Hull-abaloo

So at the beginning of the month I went back to Dallas, for my Mom's family reunion. My grandmother was turning 90 and the entire family and all the cousins were coming back. It was quite a lot of people, amazing that it all started with one pair.




For the flight over, I stopped through Phoenix, and from there I took some pictures from the air. We flew over El Paso and the Rio Grande, funny how insignificant international borders can look. Then there were the oil drill pads of west texas, followed by the wind turbines on the edge of the Edward's Plateau. It was new energy meeting old energy.




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The craziest thing about the flight was this massive dog that sat in the front row of the coach section. It was huge. It's owner bought the entire row and it laid on the floor. Occasionally it would stand up to look out the window and at the end of his flight he stood up on the seat and looked around.



The reunion was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen a lot of the cousins in ten years or more. My grandmother was the center of attention. My mom organized the matching shirts and slogan, "Hull-abaloo" which we later learned was some king of an Aggie word. That caused some fun arguments.



The cake with 90 candles was a fire hazard, but made for a great group picture.







I stole the group shots from my dad.

April is almost over, and I'm hoping for many more postings this summer!

Phoenix

I had a training in Phoenix last week called Data Management for Data Stewards. It was more interesting then the title, makes it out to be, but did include lots of acronyms and congressional acts, typical government work.

While I was there I got to meet up with a few old friends that used to be neighbors till 6th grade when they moved to Scottsdale. We met up for dinner and got to catch up.


And this is what we used to look like.



Oh what time will do...

Clair Tappaan

For Christmas, Jessica took me on a weekend to Clair Tappaan Lodge, near Lake Tahoe. It is a really cool place that is put on by the Sierra Club. It's kind of hostel living with little rooms and a group dining room and a huge common room with fireplace.



The first day Jessica and I hung out at the lodge. We went on a little cross country snowshoe hike for lunch and spent some time on the sled hill. It is the same place we were last month for the Leave No Trace course, but they had over four feet of snow since then. Hiking through the powder was difficult.




We came back and had a soak in the hot tub and relaxed in the room with a beer. The rooms are on the second floor so it's easy to keep beer cold in the snowpack on the roof.



Sunday we got up and went out to break in my cross country skis that Jessica got me for Christmas last year. We had an hour and a half lesson first which covered the basics, then we took off on our own. It was as exhausting as people say, but really pretty to explore. I was sore for the next three days.





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Presidents Day in Bend

Me and Jessica were planning on going camping for President's Day weekend, but we had a bad week of storms and the weekend didn't look any better. So we decided to run away to Bend, OR.



It just happened to be the weekend of their Winterfest. So we got to go see the Saturday night festivities which included a great fire dancing troupe, along with some New Orleans Jazz, and a snowboarding rail park.





The fire dancing was pretty impressive. There was a guy with a flaming bull whip who would wrap it around himself. Then there were two guys who had a flaming sword fight. Then two guys got on stilts and were twirling bo-staffs. There was also the typical poi pots and flaming hula hoops. Behind them was this organ looking thing that would shoot off series of patterns, some in time with the music. I was hoping it was really an organ. In the end they were all out dancing and doing their thing, it was a great show.




The entire event was outside and I couldn't believe that the band could play with the temperature in the teens. The first band was real young and called Trombone Shorty, I would highly recommend going if you see they are coming. At one point in the second show they had a sousaphone freeze up, so they had a "jazz odyssey" and the lead singer knew the exact quote from Spinal Tap.



Sunday we got up and went snow shoeing in the mountains behind Bend. Unlike Bend, there was plenty in the mountains. It was fun to be able to get out and enjoy the snow. We had a nice four mile hike out to a hut and back. From the hut we could see the city of Bend below, but I think I most enjoyed the trees.





Monday we shopped around town, found a bookstore had some lunch and then left for the six hour drive back. We drove through a heavy snow storm at night, and that was trippy. It made you feel dizzy and like you had vertigo.



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Lake Tahoe LNT

After getting back from Denver, Jessica was leading a Leave No Trace course in Tahoe. I met up with them and we did a little snowshoeing. We were staying at the Clair Tappaan Lodge run by the Sierra Club. It was a great location and they had amazing food. It's not luxurious, but the community is a lot of fun.



It was a fun group and the north facing slope still had soft deep powder.



The top had a great view of the valley below.



We had some fun on the way down.



Behind the lodge they have a pretty perfect sledding hill.







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