Reunion in Shasta, Post Party Report

The trip as a whole was great. There's no real need to give a blow-by-blow of the weekend, mostly because it all blends together in a delicious mesh of barbecue, beer, and boating. Rather, I'll comment on a few topics and give a few pictures.

Cabin:

Jeri and Jerry live in style up in Shasta. They have a main 2B/2Ba house with a couple of toolsheds, and for the weekend had two small trailers and a tent. It's located just across the freeway from a handful of boat ramps, walking distance from a reunion-overflow hotel, and stumbling distance from the Basshole Bar and Grill. 

Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin prepping for the Houseboat

Attendance from my perspective (Connell blood is capitalized):

--My girlfriend and I flew from SD. 

--My Two Sisters drove from SF. 

--My Aunt/uncle live there.

--My Cousin/husband drove from their new home in Palo Alto.

--My Uncle/aunt, Cousin/fiance (newly!!) flew from LA.

--My Cousin/girlfriend flew from DC/LA.

--My Cousin/boyfriend, Second Cousin/Pregnant wife carpooled from LA, SD.

--My Cousin/wife, Second Cousin/friend, Second Cousin, SD second cousin's friend drove from KANSAS (25.5 hours, straight).

--My Cousin and his mom/her boyfriend drove from SF.

--My Cousin/wife, Second Cousin arrived by jet ski from SF (we were impressed).

Food:

Aunt Jeri hosted us in style. Breakfasts included quiche, bagels/etc, fruits, sausage, eggs, and coffee. Dinners were barbecue style, with me acting as Sous-Chef on the grill. Jeri was also able to provide some delicious squash and tomatoes out of her garden; Alisha (the aspiring gardener) was duly impressed. 

Speedboats:

We had two speedboats on the weekend; one belonged to the cabin and another came from a friend from Redding. I tried everything that was available (tube/kneeboard/wakeboard) with varying degrees of success. ALL of these use a very different set of muscles from surfing; suffice it to say, I am still very sore.

Houseboat:

Saturday, we rented a giant houseboat; two decks, a bathroom, two grills, a waterslide, etc., provided us a base camp to float/speedboat around. Interesting to note, freshwater does not provide the same float as salt water; a couple of times, I was able to achieve negative buoyancy and get below the lake's thermocline. It's ~20degC at the surface and MUCH colder down 3m; <1m visibility. Relaxed barbecuing provided the food, and a Connell Cooler provided the beer.

Dynamic:

My sisters and I make up the youngest of our generation, with one cousin preparing for a grandchild. Our parent's would never hold us back, but with their absence (Olympics, they're awesome), there was no expectations on us in any way. It's been awhile since any Wilson was at the kid table, but now that we're all of age, we were able to relax, drink, and bullshit with the best of the Connells. I love my parents and missed them immensely at the family reunion, but their presence would have changed this dynamic a little.

Somethings Interesting:

--The fire (previous post) only provided some slowing and smoke on the drive there; I didn't notice it the rest of the weekend.

--This was my first experience with the Southwest boarding process. While approaching anarchy, it worked out in the end, especially with our emergency row on the flight back.

--The lake was created during WWII with the construction of the Shasta Dam. It provides agriculture with water in the valley below, and therefore allows for swimming (as opposed to man-made lakes for drinking water). During peak season (i.e. now), it drops at a rate of 30-40 cm/day.

Sacramento has a HUGE airport

She's with me.

That's our Friday Camp in the background.

Kneeboarding

First time wakeboarding.

Phil killing it on the Wakeboard.

Looking good.

Cousin as the Co-Captain for her Husband

Lots of Porch Time

Relegated to the Trailer

Two Wilsons

I liked this bridge a lot

Floating around

Friend of Second Cousin

I'm trying!

Lots of floating.

Attending Connells

Toolsheds

Little Sis at the Sundial Bridge

Cute

Plane home.

Reunion in Shasta

So my family (on my mother's side) is expected to travel to Lake Shasta this weekend to enjoy some quality lakeside summer fun. A fire has broken out, prompting the following email from me.


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Hello All,

A fire has broken out between near Salt Creek. The most up to date information can be found here. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3075/>

The fire is 500 acres, with ~20% contained. The majority of containment efforts are trying to keep the fire from spreading in the westward direction (~towards the cabin); they had a really good night, laid down some fire lines, so efforts have been successful.

Last night, evacuations were in effect for the areas highlighted on this map, which DO NOT include the cabin. <http://goo.gl/maps/ef4XX>
I called the Wildfire Information Officer, and he said that while these evacuations will probably remain overnight, there are no expected additional evacuations (I was impressed when I got an individual, rather than a recording). He had no information regarding any Power Outages.

As for Road and Air quality, a useful link can be found here:
<http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/?z=12&ll=40.7964,-122.3029>
It gives highway information, and if you play with the layers on the left side of the page, you can get current pictures taken of the highway. While the camera closest to the fire is temporarily out, you can see proxies of air quality in the clarity of cameras to the north and south. A good comparison can be made between the Pit River Bridge (smokey, south of fire) and Sacramento Hill (Clear-ish, just north of fire).

Currently, light wind is from the North, pushing both the smoke and fire away from the Cabin. Temperature highs are expected to be on the order of 100deg through the weekend, providing little help to those fighting the blaze. The wind is expected to remain calm, inhibiting the possibility of the fire breaking loose.

I've tried to text those close to the cabin, but received no response. Attached is a Facebook post from Anne.

In short, I think we needed some excitement for our trip, and I continue to be excited to see all of you.

Cheers,
Sam

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Friday Morning

Today is one of the top 5% days we have here in La Jolla. I was lucky enough to spend the morning on the pier, and take a break now only to post pictures from it. I'm hungry, and want to eat lunch down at cups, so there won't be much text.

On the walk down, I was worried that the fog would ruin the sun. Still though, it made for a pretty sight.

When I got to the end of the pier, I found some divers and a Birch Aquarist doing some research. The divers were cleaning and maintaining their instruments, while the female aquarist was looking for Jellies to add to her collection up at Birch.

The divers lowered the bridge, and took to the water.

Here is a local checking some of the instruments.

I was actually out there to help give a SCOPE tour, but ended up ditching them in favor of watching the divers work. Here they are walking back with Ben, their actual tour guide.

Diver Jeff is helping the aquarist by collecting the Jelly tangled in this clump of kelp and sea grass.

Success!! He brings it to Aquarist Julie.

Some swimmers are making the Cove to Pier swim (and back) for exercise. They seemed high school age. 

The jelly was too heavy to bring up the stairs, so they lowered a trashcan to help.

Aquarist Julie backs up the Birch Truck to get the animal.

Rich arrives with a boat that needs to be lifted up on the pier. 

He walks it up the ladder, as to make sure it doesn't bang the pier.

Finally, he lightly sets it down and wheels it into place.

Just for good measure, one of the divers needed to rappel off the end. Jeff spots a shark, or possibly just a piece of kelp; we were unsure.

He was down there to fix the bend in that pipe.

Nicolas is in town, and killing it on the knee-high waves rolling through.

His better half shows him how it's done.

How do they NOT get stung by stingrays? This is one of the questions I will never know the answer to.

That's a freakin' sweet osprey!!