Home, Part I

I took a trip home a few weeks back. 3 weeks to see friends, family, and to work from the Mountain View office to learn how to lead a few new classes. Yeah, exciting stuff. I made the most of my weekends and evenings there, and took the time to ensure that my visit was not strictly business.

One of the weekends back, I went canoeing up on the Russian River. It was a beautiful day - the sun was shining, there was a slight breeze; prime conditions for working on a wicked farmer's tan.

I drove up north to Santa Rosa early one morning to meet the rest of the crew. We took a couple of cars over to the river, picked out some wicked $8 sunglasses from the gift shop, and were on our way. I had a blast - definitely good people.

From left to right: Stephanie, Kathy, Steff, Caleb,

Nancy, and Brandi. Quite the motley crew.

Steff apparently suffering from a very acute

(not cute) form of seasickness caused by

the...waves?

This was Stephanie's first time ever being in a

non-commercial boat (certainly a canoe). She

performed admirably, even when I started

rocking the canoe a tad. Okay, excessively.

We found a little island about halfway down the

river and chowed through the rest of our

afternoon. Cheese, dips, sausage, bread, beer -

everything the body needs.

My totally awesome 80s glasses. Yes, they

matched my shirt.

The brave among us decided to go for a swim.

Brandi somehow managed to spot that inner

tube hidden in some heavy growth over a hill.

Some parts of the river weren't exactly what

you would call deep. Stephanie and I used this

opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery,

accompanied by the gentle trill of the metal

canoe scraping over river rocks.

After a half-day of paddling, and several intense water fights, we made it to the landing point and headed back to Nancy's house, where we played a rousing game of Apples to Apples (my new favorite game), and had one hell of a BBQ. Good food + good company + good fun = good times.