It's finally happening! A-L-A-S-K-A or BUST!

I'm sitting in a great coffee shop in Groveland, sweating in the heat during this holiday weekend. Actually, I wish I could have worked overtime, but these days it seems I need more personal time than money to plan my next big adventure...

I'm moving to ALASKA!!!

Wow, it's still hard to believe that I will be starting my long DRIVE to Alaska in exactly 4 weeks. After years of applying for jobs, getting a few interviews, and even turning down a couple jobs over the years, everything has lined up and I'm getting my entire relocation PAID FOR to boot! Being a permanent federal employee is finally paying off, and I'm also getting a promotion... in Alaska... !!! Anybody that knows me, knows this has been a goal of mine since I was in college. Soon, I will call Girdwood Alaska my home. Did I mention there's Alyeska ski resort there, and I will have winters off to ski and snowboard? Yeah, pretty sweet.

Me+Tim=5 years (!!); Beard+Tim=4 years

I can't wait!! Though I love working for Yosemite. I'm sad I don't have much time to actually explore the park, but with the hours we have been working (and other stuff) it just seems like I don't have enough hours in a day. Hence, I have missed out on 2 days of OT this weekend, as well as more OT last weekend as I took off to celebrate my 5 year anniversary with Tim in San Francisco, as well as take him to the airport for his trip to Alaska.

The new job is still considered a forestry technician, but as I am wildland firefighter right now, I will be considered a "recreation tech" at my new job. From what it sounds like, I am responsible for all front country recreation areas in the Glacier District of the Chugatch National Forest - picnic sites, campgrounds, trailheads, and interpretive signs. Ok, so there will be some garbage and fortunately only a couple outhouses to deal with, but it sounds like it will be a combination of maintenance, as well as improving sites. I will get to drive heavy equipment and dump trucks again, have a small crew of folks, and it will nice to have a job where I get to roam about the forest (instead of being stuck in one place, like I was stuck at the engine station, or even at the helibase). And another perk - I still get to do wildland fire! Of course, it depends on workload and how active the fire season is, but the district ranger is very supportive in allowing me to maintain my fire experience, as well as participate in training and career development.

I've been impressed with everybody I have talked to from the district, everybody is personable and easy to talk to. I've already been warned that there are many folks from the midwest that work at the office, and they were excited to have a Detroit Lions fan... so they can have somebody to pick on during football season! I'll be surrounded by Bears, Vikings, and Green Bay fans! That's ok, I'm hoping the Lions are as promising as they looked last season. ;)

The only slight downside is that I was hoping for a more natural resources/wildlife oriented position, but at this point I think I still don't have enough experience to land such a job in Alaska, without already being in Alaska. But, everybody knows I love working with my hands and having a job with such varied duties is great for my ADHD! There are also a few wildlife rehab places relatively close (I will be 30-40 minutes from Anchorage, on the Turnagain Sound, and 1 1/2 hrs from Seward) so I could always try to volunteer.

Now for the perks - all of my stuff still in storage in Estes Park, CO will be moved to AK, with minimal cost to me (since I live in CA). I will drive to CO from CA, drop off some of my stuff at my storage unit. They have a moving company come and pack up all of my stuff - including my motorcycle - and move it to Alaska for me. I get a misc expense budget, as well as money to cover my housing/expenses for the first 30 days in Alaska - and trust me, it is a VERY GENEROUS stipend. I also get a housing hunting trip paid for, which includes lodging, rental car, gas, and per diem, which I plan to take in a couple weeks. Not bad, eh?

Unfortunately, getting myself, Logan, and my truck will be a little less convenient than I hoped. The ferry out of Washington to Whittier does not have any room for a passenger vehicle in the month of August (and I'm supposed to start working around Aug 10th). So, I must drive the ~3500 miles (on top of the trip from CA to CO) through Canada. Fortunately, mileage, lodging, meals etc are all paid for (except the part from CA to CO). There are some logistics I am still trying to work out, like when I will get to CO to allow the movers access to my storage unit, and my dad will fly out to CO, drive with me to AK, and then fly back to MI... It's complicated, but not nearly as complicated as I figured it would be.

That's probably more details than most people care to know, and probably a little confusing. We'll just say my last month in CA is going to be hectic - going to my friend's wedding in Oregon, trying to work as much overtime as possible, and planning a move that I must make quickly. Tim gets back to CA from AK ironically 2 days before I plan on leaving CA. Yeah, it sucks.

Back to planning and researching my move in this sweltering heat. Traveling across the Canada border with a dog and a firearm mean special considerations; trying to find apartments to check out during my house hunting trip; and figuring out if I can register my truck in AK while I am house hunting (my CA plates expire 7/31, but I am leaving the state probably on 8/2 or 8/3, so I'd hate to pay CA when I'll be in AK so soon)... all on an old computer that freezes a lot, is not fun. Just sayin'.

A day in the life of...helitack

Hello!
I'm bad at updating anyway, but the fact that I don't have 3G cell service yet alone frequent internet access on a real computer makes it even more difficult. My "newer" laptop has a broken screen, so I have to attach an external screen - making it big and bulky, so I keep it at Tim's and get online here every other weekend or so. I have an old laptop, but the closest place with free wi-fi is 45 minutes away in Sonora... plus, the battery doesn't work and it MUST be plugged in to function, so getting stonewalled at Starbucks with power outlets is a real bummer. I now have access to a Forest Service computer, but it is shared by a lot of folks and I can't access a lot of websites. So, I sometimes feel like I'm living under a rock. :)

My first month of working on the Yosemite helitack crew has been great! Lots of training, and lots of... snow. Our helibase is at about 6700 feet elevation, which is cold and windy enough to make for some surprise weather - like a foot and half of snow in mid-May. In fact, we were supposed to get snow this weekend - guess I will find out tomorrow!

What exactly do we do? Well, the first month has been filled with training and recertifications of all kinds - for us, the pilots, the rangers, everybody involved in fire or aviation. The most unfortunate and disappointing part is that the NPS allows their people to short haul and probably start up rappelling again (The Forest Service stopped all rappel and short haul after a fatal accident in 2009). However, us four Forest Service apprentices are not allowed to even do short haul, per our forest FMOs direction. :(  So for a few days, us FS folks helped take photos and document the evaluation and training process of the rest of the crew (and the rangers) got to try out new belay devices, ropes and harnesses as they practiced rappelling off the tower. That was pretty painful to have to watch while everybody else had all the fun! But we still learned a lot and maybe one day, I will be on the right crew, with the right agency, at the right time...


We have two pilots that rotate days off - 12 days on, 12 days off. We also have a fuel truck driver and two mechanics, in addition to our helitack crew. The pilots needed to be recertified in the different kinds of missions that they fly in the park - short haul and rappel, specifically. First, the pilots must fly a few tests with a 150' rope and a heavy weight on the end, hovering and holding the weight for a certain amount of time within a box or circles painted on the helibase. It's apparently very tough. Once they pass those tests, they can do live tests - which means with actual people attached to the short haul rope, or an actual person rappelling out of the helicopter. FYI, "short haul" is when a fixed rope is attached from the bottom of the helicopter, and a person or two and/or a litter (the backboard thing that injured people lay on) are attached to the bottom. Both pilots passed the tests and we are good to go!

From there, our crew needs to know how to load the helicopter for different missions, most commonly: Search and Rescue, or Fire. Depending on the mission, we bring different items along... the short haul bags, the litter and wheel, the body splint, medical bag, the bucket, etc. We are on 7 day staffing, so our 12 person crew alternates days off and I think we typically have like 6 people working per day. So here's a typical day:

Arrive at work and put our head bag (contains our flight helmet), nomex and hardhat on the pegs for easy and quick access. Take the different carts (each loaded with gear for a different mission, like fire or SAR) and put them out for easy access. Load up the helicopter for low elevation fire - which is typically in CalFire area, so they like to have a large bucket attached to a long line, our line gear, two chainsaws and kits, and hand tools loaded up. We load for this as we won't get any fires in the park for a while (with the snow and rain and all). The other likely scenario is a search and rescue in the park, which we load up as needed when the call comes in.

In the meantime, the pilot and manager work out the load calculations, which is how much the helicopter can lift given the elevation and temperature. Somebody then works up the manifest, which is a list of all the passengers and gear on the helicopter. We then do the typical morning briefing, going over the local weather in the park as well as down in the lower, hotter elevations. From there, we will either practice drills loading and unloading the helicopter, setting up the bucket or short haul gear, and at some point do our PT - which alternates between cardio (running or hiking up a steep nasty hill) or the dreaded deck of cards - each suite is a different ab or arm workout... at this point, it's pretty brutal with a string of push ups or a string of ab exercises!!

Sure, there can be a bit of down time, but we have to be immediately available to fly so we can't venture too far. Always miscellaneous stuff to do around the base...

We have gotten a few false alarms, almost getting called up for a fire down in the low elevations... we hurry up and gear up and get in the helicopter... and then dispatch cancels everybody before we are even ordered. However, we have already gotten to help with two SARs. One mission was actually reconnaissance for a rock slide on Half Dome, to make sure nobody was injured. I didn't get to fly that one; they only took a couple folks and picked up the geologist and some other people to check it out. My first helicopter flight was just last week, on a SAR for a climber injured on a climb called "Snake Dike" on Half Dome. He fell 100 feet but got away pretty lucky with just a broken ankle. It was too far and too nasty of a hike for a foot rescue, so they called up the helicopter... We loaded up the short haul and SAR gear, and 5 of us flew down to Awahnee Valley to unload gear and set up a ranger to do the short haul rescue. First, we did a recon flight around Half Dome - AMAZING!! The waterfalls are raging right now, and we flew right at the top of the rim of the canyon... then we flew up real close to Half Dome, hovering and opening the doors to find the injured climber... it was an incredible view!! Anyway, for the actual rescue, only 2 people were in the helicopter while the ranger did the short haul, they attached the climber to the short haul as well, so we were waiting in the valley to catch the patient when they came in. It took less than 2 hours and had a happy ending. :)  And I got my first helicopter ride!!

Anyway hopefully that sheds some light on what work has been like so far. At this rate, I am sure I will have more stories to share soon!

Overdue update

From Return to CA Road Trip - Badlands Nat Park, Park City, Estes Park...

It almost seems ludicrous to try and cover everything that has gone on over the last 3-4 months, but it's a lazy Sunday so I'll give it a shot.

I spent part of my winter at the Advanced Wildland Firefighting Academy, and yaaaaay! I graduated! The Advanced Academy was more fun than Basic - in part because I wasn't simultaneously trying to complete my Master's degree, but also because the atmosphere was more laid back and everybody knew each other already. I really enjoyed our Fireline Leadership class, taught my something called Mission Centered Solutions. I'm not supposed to disclose too many details about it, but the instructors were excellent at role-playing and we had multiple incident scenarios that we played out in the field, and in the classroom. Other classes included Basic Air Operations, Firing Methods, Intermediate Fire Behavior, and Fuels Management. We didn't have physical fitness testing this time, and very little time for paid PT. I had a great roommate so that made dorm life better. Of course nobody from my engine came down for graduation, which was fine by me. I'm not much of one for pomp and circumstance and ceremonies anyway, didn't even attend my bachelor's or master's graduations and I think neck ties (which I was forced to wear as part of my official uniform) are absolutely one of the stupidest human clothing invention. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over!

After graduation, I went back down to Tim's, packed some stuff, and the next morning Logan and I were on the road for Steamboat Springs, Colorado. My friend Matt was having a bachelor party and, being "one of the guys", I was invited to the ski-extravaganza. It was probably a 20-ish hour drive, and I found a great place to board Logan in Steamboat while I stayed at the condo. Unfortunately, after a successful drive all the way from California to Colorado, I ended up going off the shoulder right outside of Steamboat and broke my truck! At the time, I thought the damage was much worse than it ended up being - I thought I wrecked my shock along with some other steering components. Let me just say that I'm sorely disappointed in Geico and it was going to take DAYS for an adjuster just to LOOK at the damage. I was able to drive it to the condo and swapped out my spare tire and it drove much better. I was heading to Estes Park after Steamboat anyway, so I decided it was ok to drive and took it to a dealership in Fort Collins; bought a used rim and paid for an alignment, and all ended pretty well considering!


However, I didn't know it would be that cheap while I was in Steamboat, and I opted to save the $100/day for a ski pass to pay for my repairs. :(  It was still a good trip and it's always great to see Matt. It was a pretty mellow bachelor party, and involved delicious microbrews, watching the Gold Rush and Cops marathons on tv, the hot tub, Strawberry Hot Springs, walking around town, and just relaxing. After a few days there, I got Logan and continued on to Estes Park for almost a week of playing in the snow, seeing friends, and checking on my storage unit (Yes, I still have stuff stored in Colorado!). The weather gods were kind and dumped tons of powder while I was there! It was apparently TOO much for good skiing in the park (and I'm not very good anyway) so I took Logan snowshoeing up Lily Mountain. Any trip to Estes wouldn't be complete without a few trips to eat, drink and be merry at the Rock Inn of course :) . It was good to relax before my next push east to...

Michigan! Yep, almost 2 months of hanging with the family. It was good to be back! Despite the overcast skies and typical suburban culture that annoys the crap out of me (soccer moms in huge SUVs that run stop signs in subdivisions, for one). I got a cheap membership to the gym so I could get in shape for fire season, saw some of my wonderful lovely long-lost friends, and spent a lot of time with my mom! My friend Beth even had her baby while I was in Michigan, so I was able to see little Alex a couple times. And my family is full of hockey fans, so it was fun whooping and hollering with them while watching the Red Wings on TV. It was pretty low key and I'm disappointed that there were certain things I didn't get to do, but oh well. Hopefully they enjoyed my time back, even though I harassed them about exercising, eating healthy, etc etc! ;)


In the meantime, I had been slated to be on the Yosemite helitack crew... as such, I had found a sweet cabin in Groveland. No surprise, I get a message from my old district saying that I was slated to go to a different helicopter (Bald Mt)!! What?! I had been told since October that it was Yosemite, and then suddenly in March (while I'm trying to find a place to live in Groveland, thinking I am still going to Yosemite) they jerk me around. Not cool at all. The person giving me the news was like, "Oh they said they told you months ago!" Which was NOT the case. So then, it was a matter of finding out if I could be put back on the Yosemite ship. I really did not appreciate getting jerked around without ANY input or contacting me at all. I'm not the first person they have done that to, but it doesn't make it right. It took weeks to finally hear the decision as to where I was going - and thankfully it was in my favor, still in Yosemite. However, in the meantime the realty company needed an answer about the cabin, so I had to forfeit it... which meant I was totally high and dry with a place to live. Fortunately, they have barracks in Groveland and due to budget cuts, no other divisions hired any women this summer so they had room for me. I'm still upset though, because I had intended on getting a place so I could have my dog all summer, as well as have visitors - like Tim and Neota! And as of right now, I still haven't found a place to live that is affordable, like that cabin was.

I was told early April I was still on for Yosemite, but they didn't have a start date for me. I told them I was in Michigan and had to make the 2700 mile drive to get back, and I needed at least 2 weeks notice so I could pack and get back west. I was finally given a start date of May 9th and made my plans accordingly. Of course, they found a way to screw that up too... and ended up trying to give me 3 days notice, telling me on a Friday that I had to start on Monday, 2 weeks earlier!! You can imagine just how happy that made me. In the end I started a week later. And people wonder why I don't want to stay at this forest... So far, their communication, concern for their employees, and general attitude about jerking people around has left much to be desired! But at least I ended up on the crew I wanted this summer.

The drive back was fun, but getting the news that I had to start early definitely altered the pace of my planned drive. I had hoped to take my time, enjoy it, not stress out or keep to a schedule, but in the back of my mind I knew the sooner I got to California, the sooner I could unpack, repack, and get everything in order before work. I did manage to make a side trip to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, and saw tons of wildlife - antelope, coyote, deer, bighorn sheep, etc... I then stopped and saw my friend Gregg in Wyoming; he had just landed a new job in Montana and was moving in a few weeks. The timing was perfect, who knows when I will see him again after he moves! It was a short visit but was great to catch up! I had intended on a short trip back through Estes but it was out of the way, since my impromptu visit with Gregg changed my route. Next time, Estes, next time! And then there was Utah... and I FINALLY got to see my friend Steph in Park City! I wish I had a week to catch up and hang out with her, because her and I always have so much to talk about! Park City seems like a pretty awesome town and it was great to see the life she and her boyfriend are forging out in Utah! Went to the brewery, talked and talked and talked, walked the dog and talked more LOL... great hospitality and I was sad to leave early the next morning. I really can't let that much time go by again without seeing her!

And onward I drove, finally reaching Tim's place. I had only seen him like 2-3 times since I left for the fire academy in mid January, and let me reiterate that long distance SUCKS and I hate it! But I think we are getting good at it LOL. The young chickens are now full sized hens, the plots around the house are now sprouted with carrot tops, birds have nests in the rafters, and the green grass of the hills is now crispy and yellow. Guess it's springtime in the central valley! Tim had trimmed up this HUGE, old grape vine on the property - we call it the "vineyard", though it's just one very prolific plant, with two vines that are so far 20 feet long! The fig tree has green fruit, the pomegranate tree has red leathery flowers (the "petals" are the same tough, waxy red skin that the ripe fruit has, which I think is neat), and the cacti were blooming. I will hopefully take pictures of these things "on the farm" in the future. :)

From CA 2010 - Fall and Winter

Next journal I plan on talking about my new home of Groveland, and what it's like being a Forest Service employee on a National Park Service helitack crew - which, by the way, seems like it will be amazing! I also recently had an interview for a job in Alaska; will know if I was selected in a couple weeks, but if I am... do I give up this awesome summer??


 I'll throw some random pictures in here too, to break up my long-winded text. :)

 From CA 2010 - Fall and Winter

Random Observations of the Poultry Kind

What better way to spend an evening at the advanced fire academy, than to update my journal. Totally random stuff regarding my first year of chicken-keeping:

- Chickens get lonely if they are by themselves... but they will quickly learn to consider you and your dogs to be their family, and follow you everywhere.

- They will eat almost anything. They especially love berries and pomegranates. Ours even eat leftover pork. Because they are like dinosaurs - little velociraptors!

- Marsala, the Rhode Island Red, may have started laying at 5 months of age. We aren't certain, because by the time Tim realized she was laying eggs, there were already 16 eggs inside her nest box. I still don't know how he didn't notice all those freaking eggs, poor Momma hen!!

- They say that in the winter, egg production drops off. Well Marsala must not have gotten that memo. She started laying in October and laid an egg almost every single day ALL WINTER. She averages 6 out of 7 days or so. It's amazing.

- We have 3 nest boxes in the coop; Marsala will lay eggs randomly in either end nest box, but will not lay in the middle one for some silly reason.

- She does not lay an egg at the same time every day. Sometimes its like 9-10 am; other times it is in the afternoon.

- A freshly laid egg looks wet, but it dries magically within seconds.

- Marsala laid a completely shell-less egg! Apparently it just happens every once in a while. It had nothing to do with nutrition (she gets oyster shells for calcium, a good layer feed, etc) and she laid normal eggs before and after the freaky squishy egg. It was pretty weird looking, held together with that thin flexible membrane... I had to poke at it, because it was neat.

- The two younger chickens are finally "friends" with Marsala, and they all hang out together...but make no mistake, Marsala is still the Big Momma and nobody messes with her.

- The younger girls might start laying in the next couple weeks... wonder what color eggs our Easter Egger will lay! Could be green, or pinkish, or blue! 

- I'm a big fan of chickens.

- I still think they are like little dinosaurs.

Two sisters in the Sierras

Since I was on light duty all summer, I wasn't available to go out on fire assignments. Things just fell into place, I took some time off, and voila! One of my sisters came out for a visit earlier this month. It's very rare that I am able to have visitors in the summer - I work my butt off and try not to take much time off, since I don't work in the winter - but I had a pretty lame summer and needed a familiar face and some fun adventures to make up for months of not being able to hike or run.
Linda's visit was the prime time to do all the touristy things in the area that I had yet to do myself. And we only had five days to do everything. Needless to say, I kept her busy. :)

How to have fun in the central Sierra Nevada mountains, according to me:

On the first day, hike 5 miles around the South Grove in Big Trees State Park and show Linda the biggest trees she has ever seen in her life. We took a ridiculous amount of time taking ridiculous photos. Tree hugging was mandatory. Quote of the hike: " If I squat down, does it make the tree look bigger?" (The trunk is 30' around... I think it's gonna look big however you pose!)

Since we took so long acting like dorks in the sequoias, we got to downtown Murphy's for wine tasting a little late and only had half an hour. I took her to Lavender Ridge, where I am a member... so wine tasting was free. :) I wanted her to try the great wood-fired pizza at Firewood,which was delicious as always. The hike, pizza and wine were a good warm-up for our bigger adventure on day two...

Day two, Yosemite! 2 1/2 hour drive, plus some extra time for excessive photography. Our goal for the day was to hike the Mist Trail, and  - depending on how my ankle felt - make a smaller or bigger loop with the John Muir Trail. It was a steady uphill hike, but I was disappointed to find the first couple miles of our hike were PAVED. I guess when a park has millions of visitors a year, they must build trails to take the abuse... but still, I was very happy when the pavement began deteriorating and we were left with a more natural, rock-strewn trail. There were a lot of people on the trail despite the fact it was a Thursday, but I expected the crowds on this popular hike. Vernal Falls was the first stop, and I knew water levels were low so it wouldn't be at its full force, but looking at photos of the falls in the spring, it's pretty amazing how different it can be between the seasons. Since the falls weren't raging, we didn't get the "mist" that this trail is known for, but it was still beautiful. Instead of turning around right at the top of the falls, we continued uphill and eventually made it to the footbridge. From here, Nevada Falls were barely visible because obviously, these falls weren't raging either. But it was still a nice view of Liberty Cap and the falls next to it, and at that point I really wished I had fancy photo lenses so I could get the entire view in one photo!

And of course, we got thunderstormed on. Even though I hadn't seen a drop of rain since MAY, it just so happens to rain when we go on our hike. Linda and I have a history of being chased off mountains by lightning and thunder so we had to laugh a little about it. As a result, we did a shorter loop than I had hoped, and went down the John Muir Trail near the footbridge instead of continuing over the top of Nevada Falls. And FYI, the Muir trail is open to horses and, although it had less stone steps than the Mist trail, it was not as nice of a hike in that section. It was probably around 4 miles round trip. On our way home, her boss had urged us to find a place called Rainbow Falls off hwy 120 and jump off. It was cooling down and getting dark, but we found the pull off and checked it out. Ok, let's jump! It's only like 25 feet down! So Linda goes up to the top of this waterfall first. She goes to jump and then freaks out. I'm recording it all on my camera and egging her on, it was SO FUNNY to watch her freak out! Ok, let me show this pup how it's done! So I go up there. I was ready to jump, but she couldn't get my camera to record. I tried to talk her through it, and by the time she got it working, I lost my nerve! I couldn't do it! The water was so cold, I was convincing myself that if I jumped in my body would freeze LOL! We both chickened out, and we are still angry with ourselves. Next time, we will jump!!

That was an all day endeavor, so we played it low key on Friday. I made Trader Joe's beer bread (yum!) and we stayed lazy until the afternoon. I had never been in a "real" cave - you know, the kind with stalactites and stalagmites and is deep underground and stuff. The caves I have been in at Pinnacles National Monument are "talus" caves, formed by big jumbles of huge boulder... no stalac- or stalag- things, but lots of bats! The Motherlode has an abundance of caves to choose from! It sounded like the Moaning Cavern in Vallecito would be a great choice for the cheapest tour offered - ~$15 for a 50 minute walking tour. Other alternatives included much more awesome - but much more expensive - options to rappel into caves, crawl around with a headlamp and hard hat, swim through underground pools, etc... but we didn't have the $75-150 for those tours (depending on which cave you choose). ;)  I was worried it would be lame, since it was "family friendly" and so cheap. We were not disappointed! They offer the walking tour every hour without reservations; so it was just Linda and I, and our tour guide. The natural entrance to the cave is a small gaping hole in the earth, plummeting straight down into the main chamber (which bottoms out at 165 ft, our final destination). The visitor center was built around it, with a small, humidor-type room housing this hole. A few ropes and climbing gear showed us this is where the rappel tour would enter - it was the original way miners explored the cave for gold (none was found). A display next to the opening was full of very old human remains, artifacts, "neat old dead stuff". Apparently as long as 13,000, clumsy unfortunate souls had been falling into the hole and never coming out again; their bones piled up below!


Then begins our decent down 234 steps, to the "improved" entrance that was built after the miners figured out they wouldn't get rich from the fake gold and a vertical hole in the ground. Wooden steps through a narrow tunnel lead down to a metal spiral staircase and you go around and around and around and around! It follows down alongside the "Chocolate Waterfall", a seep of iron-rich water that has formed a blob of weird formations all the way down to the bottom. There's a couple huge stalactites and some big round white thing called the "igloo". It was so hard to get a feel for how huge everything was until a rappeller came down from above, to our platform at 165 feet below the ground. The "adventure" tour would continue down some smaller tunnels even further down; the deepest part of the cave is off limits though (415 feet below?) because apparently the carbon dioxide sinks to the bottom and, over time, has filled up the bottom depths! Weird huh?

The coolest crazy part was when they turn off all the lights in the cave. The "darkest dark" you will ever see. Yikes.

That was fun! We still had time after the cave tour to go wine tasting and swimming! Back to Murphys, this time to Milliaire and Twisted Oak. Yay free wine! Then I took her to Candy Rock, the awesome local swimming hole on the Stanislaus River. And we had an absolute blast! Even had brought Logan (he waited in the truck during the cave tour) and outfitted him in his hiking harness so I could have a good handle to help him over the boulder and onto the slippery rocks in the water. He did much better, but we did squeeze/push/pull/lift him into some surely uncomfortable situations and I felt kindof bad! We played in the waterslide and then did a "double rainbow guy" freak-out when a double rainbow appeared over us! OMG IT'S A DOUBLE RAINBOW! Linda made a spoof video, now if she'd only upload the darned thing!

The next day (Saturday), I had trouble planning. What I really really wanted to do was take a long whale-watching trip out of San Francisco to the Farallon Islands. However, to make the 8 am departure, we would have to leave around 4 am. Yuck. Plus, I wasn't sure if I had somebody to let the dog out. By the time I had gotten confirmation, the tour was sold out! The other companies out there are even more expensive ($125 vs $75) and we didn't want to spend that much. Instead we opted to whale watch out of Monterey, through the same company Tim and I had used back in March. This way, we could bring Logan!

It was a long drive, but we got there early enough to take a detour through the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is always awesome. Linda got to see sea otters, and we took even more silly pictures. Once again, the crew and other passengers on the whale watching boat treated Logan like he was a celebrity. :)  We decided to stand in the back of the boat with the dog...this is where people go when they are getting sea sick. People were puking left and right! I don't know what it was, but I think at least 10 people got sick and we were trying to avoid being in the crossfire! But we finally made it out to the whales, and WOW - there were humpbacks EVERYWHERE! We were surrounded by them! We even had a few of them come within 30 feet of the boat, and then one rolled over, it's huge flippers coming out of the water. While everybody was distracted, Linda and I were looking off into the distance and then suddenly a huge whale breached completely out of the water! I am glad she saw it to, or I don't think anybody would believe me! It was incredible. Logan did not get as sea sick as last time, and a deckhand was taking his photo for being such a good sailor. :)

All that excitement, and we were pretty hungry. Fortunately, many restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf are dog friendly! Once again, Logan was a welcome guest and received a dish of water and a bowl of Old Mother Hubbard dog treats when we decided to eat at Isabella's. The food was good but the bottled beer was pricey. Then was the long drive back to my house; Linda's last night here! Made it back late at night and woke up relatively early to take her to the airport.

We never did make it to San Fran, or even the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival that I really really wanted to see... BUT, I don't think it would have fit into our already-crammed week of adventure, and we would have probably fallen asleep after all the driving. ;)

And that is one way to entertain a guest in California. I will add photos to this later, but for now it is time to go to bed!