California photos

Biking across the Golden Gate bridge


Redwoods in Armstrong Park


"Lone cypress" along 17-mile Drive in Monterey


Blue Angels practicing

The second week of our California vacation was a combination of birding and wineries. We enjoyed another great outing with the Madrone Audubon, this one at Bodega Bay. We saw a total of 101 species during our time in California with about 20 new species. The wineries were great too--we spent one day in the Napa/Sonoma Valleys, which were fine, and then another day in the Russian River Valley, which we enjoyed even more--it's less commercialized and we felt we got more personal attention and just a better tasting experience. We also managed to squeeze in a couple breweries--always fun!

We got home from California last Saturday and left on Sunday to drive to Poughkeepsie, NY, to meet with a disaster recovery organization that asked for help organizing. We were very thankful to have Art and Anne Jackson there, who are the retired Regional Managers for the area, and we were able to learn from their input and gain confidence in our own ability to do this on our own going forward.

Next week we leave on Tuesday to participate in a training day with Ohio long-term recovery committees (related to flooding they've been experiencing). Then on Thursday we'll drive to St. Louis, have dinner with Chris and Alison and Alison's parents, spend Friday as a "birthday celebration day" with Chris and Alison for Chris's 30th and Carrie's 50+ birthday (OK, 59th). Then Saturday we'll drive to Laurel, MS, to spend 3 weeks on a construction team.