Fratelli Weekend

This weekend we had a very special guest: Jacob's brother Lucas on his first visit to Oregon! First plane trip, too! (The Ashland preschoolers found that incomprehensible, such seasoned travelers are they.)

It was an action-packed weekend with numerous outings in the moderately nice weather. Saturday we went hiking in Castle Crags, California:

You may recognize this incredible geologic anomaly from Jacob and Jeff's climbing trip there in the fall. This time, though, it was covered in snow, which made for some challenging hiking. At the starting altitude there were only a few inches, but by the time we reached the stunning views, we were literally wading through five feet of snow, without a trail, on the edge of a cliff. We continued in this vein long after common sense would have advised otherwise, but we made it back in one piece, with no encounters with the resident mountain lions.

Sunday we roamed further from home, to the Jedediah Redwood Forest and the northern California coast. The redwoods were as big as ever.We were as tiny as ewoks. It seems like the kind of place where humans shouldn't venture. Two thousand years of spirit and magic in those trees.

A few miles further and we landed at the coast, a new stretch of beach for us to explore. The site is called Lost Rocks, on the Yurok tribal reservation near Klamath, California. We parked on a dirt road high above the beach and clambored down a steep, slippery cliff. We reached the beach just as a storm rolled in over the waters. The waves pounded on the boulders with a shattering boom, slamming water fifty feet in the air. It swept in, and doused us (we hid under some boulders), and passed inland, producing one of the most perfect rainbows we've ever witnessed.

Lucas left early Wednesday morning, and we hope he enjoyed his spring break as much as we did. There are 23 more photos in the Winter 09 album listed on the right.

In other news, Rachel has a new job! It's a full-time web publishing job in downtown Ashland. She'll mainly be writing and formatting menus for a restaurant resource website (if you're interested, it's www.musthavemenus.com). It will be a bummer to leave the preschool before year's end, but it's definitely an answer to prayer and hopefully an exciting new opportunity for us. At least it will be nice to be able to pay our bills on time.