August 19th 2007

Dinner had a very special end to it this evening. I bought Mom some Strawberry's at a farm in Castroville and she raved about them so I decided to try to make a Strawberry cheesecake. Well this thing is special. Not only does it look beautiful but the taste was something Dorothy and I have been looking for since leaving New Jersey. Its more cake than creamy. Thats the way they make them on the east coast. I did modify the recipe a bit and will have to make some notes about how it got done.

Renate and I got out for a walk along the beach in PG on Saturday. That was fun but I think Libby and Revel are forming a really close thing. They are incredible buds.

Nathan Charles English

It's a BOY!
He was born Friday 8/10/2007
He really is beautiful! He was 9lbs 15oz and 20 Inches long.

Nature shots of Huntington 2007.

Nature shots from the 2007 Huntington lake trip

Mushrooms found at the base of a tree on the trail to Mary's Meadow.

A Coyote passes through the meadow.

This was some fun with the Macro feature of the new camera.The lake area is home to many Peregrine FalconsThis is Mary's Meadow on the trail to Nellie Lake.

A few good Revel pictures since he is so photogenic in the wilderness.

Huntington Lake August 2007

Huntington Lake 2007

We had an interesting trip this year. In addition to bringing Revel, we also added Gavin and Amber to the mix of people. Due to some late planning (seems like we have been behind on everything these last few months) we spread out across two cabins. That worked out very well. In my slightly biased opinion Revel was very good (a tired dog is a happy dog, but also a well behaved dog). Gavin was really no trouble we made some reasonable adjustments and the kids were able to do a wonderful job caring for him.

We were unfortunately only there for three full days. Revel and I were able to spend almost every morning from 7-10am on the various trails in the wilderness that surrounds the lake. When I returned the kids would usually be just getting going and Mom would have finished the paper and relaxing cup of coffee on the sun of the deck. Edward would have had his shower and time to work his calendars and books. We would then set off on the day's group activity.

On our first day we introduced Amber & Gavin to Indian Pools. While we did not get Gavin to the pools in the correct manner choosing to take the stroller instead of caring him in a backpack. It was more difficult than we had planned on but everyone had a very good time.

On the second day we went horseback riding. Teddy was very nice to take care of Gavin and keep and eye on Revel and Edward while Amber, Dorothy and I went for a two hour ride. We did the mountain ride which was very cool for the first 80-90 minutes of the ride. We rode up the hill and had great views of the lake. Then it was time to go back, that is when I learned that I can ride a horse anywhere as long as I like on level or going up hill but the downhill is just bad news.

On the last day we rented the biggest pontoon boat they had and three of Teddy's friends (Heather, John and Anny who drove up the night before) joined us for an afternoon on the lake. Despite the wonderful sunshine there was a very cold wind and once we were wet it got really cold. You can see in the one picture that proximity of the dog to Edward was not a good combination. It was not the usual relaxing experience that it has been in the past. We did do some swimming and had a very nice lunch of snack food and pre-made sandwiches (since the restaurants at Huntington are non-existent on Mondays these days).

The late afternoons and early evenings were taken up with relaxing at the cabin reading and resting up from the days activities. Dorothy and I both realized that since we walk a lot more at home, the walk to Lakeshore resort where the best restaurant/bar was a very easy stroll. Revel was of course the star attraction when we would talk him and leave him outside to wait while we had breakfast. I cannot believe we were able to do that, we have come so far with his training in the past year. Several people complimented me on his behavior. I had to check once or twice and make sure they were talking about my dog.

I think overall everyone had a very good time, there were challenging moments and some things we didn’t do right but overall I think everyone had a good trip.

August 1, 2007

Gavin Photo Shot



Today we had some fun with Gavin and took lots of pictures here are a few of the best and there are more on the PICASA web album site. Click on the link to the right to get there. Look in the August 2007 album.





Note the T-Shirt says "Major Trouble, Cayucus, CA" from out trip south. The girls think the real fashion statement is the shoes.