Crags & Costumes

Boy, do we have pictures for you. We've got so many, in fact, that we'll save some for next week. Hopefully that makes up for skipping last week's posting.

Last weekend Rachel stayed home to babysit one of her students while Jake, Jeff, and their friend Justin cruised down to Northern California to surmount the gleaming white granite peaks of Castle Crags. The climbing area is right next to massive Mt. Shasta, as you'll see.

They did a climb called Cosmic Wall, a 5.6 (relatively easy) climb but six pitches tall (about 800 feet). That plus the two-hour hike to the cliffs and then back in the dark pretty much wore them out. They were sore and whining for days afterward.

Several more photos from their trip are located in the Further Afield album.

And now, for the closer-to-breaking news: Halloween! We grossly underestimated Ashland's enthusiasm for this pagan holiday. The Latin American influence on the West Coast seems to boost this holiday's popularity, and young and old turn out for the festivities. Apparently Halloweens past tended to involve a good deal of hallucinogenics and ensuing shenanigans, but they've stepped up the police presence to keep all orderly and safe. Still, the town shut down at 3 p.m. for a parade. A seriously huge parade. The best part was that it was completely unstructured. Some people played drums and tambourines, and other costumed creatures followed them down the road. I think the entire population of Ashland turned up.

Our costumes: Peter Pan's Shadow, a Skydiver, and Cowgirl (a.k.a., Ashley Stanoch circa Halloween, 2005). We spent most of the day making food and eating food. The best kind of holiday. More photos in a brand new album, Holla-Days. There's even a video of the parade in action!

Hope you had the best kind of Halloween!