I actually got to see the parade this year with a friend and while it wasn't the most impressive I've ever seen, it was still good because there were two horses. :P Richard Ho'opilli'i was singing on a float. He is much better live then recorded but still...



Anyway, the Fair itself was very fun. I worked a booth with Vanessa one evening and that weekend we all went to walk around, look at the animals, the rides and the flowers (will Mom and Dad ever tire of taking pictures of thousands of flowers individually?!). We didn't actually go on any rides, much to Vanessa's disappointment, but it was still good fun.



As you can see, some of us were pretty worn out from all the picture taking of orchids! Fun times, fun times. :)