June 2011

This was my second year doing a 50 mile ride in McHenry County's Udder Century bicycle event. Although I felt better prepared for the ride this year, it didn't matter. For the duration of the ride I only passed 2 people. Younger people, much older people, they all zipped past saying "Bike on your left... Good morning!"



It was still a great ride. The weather and snacks were all good, and I made a whole bunch of people feel good as they passed me all day long!







Yup, those 2 just passed me, too.


A couple of days later I was in Disneyworld where the Marching Hawks played on Main Street! I met up with cousin Karen, her family, and Aunt Harriet.





Kayla (my first cousin, once removed) and her friend Jackie


They made me a birthday dinner at the Treehouse!








Here's what the Treehouses looked like from the water taxi.


The choir performing at Downtown Disney.










Dominick, Aunt Harriet, and Dan at the United States, EPCOT. Check out Aunt Harriet's pins! She's collected them from all their Disney trips and cruises. The night that the band played, Aunt Harriet cajoled everyone standing next to us to holler "Danny" at the proper moment...and, of course, they did!


Karen popped home for quick visit! No visit is complete without a game of HORSE, or in our case, SHADOW.


Shadow watching the game of SHADOW.







Dan won.







A happy father on Father's Day!

West Coast Reception

Tom making his famous oatmeal cookies. He doctors the recipe by adding additional oatmeal and cinnamon.

I flew into Eureka/Arcata on a 30-seater plane. When we finally slipped below the clouds there was a glorious view of the coast.






A common sign along the coast!


Pat and Doug invited both sides of the family to dinner at the Eel River Brewery.






Claire and Uncle Joel


Suddenly the skies opened up and there was liquid sunshine!! Those sandwiches were still very tasty!!







Joel's dad (in next picture) has 8 siblings and they greatly resemble one another! We enjoyed meeting the family! You can see them huddling together to keep warm and out of the rain!



Trees and wine bottles are noticeably bigger in northern California!


















Along the Van Duzen River


Giant redwoods








Hiking in Grizzly Bear State Park before the festivities. There were no grizzly sightings.








They held their reception in a grove of redwoods.








A banana slug headed for the clover.







Grilled oysters and artichokes for appetizers!









They have different names for their games in northern CA. This one is called Balls a Danglin'!


The chef grilling the artichokes.









This game is Stump. The object is to toss the hammer for 1 revolution into the air and, with the same motion, catch it and hit someone else's nail into the stump. You eliminate people by hitting their nail into the stump. Karen was quite good at this game.


Joel's brother was also good at this game.







Young Lewis played unaided by small children or drinking cups.


Redwood graffiti








There was plenty of down home, foot stompin' bluegrass music.

Pals









Quite a dinner served under the pagoda tent in the redwood grove.


Rev. Dustin officially married Joel and Karen before they left for their wedding in Paraguay last year. He gave a summary of his ceremony in this picture.





Toasts


Grab your partner and do si do!









Redwood tree huggers mean business!







"I'll Fly Away."








The last is a video clip of the game Stump. It is 11 seconds long and worth a peek! You can hear Karen saying, "she's not exactly graceful!" Oh dear!

Spring Planting

Sunset - click on the picture for a closer look









Fred the barn cat







Soybean planting at home








Tom loading the planter with seed beans.

















The pond