There is no getting around it. Vacation is over and the reality of bills and college and responsibility trump the sweet memories of ukeleles, mango fruit juice and the sound of pounding surf.
Some random thoughts regarding our vacation. Darla forgot to renew her license in the days leading up to David's graduation and our vacation and was pulled out of line at the security checkpoint in SF and subjected to intense screening by the TSA. Her carryons were hand searched and she was frisked before being allowed to move to our gate. The line in San Francisco was long and she actually moved through screening faster than we did. The odd thing is, she somehow had a pocket knife in one of the zippered compartments of her purse that was missed in the intense screening. Makes you feel really safe on domestic flights in the US, eh? We attended a small church in Hanalei last Sunday. The church is pastored by a former bad boy who turned his life over to Christ. He's a bit of a beach bum with longer hair, but a true perspective on the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ. The church had about 13 attenders and we brought the total up to 17 on Father's Day. They even gifted me with a bag of Reeses peanut butter cups when we left. It was good music and a real laid back, beach feeling which added to our vacation and was a blessing to us. I had to drive everywhere on the island as I wasn't about to pay the surcharge for an 18 year old driver and Darla was sans a valid driver's license. Darla did not face the added security on the flight out of Lihue in Kauai as they simply looked at her expired license and waived her through. Things are certainly more laid back on the islands. I'll put the Hawaii trip away in my box of memories. I will add a few pictures to the blog when I finally get around to it.
I am going into some serious withdrawal pangs from golf. I haven't played since June 11th and will finally tee it up again on Saturday in our Firecracker tournament prior to the 4th of July. We had to go to Sonora on Saturday to wish Darla's sister-in-law, Kristin, and her niece, Shae, a fond farewell as they are moving to the big island of Hawaii in Hilo to look for work. Darla's brother, Steve, will retire from his bread job in September and join his family in Hawaii. Why? Who knows, a middle age crisis or a true calling to live in Hawaii. I don't know. We will be able to visit them on our next trip to Hawaii, when we can take a week in our condo and then a week at their place on the big island. Kristin just graduated from college and will look for work in the social services field in Hawaii. I was invited to play golf by Mark Konrad on Saturday, but his tee time was 9 am and I had to leave about 1:30 for Sonora. I grudgingly passed on the opportunity.
Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, have sold the family farm in Linden and will move to a new home on one acre in Paradise, California (outside Chico) in August. They take possesion of the new home this coming weekend and will be up painting the house. We are excited for them as this will force Earl to finally retire. He retired from his construction job a few years ago, but the orchard continued to demand alot of his time and energy. This is a huge step in his life and Earl is going kicking and screaming. I think he knows in his heart that this is the right move, but a farmer is a farmer and most never really retire. The land is in their blood and it's one reason that they bought a home with some acreage. I can't see Earl happy in the middle of suburbia. Currently, his closest neighbor is about 5 acres away from his home and he likes it that way. Darla and I may venture up to the new homestead this weekend as they will be working on the home. We'll pack up some grilling meat of some kind on July 4th and head up to see them. Their new home is close to Lake Oroville and on the way up to Lake Almanor. Earl and Frances had thought about buying a home in Almanor, but when they realized that the region gets some serious snowfall in the winter decided to take a second look and settled on Paradise. The town has a reputation as a retirement area. I do have an agent in the area and will stop in and see them once they are moved in.
Both Darla and the boys have had a hard time with the move and will miss the farm. The boys have spent a great deal of time there the past year helping Earl with some construction and on the farm itself. Darla lived there during her high school years and Daniel lived there when he came home from the hospital as Darla and her ex were separated at the time. We hope to make it up to the farm for a barbecue and swim party before they move.
Work was actually pretty well handled between Anthony on the new business side and Connie on the renewals and endorsements. I have about 28 applications on my desk, which really isn't bad. The problem is that I have some reports to do from a management perspective which interrupts my ability to handle the load. Both Pete and Audra have started with us (our new underwriter and AR person). I will take Audra to lunch today to welcome her. She handles my set-ups of new business and I have to spend a little time getting her on the same page as me. Dinda taught her how to handle the desk and made my set ups a secondary priority. I have to impress upon her that income pays her salary and anything we can do to streamline the revenue flow, the better it is for her.
Gail will be taking off most of July between vacation and some elective surgery. I need to get Peter up to speed, but also need to get him into a licensing class and off to Scottsdale to meet our number one company and the underwriters there. Emery Jensen was our boss at Republic Western and runs the Western region for Scottsdale, so will take good care of Pete.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in awhile. She called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, but her message got cut off. "Jenn, call your Dad!" I want to talk to you about your trip home and just get caught up on what's going on in your life.
The boys are off to Philadelphia, Washington and New York. David called last night and said he was just finishing a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. His luggage didn't make it on the plane and they were still waiting for that to show up. It sounds like they are having a good time with their Dad, which is good.
It was great to be back in church yesterday. The new executive pastor gave the message and he talked about Fear being the "darkroom where negatives are developed". I liked that and found it so appropriate to life in general. I hope that you are all well and looking to the light of the Lord, who casts out the darkness and the darkrooms in each of our lives. Be well. Ciao.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
We are Back!!!
I'm adding to this on Thursday night as I know my Friday back to work will be Hell on wheels. Darla checked in today and had 42 messages. I had called in on Tuesday to get an address and to check in and my assistant wouldn't talk to me. She has been stressed and said she would wait until Friday to talk to me. Hopefully, she isn't quitting. In truth, I think she just didn't want to rain on my vacation and figured that anything that was on the burner could wait two days.
We had a great time and I'm a little sad that it's over, but we took some good memories from the trip and I know the boys had a blast. We stayed in San Francisco on Saturday night before our Sunday flight and my good friend, Mel Tobias, who owns the inspection company that I use at work, took the family out to dinner at the Elephant Bar in Millbrae. We ate to our heart's content and Mel and his wife, Trish, sent us off on our vacation in style. I called to get his address as we wanted to send a post card from the family to thank them for their generosity.
We were able to do many activities on our trip and they included, in no particular order, snorkeling, surfing, driving trip to Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii), a 4 hour ATV trip through a 22,000 acre private ranch )that was the setting for Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, 8 days-7 nights, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many other Hollywood films), body surfing, boogie boarding, suntanning, a luau and polynesian show, spending time at the swimming pools, shopping, eating, sleeping and more. It was a jam packed ten days and worth the cost of our trip. The ATV trip was the highlight for me. David got pulled over by the owner of the ATV tour and told that he was hot dogging. He was fishtailing a little on the practice trail. We all laughed at him as he was IN TROUBLE. David and I rode four wheelers, nice Kawasaki newer bikes. Daniel and Darla rode a Hippo, which is a four wheel, two passenger ATV. It had a little more horsepower than the ATVs and they had to ride at the end of the line. David and I rode directly behind the women as the tour operator put all of the gals at the front followed by the men. Dave and I would slow down and pretend that we were repositioning our helmets and face rags (it was dusty on the trail) and then we'd go full out down the hills and over the rocks. David got his bike up to 44 miles an hour on the straightaway and I pegged out at 39. My bike had a governor on it. At one point Dave and I were both going full throttle and the group had come to a stop around a bend. We both had to lock up our brakes to stop in time. The trip was excellent and they took us to the top of a hill overlooking another private ranch and private beach. In truth there are no private beaches in Hawaii, but this beach is only accessible by water as the land around it is all private. The boats have to dock thirty yards from shore and the surf is rough, so the only beach users are the family that owns the ranch. The beach was the scene of King Kamehameha's sole attack on Kauai. Kauai is the only island that Kamehameha never conquered, as his troops were overcome with disentary and overwhelmed by Kauai's forces on the beach. Kauai was eventually included under Kamehameha's rule, but only through diplomacy. Kamehameha controlled the shipping lanes and goods were not making it to Kauai and the ruler decided to switch rather than fight and was made the governor of Kauai by the King.
Darla and I did attend two time share presentations in order to reduce the cost of the ATV tour and the Luau. We do intend to buy another week on Kauai as we want two weeks every other year, but with David in school and Daniel getting close, that will have to wait. I feel very good about our condo in Princeville. It is the oldest and has the largest square footage of all of the condos. The two bedroom that we upgraded to from our one bedroom is huge and has two master bedrooms and a gigantic living area. All of the other condos in Princeville are multi-family units with six-plexes being the norm. The two bedrooms at the Makai Club are stand alone units. One of the nice features is that we have windows on all sides of the unit so that the trade winds can blow throuh and cool off the unit. Our condo was right next to the pool and was a handicap unit. The bathroom in our bedroom was huge and made so that a wheelchair could turn easily in the room. I'm glad that we had a week in the two bedroom unit, because the one bedroom that we moved to in Lihue was much smaller. The boys had to share a fold out sleeper and their clothes and towels were everywhere. I got an impression of what it would be like to live at their Dad's house and it wasn't pleasant. The second resort was part of the Radisson and had five pools including a sand bottom pool, three tennis courts, two restaurants, three bars and two jacuzzis. They had a hula group and band playing the first night that we checked in and I sat in the hot tub and watched the show. It was great.
We did give the boys surf lessons and they both did well. They were both upset that the surf was so small on Hanalei Beach where they took the lessons, but they were soon to find out how good it was there. They were both up and surfing within fifteen minutes. We rented a board later in the week along with a carrier for the top of the SUV. I rented a Jeep Laredo for the ten days and it was plenty big for our two six footers. We took them out to Shipwreck's Beach and they got to watch the local surfer champions take on some huge waves and they really enjoyed it. The next day we went to a beach on the west side of the island with six-foot waves and neither of them could even row the board out to the waves as they kept getting pushed back.
We took them to Duke's beach next to the Marriott and they were both able to ride some four-foot swells. David got his feet cut up on some coral and was fighting scabs for the rest of the trip. Duke's is a beach made famous by Hawaii's first Olympic champion and he runs a bar and restaurant there now. We ate dinner at Duke's one night. Darla and the boys enjoyed body surfing at Dukes as the waves are big and really pound you. I read my book and took in all of the surroundings.
I did enjoy snorkeling and we bought two sets of snorkel gear that we brought home with us. Kauai has some of Hawaii's best snorkel beaches, including Anini Beach, Tunnels Beach and Ke'e Beach. My favorite was Ke'e at the end of the raod north of Hanalei. The beach itself is beautiful white sand and the snorkeling is great with huge reefs and coral and an abundance of sea life. Darla and David were surprised by a seven foot sea turtle that happened by while they were snorkeling. Daniel and I were able to run out and get a close up view of the huge beast. It was definitely a sight to see.
Finally, we did enjoy a luau on Monday night with all you can eat barbecue, featuring a pig cooked in an Emu pit for fifteen hours. We dutifully tried Poi and decided that it would be handy if you ever needed to glue something in a hurry. It was flaverless, but the consistency of Elmer's glue and a dull shade of purple. Yuck. I had a few mai tais and a Hawaiian beer as the drinks were included. David and Daniel enjoyed the dancing with girls in grass skirts and coconut bikinis. It was a great show and again we truly enjoyed ourselves.
Darla and I saw more of the island on this trip than we did in 2003 and we stayed busy. The boys were worn out by Tuesday and sat in the room and watched tv Tuesday afternoon while Darla and I went to the pool. We used up three tanks of gas in ten days, so we were definitely moving.
You'll notice that GOLF was not on the agenda. I had hoped to play in one of the 9 hole tournaments, but we were busy and the focus this trip was more on the boys and doing things as a family. It was tough. Our condo in Princeville is adjacent to 45 holes of championship golf and I had to swallow hard not to play. What a grownup I am, eh?
The boys have returned home to their Dad's and will leave Saturday for a two week trip to Washington, DC, New York City and Philadelphia. Not my idea of a vacation, but to each his own.
I will write more later and I'll get a couple of pictures from the trip on the blog. It's good to be back, but I'm sure mountains of work await me tomorrow. I like the idea of going back to work on a Friday to get the lay of the land. I hope you all are well. I'm excited that Jennifer will be home next month and plan to take a day off and maybe Darla and I will take her back up to Reno to spend the night. Ciao.
We had a great time and I'm a little sad that it's over, but we took some good memories from the trip and I know the boys had a blast. We stayed in San Francisco on Saturday night before our Sunday flight and my good friend, Mel Tobias, who owns the inspection company that I use at work, took the family out to dinner at the Elephant Bar in Millbrae. We ate to our heart's content and Mel and his wife, Trish, sent us off on our vacation in style. I called to get his address as we wanted to send a post card from the family to thank them for their generosity.
We were able to do many activities on our trip and they included, in no particular order, snorkeling, surfing, driving trip to Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii), a 4 hour ATV trip through a 22,000 acre private ranch )that was the setting for Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, 8 days-7 nights, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many other Hollywood films), body surfing, boogie boarding, suntanning, a luau and polynesian show, spending time at the swimming pools, shopping, eating, sleeping and more. It was a jam packed ten days and worth the cost of our trip. The ATV trip was the highlight for me. David got pulled over by the owner of the ATV tour and told that he was hot dogging. He was fishtailing a little on the practice trail. We all laughed at him as he was IN TROUBLE. David and I rode four wheelers, nice Kawasaki newer bikes. Daniel and Darla rode a Hippo, which is a four wheel, two passenger ATV. It had a little more horsepower than the ATVs and they had to ride at the end of the line. David and I rode directly behind the women as the tour operator put all of the gals at the front followed by the men. Dave and I would slow down and pretend that we were repositioning our helmets and face rags (it was dusty on the trail) and then we'd go full out down the hills and over the rocks. David got his bike up to 44 miles an hour on the straightaway and I pegged out at 39. My bike had a governor on it. At one point Dave and I were both going full throttle and the group had come to a stop around a bend. We both had to lock up our brakes to stop in time. The trip was excellent and they took us to the top of a hill overlooking another private ranch and private beach. In truth there are no private beaches in Hawaii, but this beach is only accessible by water as the land around it is all private. The boats have to dock thirty yards from shore and the surf is rough, so the only beach users are the family that owns the ranch. The beach was the scene of King Kamehameha's sole attack on Kauai. Kauai is the only island that Kamehameha never conquered, as his troops were overcome with disentary and overwhelmed by Kauai's forces on the beach. Kauai was eventually included under Kamehameha's rule, but only through diplomacy. Kamehameha controlled the shipping lanes and goods were not making it to Kauai and the ruler decided to switch rather than fight and was made the governor of Kauai by the King.
Darla and I did attend two time share presentations in order to reduce the cost of the ATV tour and the Luau. We do intend to buy another week on Kauai as we want two weeks every other year, but with David in school and Daniel getting close, that will have to wait. I feel very good about our condo in Princeville. It is the oldest and has the largest square footage of all of the condos. The two bedroom that we upgraded to from our one bedroom is huge and has two master bedrooms and a gigantic living area. All of the other condos in Princeville are multi-family units with six-plexes being the norm. The two bedrooms at the Makai Club are stand alone units. One of the nice features is that we have windows on all sides of the unit so that the trade winds can blow throuh and cool off the unit. Our condo was right next to the pool and was a handicap unit. The bathroom in our bedroom was huge and made so that a wheelchair could turn easily in the room. I'm glad that we had a week in the two bedroom unit, because the one bedroom that we moved to in Lihue was much smaller. The boys had to share a fold out sleeper and their clothes and towels were everywhere. I got an impression of what it would be like to live at their Dad's house and it wasn't pleasant. The second resort was part of the Radisson and had five pools including a sand bottom pool, three tennis courts, two restaurants, three bars and two jacuzzis. They had a hula group and band playing the first night that we checked in and I sat in the hot tub and watched the show. It was great.
We did give the boys surf lessons and they both did well. They were both upset that the surf was so small on Hanalei Beach where they took the lessons, but they were soon to find out how good it was there. They were both up and surfing within fifteen minutes. We rented a board later in the week along with a carrier for the top of the SUV. I rented a Jeep Laredo for the ten days and it was plenty big for our two six footers. We took them out to Shipwreck's Beach and they got to watch the local surfer champions take on some huge waves and they really enjoyed it. The next day we went to a beach on the west side of the island with six-foot waves and neither of them could even row the board out to the waves as they kept getting pushed back.
We took them to Duke's beach next to the Marriott and they were both able to ride some four-foot swells. David got his feet cut up on some coral and was fighting scabs for the rest of the trip. Duke's is a beach made famous by Hawaii's first Olympic champion and he runs a bar and restaurant there now. We ate dinner at Duke's one night. Darla and the boys enjoyed body surfing at Dukes as the waves are big and really pound you. I read my book and took in all of the surroundings.
I did enjoy snorkeling and we bought two sets of snorkel gear that we brought home with us. Kauai has some of Hawaii's best snorkel beaches, including Anini Beach, Tunnels Beach and Ke'e Beach. My favorite was Ke'e at the end of the raod north of Hanalei. The beach itself is beautiful white sand and the snorkeling is great with huge reefs and coral and an abundance of sea life. Darla and David were surprised by a seven foot sea turtle that happened by while they were snorkeling. Daniel and I were able to run out and get a close up view of the huge beast. It was definitely a sight to see.
Finally, we did enjoy a luau on Monday night with all you can eat barbecue, featuring a pig cooked in an Emu pit for fifteen hours. We dutifully tried Poi and decided that it would be handy if you ever needed to glue something in a hurry. It was flaverless, but the consistency of Elmer's glue and a dull shade of purple. Yuck. I had a few mai tais and a Hawaiian beer as the drinks were included. David and Daniel enjoyed the dancing with girls in grass skirts and coconut bikinis. It was a great show and again we truly enjoyed ourselves.
Darla and I saw more of the island on this trip than we did in 2003 and we stayed busy. The boys were worn out by Tuesday and sat in the room and watched tv Tuesday afternoon while Darla and I went to the pool. We used up three tanks of gas in ten days, so we were definitely moving.
You'll notice that GOLF was not on the agenda. I had hoped to play in one of the 9 hole tournaments, but we were busy and the focus this trip was more on the boys and doing things as a family. It was tough. Our condo in Princeville is adjacent to 45 holes of championship golf and I had to swallow hard not to play. What a grownup I am, eh?
The boys have returned home to their Dad's and will leave Saturday for a two week trip to Washington, DC, New York City and Philadelphia. Not my idea of a vacation, but to each his own.
I will write more later and I'll get a couple of pictures from the trip on the blog. It's good to be back, but I'm sure mountains of work await me tomorrow. I like the idea of going back to work on a Friday to get the lay of the land. I hope you all are well. I'm excited that Jennifer will be home next month and plan to take a day off and maybe Darla and I will take her back up to Reno to spend the night. Ciao.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Next week we will be in Paradise!!
I'm referring to Hawaii and not the new home of Darla's parents. The hits keep on coming at work. I'm trying to hire a new underwriter and the CEO of the company has been brought in and is nickle and diming my candidate. We could lose this deal and I'd be back at square one. Hopefully, we can pull this together this week and get him hired. Now, my accounting person has given me her resignation and I'm trying to hire someone there as well. The CFO of the company has called me and told me that he wants final say on any candidate. Nothing like full autonomy to get the job done.
The weather has finally turned to Summer and the constant rain of the last two months is past. It was weird weather in that we would get the rain and wind and then it would be 90 degrees for two days and then another storm would roll in. Our blood was thinning and thickening and finally matasticizing into a gel-like state.
I am back to work after taking the last half of last week at an Insurance event in Eureka (Humboldt County). Darla was able to join me and it made the trip so much nicer. To begin with, the drive is 5 1/2 hours. We drove up through Redding and then took Highway 299 through the mountains and over to the coast. It is a nice drive, but pretty windy through the mountain pass. The drive was much nicer with my Mustang last year than with the Explorer this year. Darla was getting a little testy on the latter part of the drive as the curves were turning her stomach and she thought I was driving a little fast. Maybe I was. We had a cocktail reception on Wednesday evening at the Ingomar house in Eureka. The Ingomar was a private residence built by one of the lumber barons at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). It is now a private club owned by about 350 of the movers and shakers of Eureka. The home is a palatial three-story, 5000 square foot home with magnificent views of the bay and a small turret on the fourth floor of the home (the attic) where Mrs. ingomar set up a telescope and would watch for her husband to return from the sea as he made trips to sell his lumber.
Thursday was the golf tournament. Darla spent the day shopping in Eureka and Arcata, two towns lost in the sixties. Darla said that she saw more dreadlocks and hippies in those towns than she's seen in years. The golf tournament is played at Baywood, a private course in the foothills outside of Eureka. I was able to play my own ball and struggled to a 44+44=88. The problem wasn't the conditions or the course, but the alcohol and partying. Each hole was set up with a different theme. They had the Mardi Gras hole with Jagermeister and jello shots, the Manhattan hole, the Margarita hole, the wine and cheese hole, and the barbecued oyster hole which featured Coronitas, the little eight ounce Coronas. There were five groups backed up on the hole and they were dancing and listening to Jimmy Buffett. Groups were waving others through and it was a nightmare. The rythmn of golf was not present. Darla met me for dinner and they had a nice prime rib and chicken picata. We enjoyed the festivities and I left with a new golf jacket, won in the raffle.
We stayed over Thursday night and I drove home after a late breakfast. We drove back up Highway 101 and I took a detour to drive throught the Valley of the Giants in the Redwood National Park. I wanted to drive through the famous "drive-thru tree". We took in the beauty of the forest and drove through dense trees and tunnels of foliage, but no drive-thru tree. We finally drove into a little town and saw the sign "Drive-thru tree 200 feet". We drove right past the little town and saw no tree. I turned around and saw the gift shop and novelty store and saw an admission entrance for the "drive-thru tree". It was $1.50 per person to walk or drive thru the tree. There was no one at the admission booth, so we drove on and there sat a tree about 12 foot in diameter in which the owner had carved a 7'x7' crude tunnel through the tree. I was about to drive thru when Darla stopped me. The carving was sideways and rough at best and she was afraid we'd get stuck. I backed up and drove out. There was an older woman standing near the admission booth with her hands on her hips staring me down as I drove out of the little "rip off" den and got back on the highway. Darla and I were howling with laughter. That tree was a sad state of affairs and we wonder how many SUVs have been wedged into that tree over the years. We drove on and saw the turn off to the actual drive-thru tree about eight miles later, but drove past having had enough fun for one day.
We drove back through Highway 20 and past Clear Lake on our way home. It was a nice drive punctuated by the soft snores of Darla as I drove on and she slept on.
We came back late Friday afternoon and had a graduation party for David scheduled for Saturday night. I answered my e-mail to find an invitation to play golf on Saturday morning. I so wanted to rid myself of the Eureka golf experience and Darla was gracious enough to allow me to play. We teed off at nine and I was back home by 2:00 PM. I played with Boyd and Mel and shot a stellar 37+40=77, much better and more to my standards. It was nice to wash myself clean of the drunken party that stood in for a golf tournament earlier in the week.
David's party went well. We had about thirty people, including Destanie's parents. Her Dad is Justin and a longer haired musician type with a soul patch and bleach blonde hair. A great Christian man on fire for the Lord. He thinks David is great and told us stories of David asking him to date Destanie. Earl and Justin hit it off as both worked as Construction Foremen and had similar experiences with the trades. Steve's wife, Kirsten, mistook Justin for one of David's friends, thrilling him to no end. David made a nice haul with his graduation gifts which were over $1,500 at the last count. Daniel wanted to have a party to celebrate graduating from the tenth grade after watching David's party. I told him "Fat chance."
Well, work awaits. The blog will be on vacation along with us for the next two weeks. I hope you are all well, happy and one with the Lord. Be kind to each other. Sorry that Dad and Shirley, Jennifer, and Earl and Frances couldn't join us in Kauai, but we will have plenty of good times in your stead. Ciao.
The weather has finally turned to Summer and the constant rain of the last two months is past. It was weird weather in that we would get the rain and wind and then it would be 90 degrees for two days and then another storm would roll in. Our blood was thinning and thickening and finally matasticizing into a gel-like state.
I am back to work after taking the last half of last week at an Insurance event in Eureka (Humboldt County). Darla was able to join me and it made the trip so much nicer. To begin with, the drive is 5 1/2 hours. We drove up through Redding and then took Highway 299 through the mountains and over to the coast. It is a nice drive, but pretty windy through the mountain pass. The drive was much nicer with my Mustang last year than with the Explorer this year. Darla was getting a little testy on the latter part of the drive as the curves were turning her stomach and she thought I was driving a little fast. Maybe I was. We had a cocktail reception on Wednesday evening at the Ingomar house in Eureka. The Ingomar was a private residence built by one of the lumber barons at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). It is now a private club owned by about 350 of the movers and shakers of Eureka. The home is a palatial three-story, 5000 square foot home with magnificent views of the bay and a small turret on the fourth floor of the home (the attic) where Mrs. ingomar set up a telescope and would watch for her husband to return from the sea as he made trips to sell his lumber.
Thursday was the golf tournament. Darla spent the day shopping in Eureka and Arcata, two towns lost in the sixties. Darla said that she saw more dreadlocks and hippies in those towns than she's seen in years. The golf tournament is played at Baywood, a private course in the foothills outside of Eureka. I was able to play my own ball and struggled to a 44+44=88. The problem wasn't the conditions or the course, but the alcohol and partying. Each hole was set up with a different theme. They had the Mardi Gras hole with Jagermeister and jello shots, the Manhattan hole, the Margarita hole, the wine and cheese hole, and the barbecued oyster hole which featured Coronitas, the little eight ounce Coronas. There were five groups backed up on the hole and they were dancing and listening to Jimmy Buffett. Groups were waving others through and it was a nightmare. The rythmn of golf was not present. Darla met me for dinner and they had a nice prime rib and chicken picata. We enjoyed the festivities and I left with a new golf jacket, won in the raffle.
We stayed over Thursday night and I drove home after a late breakfast. We drove back up Highway 101 and I took a detour to drive throught the Valley of the Giants in the Redwood National Park. I wanted to drive through the famous "drive-thru tree". We took in the beauty of the forest and drove through dense trees and tunnels of foliage, but no drive-thru tree. We finally drove into a little town and saw the sign "Drive-thru tree 200 feet". We drove right past the little town and saw no tree. I turned around and saw the gift shop and novelty store and saw an admission entrance for the "drive-thru tree". It was $1.50 per person to walk or drive thru the tree. There was no one at the admission booth, so we drove on and there sat a tree about 12 foot in diameter in which the owner had carved a 7'x7' crude tunnel through the tree. I was about to drive thru when Darla stopped me. The carving was sideways and rough at best and she was afraid we'd get stuck. I backed up and drove out. There was an older woman standing near the admission booth with her hands on her hips staring me down as I drove out of the little "rip off" den and got back on the highway. Darla and I were howling with laughter. That tree was a sad state of affairs and we wonder how many SUVs have been wedged into that tree over the years. We drove on and saw the turn off to the actual drive-thru tree about eight miles later, but drove past having had enough fun for one day.
We drove back through Highway 20 and past Clear Lake on our way home. It was a nice drive punctuated by the soft snores of Darla as I drove on and she slept on.
We came back late Friday afternoon and had a graduation party for David scheduled for Saturday night. I answered my e-mail to find an invitation to play golf on Saturday morning. I so wanted to rid myself of the Eureka golf experience and Darla was gracious enough to allow me to play. We teed off at nine and I was back home by 2:00 PM. I played with Boyd and Mel and shot a stellar 37+40=77, much better and more to my standards. It was nice to wash myself clean of the drunken party that stood in for a golf tournament earlier in the week.
David's party went well. We had about thirty people, including Destanie's parents. Her Dad is Justin and a longer haired musician type with a soul patch and bleach blonde hair. A great Christian man on fire for the Lord. He thinks David is great and told us stories of David asking him to date Destanie. Earl and Justin hit it off as both worked as Construction Foremen and had similar experiences with the trades. Steve's wife, Kirsten, mistook Justin for one of David's friends, thrilling him to no end. David made a nice haul with his graduation gifts which were over $1,500 at the last count. Daniel wanted to have a party to celebrate graduating from the tenth grade after watching David's party. I told him "Fat chance."
Well, work awaits. The blog will be on vacation along with us for the next two weeks. I hope you are all well, happy and one with the Lord. Be kind to each other. Sorry that Dad and Shirley, Jennifer, and Earl and Frances couldn't join us in Kauai, but we will have plenty of good times in your stead. Ciao.
