News From A Long Summer

Hi everyone.  Sorry that it has been so long since I've added to the blog.  It's been a really good and really bad summer all rolled into one.  Let's focus on the good.  The kids and I had a wonderful time traveling everywhere this summer.  I'll always be grateful that I got to spend so much time with them this year, especially Mr. Rex.  

In May, we spent 10 spectacular days in Canada on the Queen Charlotte Islands with my Mom.  The kids are still asking to go back.  Apparently, a life without TV can be fun.  The islands seemed lush to our California eyes and it was fun to spend our days hiking around the woods and the beaches.  We only saw one bear, but we heard that many more showed up later in the summer.  We did see lots of eagles and deer and banana slugs.  I have tons of gorgeous pictures to upload to a slideshow.  It's on my to-do list.  Here's a small taste.  This picture is taken at an abandoned ranch by the sea a short hike from my Mom's house.  It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been the world over.  

After Canada, we were home for just a short while and then we headed to the Northern Sierra Nevada (Quincy, CA) to stay at UC Forestry Camp for a week.  My sister-in-law Anna takes her students up there for a week annually and she invited us to go along and share her cabin.  We were quite a family group.  It was me, the kids, Anna, her son Robbie, her brother Mike and his girlfriend Megan.  Eons ago, when I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, I did my forest ecology research up there and lived at the Forestry Camp.  I had forgotten how beautiful the landscape is up there.  I'm  not a big fan of the drier Southern Sierra Nevada - too hot and dusty (too much poison oak), but love the Northern part.  It's the area where the Sierra Nevada gives way to the Cascade volcanics.  It's wetter and cooler.  We had a great time hiking around and hanging out at the camp.  One highlight of the trip was the trip to Butterfly Bog to see rare carnivorous California pitcher plants.  They were huge.  However, the students kept having to pull little Rex out of the mud.  It was also kind of sad for me, because my field assistant when I lived there was Dan Sakai, the police officer who was shot last spring in Oakland.  He was a wonderful person who lived to help people.  This picture was taken in the meadow near forestry camp where the kids liked to run around. 

Rex got a kitten for his birthday, so we are now back up to two cats.  He and Sylvie love her.  Her name is Nellie and she is super rambunctious.  She had one bumpy moment a couple weeks ago when she peed in Jeff's briefcase (twice), but that turned out to be a medical issue so it's all resolved.  We love her lynx-like ears.  This is Nellie lounging on Sylvie's doll furniture.
Kids and I then spent late July to mid-August in Rhode Island.  We lounged on the beach, picked blueberries, went sailing in Grandpa John's sailboat and took the ferry to Block Island.  It was a very special time to reconnect with our East Coast Garvey Family (my Dad and his kids).  We also squeezed in a road trip to a family reunion planned by Jeff's mom Cynde to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on that side of the family.  The reunion was in Geneva, NY and most of us stayed at the campground where Cynde spends her summers.  The kids loved the cookouts and time with family.  Sylvie also got to sleep in a tent for two nights with her older Ansley/Fordham cousins.  The reunion itself was right on the lake at a fabulous park.  Cynde really planned a fantastic event - super fun.  I also have some great photos to organize from this trip.  This photo is Sylvie and Rex on the beach in Rhode Island.  We had just eaten at a restaurant on the beach.