Hello, family and friends! Here are my pictures from the reunion. I had a great time... and then I vacationed up the coast for another week, so my vacation pics are here too. Click on the pictures to see them larger.

Huge thanks to Susan and Karen for making the reunion happen!!!

The Officially-Scheduled Waterfall Hike from the Lodge took place on Saturday morning. All the kids went!

Ben was King of the Mountain... er, stump.

Melissa crawled through the tunnel... and so did Riley, But Leah barely had to duck!

Then there was this cool Nature-Made chair that Laura and Melissa found. Laura got there first, but Melissa got the last laugh.

(Some of the bigger kids went, too.)

Ah! So this is why we walked up here!

This reflection was still as can be, right near the waterfall.

Some people needed more than just one hike. So on Sunday, we took what was to be a "strenuous 5-mile hike." It turned out to be more of a non-strenuous 5-minute hike, but a good time was had by all.

It wasn't sunny, but that meant that it was cool. And, we got nice views like this.

I think I saw a place like this in MYST, didn't I?

The waterfall comes right out of the rock onto the beach.

Laura's keen eyes picked up this bird hopping around right in front of us.

Those are steps down there, and a concrete path. They're not accessible anymore. This is the California coast, after all.

Here's the bunch. Charlie has a similar picture, but his has me in it instead of him.

Saturday's lunch at Nepenthe (it's a way cool place) was courtesy of Helen and Malcolm. Thanks again!

When we got there, it was pretty cloudy.

But then the fog started to burn off.

Oh, did I mention it was about lunch, and people? We met some cousins we didn't know we had! Corey, David and Rachel joined Karen, Laura and Paul next to the phoenix statue.

Saturday Evening Pre-Dinner Festivities

Before dinner on Saturday night, some socializing occurred,

and a bit of confusion;

and, one or more group photos were taken. Charlie had the official tripod, so he was in charge.

Puzzle-thon 2001

After dinner, the jigsaw puzzles were broken out, broken up, and put back together (in retrospect it sounds kind of futile, doesn't it?). Here's proof that the Kitchen Team (eventually) finished our puzzle. (p.s. Linda, I still have this one. Do you want it?)

After (reunioning? reuning? reunionizing? ahem.) the reunion, and after an evening in Santa Cruz of indescribably wonderful salmon, plus a visit with Alice, Brad, Riley, Linda, Zim, Chris, and Dave, I took off for Point Reyes National Seashore. The last time I was there, 10 years or so ago, it was beautiful but cloudy, foggy, cold and windy. This time, I brought the Big Sur Reunion Weather (Susan, how you managed to get THAT delivered, I'll never know!) with me.

All of these pictures were taken on the 10-mile roundtrip hike from the bed'n'breakfast where I stayed (in Olema) to the Bear Valley Visitors' Center and thence to Arch Rock.

The forest was full of foresty dappled light. But the path is wide and well-trodden.

This spot looked perfect for faeries to hide in.

The trail goes through several kinds of terrain, including passing this marsh.

And then there's this field. This photo was taken at eye-level!

The sign says go forward!

This guy had my number. He knew I had trail mix!

This is the view from on top of Arch Rock.

This is another part of it.

Here's another beggar. He hopped right in there and took the nuts.

There's the trail heading back. The canyon is just to the right.

You have to go down there to find out why it's called Arch Rock. This is what it looks like from down there.

I'd have had to walk through some water to get to the beach. So I didn't.

Here's the reason for the name!