is a new place to see. Since I am quite certain you REALLY want to come along when we drive from location to location – I have whittled down the 150+ pictures I took today to the following -
We had a smooth departure from underneath the big trees at Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds. From there we worked our way over to Rte 101, which we plan on following (more or less) most of the way to our next destination – Warm Beach Conference Center in Stanwood, WA.
Although we started the trip with field after field of vineyards-

they soon started to melt into the mountains -

We weren’t too far into our day when Gary remembered that he wanted to check the tire temperature (one of the rear tires had been a little low when we (he) did our pre-trip check). So while he was doing his thing -
(yikes!)
I was busy practicing with the macro setting on my camera -

ooo – that one needs some work…..

Ok, that’s better! Like I said – I’m practicing!
Back to the trip -
The 101 would go from 4 lane freeway

to two lanes with an occasional climbing lane (really helpful when you’re a slow climber like we are).

to driving through quaint (touristy) towns.

Right after we saw a sign that said – ELK CROSSING – we came upon this field -

See those little dots before you come to the mountain? That’s a herd of ELK!

(pardon the fuzzy zoom – remember, I am trying to do this from a moving vehicle!). Isn’t it nice that those sweet elk stay near that sign? No one looked like they were going to cross the road anytime soon, though.
We climbed up some big mountains and went down some biggggggg hills, went from two lanes to four lanes and back again….


(Oh, we decided NOT to do the “Drive Thru Tree Road”. When we’re driving the house we don’t do much drive-thru anything!)

This is the South Fork of the Eel River, which we followed off and on for the better part of the afternoon. Gary actually pulled over so I could get out and take this shot. Isn’t he a good guy?

There were two stretches of 101 that actually drove through the redwood forests – twisty turny roads with giant trees on both sides.

Those stretches of road were very impressive, so when we saw signs for “The Avenue of the Giants” we decided to take a little side trip. The road runs almost parallel to the 101, so it wasn’t actually out of our way, just a lot slower (and more scenic!). And before we knew it we were nestled in for the night beneath some massive trees in one of the campgrounds along the route-

We didn’t quite make it as far as we were thinking we would, but then again we don’t really have any set agenda, so it’s all good. Gary’s already in the back with his book, and I’m about to join him.

It was a beautiful day for a drive – thanks for coming along!

So – we had one last chance to see some California sights last weekend before we hit the road again on Friday.(Since we have a three day weekend we try to take one day to do some sightseeing, one day to do chores around the house, and then it’s Sunday – worship and quiet. These are good rules!). When you are this close to the Pacific Coast it’s hard not to point your car in that direction. So point we did! But we went a lovely back road (i.e. windy and narrow but very scenic) to get there. Our plan was to drive to Fort Ross (north of us) and then come down the coast on “the One” to Bodega Bay where once again we were hoping to score some great seafood. It was a great mix of a day –
a little mountainside,

a little history,

(Fort Ross was a Russian settlement founded in 1812 to supply outposts in Alaska. It was a very interesting park, but I kept wondering if those folks couldn’t have found something a little closer to Alaska! )
a little California coastline,

great views and vistas,


and yes, some great seafood.
(Sorry, no pictures of the excellent fish and chips, but if you’d like to see additional pictures of our “Fort Ross and Other Sights” day -
check ‘em out HERE!

But of course, we don’t ONLY play while we are on a Sower project. This month they kept us pretty busy. Rosie and I started out working in the office (doing some fun computer work) and ended up back in the office doing a mailing. But the middle week we were on window duty. We washed all of the dining hall windows and screens – inside and out. Lots and lots of windows. Lots and lots of screens. And pretty chilly morning temperatures. We were delighted when they said they had work in the (nice warm, near the coffee) office for us yesterday!
The guys had lots of variety too. Everything from drywalling and painting a room to making 40 outdoor lighting fixtures (out of cedar) to pressure washing and staining the fence around the pool.

We are parked under a canopy of redwoods

and the grounds of the conference center are just beautiful.

We usually take a group shot at each project, but somehow we never got around to it this time. So the only picture I have of all four of us together (although we spent A LOT of time together) is this one of 4 very chilly and windswept tourists.

Brrrrrrrrrr.
What a good month it has been!

Ok – it’s time to move on. Enough of this missing month stuff! So real quick, before I call it a night, here are some very brief summaries of a couple of excursions that happened while I was blog-less.
The Drive to Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds.
Probably the best part of the drive was being able to connect with friends along the way. Paul and Susan, friends from our stay at Teen Challenge last winter, live just over the mountain from Mission Springs in San Jose, but try as we might we just hadn’t been able to connect with them during our time there. Since San Jose was “on our way” to our next project, we finally made it work. And we’re so glad we did! And then as we approaced Sacramento, we met up with another high school friend and enjoyed a great evening together before she headed home and we snuggled into our spot at the Flying J. Our drive took us right through Napa and some beautiful countryside. And of course I was busy snapping pictures of the journey. Here is one of my favorites – I guess this is called Field Art?

(I wasn’t too crazy about the “gusty winds” warning, but we made it with no trouble.)
Of course, if you’d like to see more of my windshield shots – there’s a bunch of them HERE.

Point Reyes National Seashore

I had a hard time picking just one photo from my set from that day. The area was very diverse – beaches, cliffs, elephant seals,a lighthouse, cows, pastureland, elk,….it was quite a full day!
Since this is the condensed version of the outing, all I can say is check out the pictures HERE . I really think they can convey the day better than I can.
Wine Country
Last Friday we headed inland to explore Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley. It was a fun day – we stopped at a couple of wineries, toured the Korbel Champagne winery, and generally enjoyed the day. The vines are quite bare – probably not the prettiest time of year to be sightseeing, but the countryside was lovely nonetheless.

Not so many pictures this day, but a day spent with friends is always a good day. Here’s the rest of the batch if you’d like a glimpse into the day!

This weekend we took a spectacular drive to…..ooh, right, I wasn’t going to add anymore tonight.
Off to bed!

Before I get started on telling you about THIS month, I thought I’d do a quick review of things that happened in the last month (or so!).
1. The sun did eventually shine at Mission Springs. Not often, and not for very long, but it did come out. Here’s proof -

Look – see? Blue sky!
2. I missed being able to wish one of my beautiful daughters-in-law a Happy Birthday on February 20th. So here is a belated birthday shout-out to Tammy – what a blessing you are to my son, your daughters and to our family!
3. I missed being able to wish our son Josiah and his beautiful wife Abigail a happy second anniversary! Two years – my goodness, that has gone fast! Abigail, we are so delighted to have you in our family! Josiah – you done good!

Congrats – and may this be only the beginning of many wonderful years to come!
4. Dear precious Maddie has a broken arm! It’s one of the green-stick breaks down near her wrist, and she’ll be sporting a lovely purple cast for the next 4-6 weeks. Guess those big sisters better not give her any grief now that she’s armed!

So, I still have to put together some road pictures from our drive to Alliance Redwoods and I’m already behind on two weekends of sightseeing in this area! Bear with me – I’ll get it caught up eventually.

Stay tuned for Part 3!

My trusty computer, with it’s new motherboard, has returned home. And with it came the post that I had prepared to upload just before the Big Crash. So while I’m busy uploading all the pictures I’ve taken over the last month, updating my massive spreadsheet (where we document all $$ spent), catching up on emails that I can now actually download into my computer, and doing a FULL BACK-UP, I will leave you with this –
Pretend it’s February 22nd…..
Feb 22, 2009
Sorry it’s been so long!!!!! (little did I know!)

The rain has been relentless! We did enjoy about 2 ½ days of no rain this week, but as I type this it is raining again. But still, it has been a good week. Gary is finally back to his old self and has been busy working on some dining hall refurbishing and I’ve been hanging out in the office stuffing envelopes. It’s been fun to get to know the staff here and working in the office has helped me get the names straight!
But enough about work. Friday was one of those non-rain days, so we took the opportunity to check out the Coast Highway heading north. Our first stop was Ano Nuevo State Reserve – home to thousands of elephant seals. This is the breeding season, and although all of the birthing was over, the beaches were still full of huge bulls, mamas, pups and weaners (those pups who have been weaned, but are still hanging around.) It was very interesting – but I confess there wasn’t a lot of activity going on while we were there. It kind of looked liked giant slugs littering the beach! Sorry!



Did you know that for the several MONTHS these mammals live on the beach they eat NOTHING? Nada, zilch. Except for the nursing pups, no food happens. No wonder all they do is lie around! But, unlike the seals, we were getting hungry! So we continued north to Princeton-by-the-Sea (just past Half Moon Bay – don’t you love the names of towns out here?). We had been told about a restaurant in Princeton (Barbara’s Fishtrap) that had the best fish and chips – “the fish and chips by which you will compare all others”. We checked it out and found them to excellent (though a little pricey. Even on the lunch menu they were $12.00. Yikes!).
Refueled and ready to go, we turned south to check out Pigeon Point Light Station. We got there just before the sunset, and even though we weren’t able to get a lighthouse tour, it was still a beautiful spot.



A little farther down the road we stopped to enjoy the final view of the sun before it sank below the horizon.

Full set of Lighthouse and Sunset shots here – Full set of Ano Nuevo Reserve and all the seals – Here
And if you just want to see the whole day – go here!

It was a lovely drive and a lovely day – we learned about elephant seals, we checked out award winning Fish and Chips, and we were blessed by God painting us a beautiful sunset.

…..The rest of the weekend was quiet and, um, rainy. Did I mention how many times we were told how much they need the rain?