The Great "Fall" Outdoors

In October I got the itch to head home and take advantage of the fall colors and the crisp tempatures at home. After flying into Medord the next day was filled first by flyfishing on the Pit River with a trip up to my parents beach cabin. The next day again started with an early morning rise to try to catch a few salmon running up the Chetco River. Of course we did have to sit on a rock in the dark for an hour before we could even start fishing. By the time the sun came up we had about 20 guys craming for space on one rock, trying to through their lines in to hook a big fish. With one hour to spare I hooked two in the span of twenty minutes to reach my official limit. My dad had to wait till the next day of fishing (without me) to finally catch his 36 lb. salmon. We did manage to squeeze in many walks on the beach, a hike in the redwoods, and two rounds of golf. It was said that it was one of the best times had at the cabin. We may have to make this an annual event.

The Babysitting Club

Jill and I took our first call of duty babysitting my friends 1 year old son Logan. We crawled on the floors, put down all that was iin the fridge into this little guy, went for a walk around the property, and mangaged to squeeze in some sunday afternoon football as well. He's a blast to play with, full of smiles as you can see and loves to point at "this" and "that" (his two favorite words). But as much fun as he is it's still always fun to give him back to his parents after he's done playing and spoiled by us. Luckily he only needed to be changed once and Jill lost the "1,2,3 not it" game (I think cause she didn't know we were playing) so she got to change his diaper. But still all in all a fun time.

GeoCaching in Idyllwild

As soon as the weather started to turn to fall in October we headed up to Idyllwild tucked away in the mountains just west of Palm Springs. A nice mountain town with mom and pop stores, natural food grocery stores, coffee houses, and this day a cheese and wine festival featuring local vineyards. We stopped at the local candystore for choclate covered pretzels and sour patch kids and laughed at a number of black and white photographs taken of dogs around the world shown in a local gallery. We managed to also go off the beaten path to attempt some geocaching. It led to a creek nestled in some trees (which makes the readings on the gps not as accurate) and we only ended up locating 1 out of 2 caches. Still the day was full of exploration in town as well as places that have no permanent address. It was a good trip to properly bring in the fall.

Poor Jacky Boy

Here are some pictures of poor little Jackson when he first came home (well, to his "doggy condo" at my house). Doesn't he just have those puppy dog eyes down perfectly? Well, luckily Jackson no longer has to wear the cone and he appears to be healing quite well. A trip to the vet last week informed us that he can now take longer walks, as well as begin "water therapy". This weekend we took him up to Jinx Lake and he had a blast, although he tired more easily than before. As I write, Jackson is sprawled at my feet, looking more like himself everyday. And most importantly...he is becoming more comfortable with himself cosmetically (although this may be due to his buttocks no longer being quite as nude)...his shaved rear end is sprouting hair once again! -Jill

Hard Core Camping @ Big Bear

Well, this is a little late to post, but I found some old pictures of when we went camping up at Big Bear in September. I can't really remember the date, but Jackson's leg was well and we we had a jolly good time. Saturday morning we drove up to find a campsite (we weren't able to reserve one beforehand because it was a spur of the moment trip). However, once we got up there, we stopped at the Ranger Station and were informed that we would have the best luck with a campsite if we were willing to "dry camp". We said sure and headed out on an adventure to find a camping spot. Ridge got his first experiences doing a little off-roading and for a moment Nathan even had to throw it into a little 4X! oh yes... We ended up finding a secluded little spot (where a creek must run through in the springtime), and set up camp. Broke in the new, enormous tent, cooked a little grub on the tailgate, and had a great time. The next morning we went geocaching!! --Jill

Sushi Night

Last get together dinner at the highland house. Had Garret and Travis over for a night of sushi. We even got so bold as to make some fresh ahi tuna sushi with canned tuna sushi as backup (the fresh was the best!) We made so much that there was some left over, but we saved room for green tea and mango mochi for dessert.

Back to Monterey!

Memorial weekend took us up on another road trip to Carmel where we enjoy lunch at an outdoor cafe with a walk on the beach along pebble beach. We grabbed a couple of sparkling martinelli's and took 17 mile drive along the coast with stop at pebble beach of course. Next onto Monterey where I took Jill to Ghirardelli's for an ice cream sundae and coffee over looking the bay. Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a walk along the Santa Cruz coastline where a longboarding competition was going on. Starbuck's followed by Pizza My Heart for dinner, delicious! Sunday morning we got up early to revisit the Napa valley where we played golf near PUC, Rutherford Grill for dinner, and Taylor's Refresher for dessert. We made it last as long as we could but come Monday we returned home already missing the beautiful sunsets and the cool ocean breeze.