Almanor 2011

We are back from Vacation and a more relaxed and sated outlook permeates my being right now. I didn't realize how uptight I have been with work issues, etc., but after a week away in the cool mountain air, I feel completely rejuvenated. A good example of just how relaxed I am came in a game of golf today at Woodcreek. Before I left on vacation, I'd lost my swing and I was struggling to break 90. Today, I was one under after six holes and ended up shooting a 39+41=80 and it was effortless. I took the money from my friends and came home and spent an afternoon relaxing on the pool with Darla. It all starts up again tomorrow, but this blog entry is all about Almanor and our visit with Jennifer and Samantha.

The days leading up to Almanor were stressful. Darla's car was having transmission issues, my car had the "idiot" light go on and the night before we left, a torsion spring on the garage door snapped. We had to prop the door up with my tree lopper to load the cars and attach the jet ski to the truck. I have a company coming out tomorrow to install new springs on the left and right. I still have the receipt for the last torsion springs we had installed in July of 2001. I guess they are good for about ten years.

I took my car in to Firestone the morning that we left to see if the check engine light was for anything serious. The EGR valve is going bad and needs to be replaced. The EGR valve affects the idle on the car and is not anything that will cripple a car, so we picked it up and figured to worry about that when we get home. I had to bring the 300 because I was driving back on Tuesday night to pick up Jennifer and Samantha and bring them up to the lake.

After all of the headaches and hassles of getting ready to go, it was heaven to be on the road and driving the winding Feather River canyon up to Lake Almanor. We arrived about 4:30 and the first thing I noticed as we drove around the lake up to the north shore, was how high the water was. The lake is at capacity with a lot of snow still clinging to Mount Lassen. The one downfall to the fuller lake was that our beautiful sand beach by the cabin was under water. Darla and I spent Sunday and Monday clearing brush from the side of the shoreline down by our cabin so that we could set up the "Easy-Up" shade awning and put down some blankets and have room for all of us to relax lakeside. We pulled the jet ski over to the shore and tied it up on Sunday.

We hit a cooler week up in Almanor, which was a great change, but again the cooler weather meant wind and wind meant high waves in the afternoon. The jet ski got really rocked on Sunday and I told the boys that we needed to anchor it off shore and let it ride the waves rather than get pummeled. David and Daniel set the anchor on Monday, but it tore loose and the ski drifted back to shore, where I tied it up and watched it get hammered again while the boys were off hiking at Mount Lassen. We talked to Earl and he told us how to set the anchor so it wouldn't come loose. The boys had the anchor with about ten feet of line and it pulled out. We set it Tuesday with about 75 feet of line and it held for the rest of the week. We left a buoy at the surface of the water with a hook for the ski and would tie a rope to the back end to keep it from drifting on the line. It was windy Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon, but the weather pattern changed on Thursday and we had calm conditions the rest of the week.

All told, there were 23 of us up at the lake during the week. Don and Alicia came up, but stayed at the Best Western in Chester and Darla's Uncle Junior stayed at the Bidwell Inn bnb in Chester. The rest camped in either fifth wheels, motor homes or in tents. We stayed at the cabin again this year and I am officially "all in" on Almanor after several years of tent camping (UGH), tenement cabins that had appliances falling off the wall and cramped, dirty quarters. This cabin is expensive ($1300 for a week), but is perfect in that it is at the far reaches of the resort and away from the tent camping and RVs. We have a huge deck that accommodate about twenty for dinner and a tremendous view of the lake. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with AC and heat and can sleep six adults. There are osprey, eagles and even vulchers that make a show in the sky near dusk and we even had a deer parade through our site this year.

Tuesday, I packed up after dinner and headed back to Sacramento to pick up Sam and Jennifer from the airport at 11:30 PM. They were right on time and Sam had the biggest grin on her face as she rode down the escalator to the baggage claim with her Mom. We spent the night here Tuesday night and were up at 6 AM for the drive to Almanor. We arrived at about 9:45, but the water was already fairly rough and the wind was coming up. We ate a quick breakfast and Jennifer was soon on the jet ski. Sam, Darla and I stayed on the shore and Sam and I worked on a sand castle. Mom came by and asked Sam if she wanted to take a spin on the ski. She was thumbs up and sported her new Coast Guard approved ski vest and Jennifer slowly drove her out to the lake. They stayed out about fifteen minutes doing lazy circles on the water and you could hear Sam's laughter floating back to shore. Jennifer and Sam spotted a couple of bald eagles and followed them for awhile. Sam also took a run with Daniel on the ski and then wanted to go back to "your house, Papa." I told her that we were staying at the cabin and she ran up to the cabin with me and changed out of her wet swimsuit. She brought me a book and wanted to read stories, so we did that for awhile and she eventually went down for a nap. Jennifer and I went out that afternoon and got some DVDs for Sam and also the new True Grit for all of us. It was a great first day for Sam and Jennifer as we went out to dinner with Darla's parents and Don and Alicia for pizza at Tantardino's, which is a family tradition and Earl buys pizza to celebrate their wedding anniversary (now at 51 years strong).

Thursday, Jennifer and I were up early at 8 AM and took out the jet ski. It is cold in the morning, but the lake is about 77 degrees at the shore and it is actually warmer in the water than outside and the water steams in the mornings. It is a great time to be out on the ski as you have the lake to yourself and the sun is gleaming off the water and there is no wind. It was a fun time for Jennifer and I. We headed back to the cabin and had a hot breakfast of pancakes and bacon which Darla was working on when we got there.

Jennifer's friend, Jason, came up with his boat on Thursday night. He and the boys are pretty tight and keep up with each other on Facebook and he decided to come up for Thursday and Friday night. Jason has a new Sea Ray ski boat with an outstanding sound system on it that he installed himself. The output on his stereo is 1200 watts. The boat is clean, new and fun to ride on. Jason was able to pull Daniel up and let him wake board. Earls' boat is older and has less power and it just doesn't have the output anymore to pull Daniel up out of the water. Dan looked like he was having a blast when they came back into shore and he let go of the rope and just floated into the shore.

Samantha took several boat rides with David in Earl's boat and Jason on his boat with Jennifer hanging on tight to her and the boat going a far cry less than full speed. Sam was really good and enjoyed both the boat rides and her time on the jet ski. Jennifer really enjoyed taking Sam out on the ski and showing her parts of the lake, the ducks and butterflies that were along for the ride.

Samantha is growing up and is a lot of fun. She still has an independent streak and a strong will and she is so much like Jennifer at that age. Both are only children and they want things their way. Jennifer is working hard to keep her grounded and enforce time outs and other discipline. She probably needs to spank her occasionally, especially when she exerts her will and won't listen to reason. Jennifer walks a fine line as a single Mom and does a great job with Samantha. I'm proud of her.

Darla and I took one night with Sam when we took the 300 and went looking for deer near sunset. We drove for about an hour and saw three deer, two babies on the side of the road and a young buck off scavenging in the trees. We were a little disappointed after Darla's tales of herds of deer that she saw as a child. We got back to camp after dark and a deer came out of the trees on the camp road and darted across the road. We got back to the cabin and Jennifer said that they had spotted a deer outside the cabin and followed it taking pictures as they went. It turns out that we went on a deer hunt and the deer came to our house looking for us.

We broke camp on Saturday and drove back to Roseville. We used 50 gallons of gas in the ski (at $4 a gallon) during the trip. We stopped at a small cafe on the way back at an RV camp along the river and it was excellent. Good hamburgers and even chicken nuggets for Samantha . We had time to swim for a short time in our pool before we had to pack up and take the kids to the airport for their flight home. We had a great time. I know Jennifer had a great time and Samantha was all smiles playing with David and Daniel in the cabin and getting a ton of attention for the whole week. Darla and I got to know her cousin Brenda's family much better and spent a good part of the week with them. Darla and I went out for lunch with Mark and Brenda on Tuesday and got a chance to talk. We hope to invite them to Mexico with us in a few years.

We have already booked our trip for next year and paid the deposit on the cabin. Well that was our trip in a nutshell. We had a wonderful family week. Jennifer is already on board for joining us next year as well, perhaps for the whole week. I hope you are all well. Ciao.