Evening at Anderson River Park

While Mom, Vanessa, and I get to go to Anderson River Park for lunch, we also get to go in the evenings after supper with Dad. You wouldn't think that a few hours could make such a difference, but the park is totally different in the evenings. The birdsongs have changed and there are more animals out and about.

Ducks come to the ponds for the night,

jackrabbits come out to graze,

and lizards are sluggish enough to actually get pictures of!

Sunsets on the river are beautiful,

but sometimes we like to watch the minnows better.

A river otter graced us with his presence,

and had a snack,

before he left!
Yes, it was another great time at the River Park!

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!