Palomarin Trailhead to Bass Lake and Alamere Falls

After a very fine hike, I took a long, steamy, bubbly bubble bath. (I hope the heat will help me to not be sore tomorrow!)

Today we met up with Kelly and Jeremy and drove to Point Reyes. I had heard about Alamere Falls when researching coastal waterfalls, and wanted to try the hike. It ended up being about 8 miles round trip, and well worth it. The hike itself was pretty mild.  A little bit uphill the first half mile to a mile but the trail is wide and well maintained. Besides that, it was pretty even hiking and it went in-and-out the shaded areas. Quite a variety of plant life kept the hike very interesting and I didn't feel like I was staring at rocks, which sometimes happens in my Sierra hikes, though I love them. A variety of animal life was also present- chipmunks, rabbits, birds, a shell of a crab, and, unfortunately, three slitherings of snakes. (Did I mention that I hate snakes- and three of them on one hike! Acck!!!) At least the snakes got off of the path right away.

About two miles in, you arrive at Bass Lake. It's a pretty lake but virtually no shore to get in. A small area gives entrance if you brought a floating device, and there is a rope swing. We would have had to sit in a small open area about 30 feet away from the lake, with too much foliage in the way to even see the lake, if we had stopped here. I have been to much, much better. Apparently it's the hot spot though, because on our hike back, we passed around 40 people who all looked like they were headed to the lake. Also apparently, nudists make an appearance, which I'm very glad that I didn't see. (Hello, keep it to yourself!)

The middle of the hike ended at Alamere Falls, and it was a sight. A 15-foot cascade drops into a small pool, and makes its was down to two smaller falls, and finally about a 40-foot drop into the sand to the ocean. It's  great photo op at the smaller falls, and if you are adventurous, you can make your way down to the beach at low tide. I'll warn you though, it is pretty steep and slippery. The sliding shale-like rock breaks away and makes the path difficult. Getting back up is worse because it's harder to grip. Still, it was worth it to go down to the beach for lunch. Even if we didn't make it down to the bottom of the 40-foot falls, it still would have been worth it to see the three other cascades.

It was a great day, and I didn't even get burnt because the four miles in it was overcast! I just hope I'm not too sore tomorrow!

Scarves and pants and shirts, Oh My!

Today.

Laid out all my school (ie... "professional") clothes to see what I had. Began a pile of all the clothing items I haven't worn in a year.Went shopping. Found some good deals. Organized my drawers. Organized my closet. Left the extra clothes in pile to give away.

Tired. Sigh. Just look what clothes can do to you!

Yikes!

School stuff...

Today I went into school today. To really work on classroom stuff-cleaning, organizing books, putting up bulletin boards. There is that feeling of progress, of newness, of starting again that is refreshing. A new batch of kids. A new technique or two to try. A new optimism that only happens at this point in the year.

I suppose that is what keeps me coming back- always a new start to impact student's lives. I know I can't get to everyone, but if I can make a lasting difference in just a few lives, I feel satisfied at the end of the year. This past year, I had one student in particular who really had some struggles and even lost her father in the last week of school. At the end of the year, she wrote me some really sweet things that meant a lot. That is the encouraging part of teaching.

The difficult part, as any seasoned teacher knows, is that there is no perfect recipe for success. Each student brings burdens, cares, or distractions with them to school, and it is my job to try teach in spite of these. A blogger didn't quite understand this in his comments about standardized testing. He seemed to think that standardized testing was an end-all for evaluating  teacher performance. Of course it isn't- otherwise it would have solved education's woes a long time ago. Yet I still think that it is an important part and don't mind being evaluated on the improvement of my student's test scores from their previous year. I don't think that teacher should be evaluated on a exact percentage of students that arrive on a certain level, but instead on improvement from the previous year.

In about three more weeks I see this year's set of about 100 thirteen and fourteen- year olds.

Bring it on! :)

Dilation!?!?!?

Wowsers... I went the optometrist today for an checkup appointment. I thought MOVC was very professional and up-to-date on new equipment and procedures, as well a friendly. During the checkup, the doctor did a test that dilated my pupils... nothing too unusual. Except that for this particular one, the pupils stay dilated a little throughout the day. Or maybe I should say A LOT! Check this freakness out:

Pretty weird!!!!

Woah Sugar!

Yet again Yahoo has enlightened me. Check out this article about beverage industry secrets. I'm glad that I'm a water girl-I really don't consume too much juice, and rarely ever drink pop. I suppose my one vice is Jamba Juice, but that probably only happens about twice a month- if that.

If you really want to see how bad it is visually, check out this slideshow! It's twenty drinks with sugar comparisons like the picture that I have here. I would say that the comparisons are quite horrifying (as well as encouraging me to just stick with my regular ice cream! :) )

Hot Hike!

Yesterday I went on another hike into the Sierras. It took Kelly and I about 2 1/2 hours to get up past Sonora and through the pass to Levitt's Meadow for our hike. Upon arriving at the parking area, I could see a great river coursing its way through the long meadow. While it seemed smooth through the meadow valley, it soon began crashing upon the rocks and we realized that even this late in the year, the river had quite a current. Once we crossed over the river on a bridge, we headed uphill for about 3 miles. Unfortunately, there wasn't much shade and it got quite hot. On this trip, as opposed to last week, I put on sunscreen before I left!

After about 3.5 miles, we arrived at Secret Lake. It was a beautiful lake nestled into a mountain valley. We had brought our water shoes and waded out into the lake up to our knees. Soon, we saw the life of the lake emerge with crawdads, water skippers, and chipmunks scurrying about. The water was so warm it would have been easy to swim. That scene made the trip worth it! The hike back on the other side of the mountain was much smoother and mostly downhill, though exposed to the sun almost the whole way. A highlight was the fragrance of sage from the sage bushes all around the valley. All in all, our trip was about 8 miles.

Right down the road from where the trail started was a Marine cold weather base. We saw some Marine Corp. vehicles and soldiers training on the rock cliffs. I liked knowing they were there- it was probably the safest I have ever felt on a hike. :)

Alas, I forgot my camera, but I found some pictures on the internet. I wish I could find a picture with the river running through the valley.  It's quite the beautiful wilderness!

Part of Levitt's Meadow where we started-

And the lake was something like this-

Hogs and Hillbillies: County Fair Style

I love going to the fair. I always have. To me, it's America as much as New York City ever was. The down-to-earth, hard-working, farm-loving people who come are just astounding. I love to see all the kids who work so hard to get their animals ready and care for them. And so many different people coming together in one place too.

I love America. And I love the fair.

Well, my cousin Austin was showing his pig. It was supposed to do really well, but apparently it was "weak on it's feet"- it wasn't walking very well. He took 6th in his class, but we were all hoping that he would do better. He's done quite well the last two years, even winning Grand Champion before!

I rode over with me grandma and grandpa as well as my two cousins Janae and Talitha. Here's a few pics of the fun!


They put funny clothes on the sheep... to keep them clean I suppose...

Rabbits

Chicken barn... this is one huge chicken! On the left it is bending over for some food I guess!

Eating lunch with grandma and grandpa

Cousins!

My favorite sign EVER

Gotta love blue tongues from Slushies!

Austin showing his pig

Hike to Powell Lake

Yesterday I went hiking with Kelly, the science teacher that was next door during my first two years of teaching. She was invaluable to my those first two turbulent years- she listened and gave advice, all without being judgemental. And I miss her a lot at my new job, because there isn't anyone like her! But we still get together from time to time to go hiking... a common hobby. Yesterday we did a four mile hike to Powell Lake. It was a pretty moderate hike and we even had to cross snow at times. The best place we passed was "Burst Rock," which, according to a legend, a pioneer woman gave birth on. Ewww. Not so pleasant of a place now. At least it had great views. Check it out below!

The picture below this one is to the right of me here

Burst Rock

Wildflower amongst the rocks

Snow tunnel

Powell Lake

Kelly and I at a vista point

And here's  video clip of the Burst Rock area from the Flip Video camera that Justin's parents got us for our anniversary! Click on the expand button to see it bigger. Just hit escape when it is finished playing.

Men's Fashion Mistakes

I thought this slideshow and article was just too funny about things that guys wear... or shouldn't wear. Just click on the link here and be ready for a good laugh. (Thank goodness that my husband has a decent fashion sense! :)

What do you know about America?

Hopefully you know more than most of these people. It is just shameful. I do disagree with the author of this article that it is the fault of public education. I'm a teacher, and I know that they teach the facts in U.S. History classes. Kids, who grow up to be adults, forget them. It's just not the priority in the me-me-me society that we live in.

Take a look at the clip:



And brush up on a related topic, you own Constitution knowledge with this quiz:

Click here for a Constitution Quiz

Saran Wrap

Tonight we had Mexican food for dinner. Taquitos (so not homemade though!), fried corn, beans,  and rice. It was pretty yummy! Plus I like arranging the plate, but I'm sure the due from Hell's Kitchen wouldn't approve. I don't really care- my husband liked it!

I tried putting bacon in the refried beans like I had at Chevy's. Mine weren't as tasty, but I think I would cook it in a skillet next time and then mix the crumbled bacon and grease into the beans. It does give a pretty good flavor, if you like the added texture. I'm sure Chevy's has some other secret ingredient...

Then we had Brownie Cream Cheese bars for dessert- my mom's recipe. For a twist, I put them into muffin tins for serving size pieces. You see, Justin and I always fight over who gets the inside pieces, so this made things more fair. They were wrapped in saran wrap.

After dinner, we're cleaning up. Justin packs his lunch with the leftovers, and I start packing everything else up. When he had finished, I asked him to saran wrap the small bowl of chopped tomatoes. He holds up the previously used saran wrap from the brownies and says, "this'll work, right?"

I said no. "We can definitely afford to get a new piece of saran wrap for the bowl of chopped tomatoes," I said in desperation.

"Times are tight with the economy and everything," he starts chuckling at his joke.

Not that tight. Not as tight as a second hand piece of saran wrap!

Time Slows. Heart Stops.

Today I, or should I say Justin, had quite a scare. This morning, Justin was working outside pulling some weeks. It was getting hot by about 11:00 today too.. in the '90's. I was inside scrap booking and pretty oblivious to anything around me. After a bit he came in to cool off and set down at the table where I was working, and proceeded to browse the web. All of a sudden, he collapsed onto the floor.

Then time slowed painfully. My heart stopped.

I jumped up and knelt on the floor beside him. He was passed out and laying on his side. I rolled him over and called, "Justin, Justin!" I was so grateful that he came to in just a few seconds, but it took me less time than that to start tearing up. When you feel totally unable to help, it's horrible. I can't imagine losing him. I don't know what I would do, and I don't even want to think about it.

In just a minute he sat up and leaned against the wall. I got him some water and then wiped his forehead with a cold, wet cloth because he was perspiring and had scratched his forehead somehow when he fainted. It looks more of like a rug burn, so hopefully it will go away soon. (I told him that until then, I can put some concealer on- I'm not sure if he'll like that too much though!) Apparently, he hadn't drank anything except a glass of milk this morning. And as we traced our way back, he realized that since he had been so busy at work, he hadn't been drinking much water during the day on Friday. We also had went running last night, and he had only had about half a cup of water after that. So luckily, the cause was found- it was dehydration.

I've been shoving water and kool-aid at him all day. He's starting to roll his eyes at me now, but hey, I just can't handle that kind of scare again. Not to the man I love so much.

So just a warning to everyone out there in this hot weather: drink up!

Face Recognition? Yikes!

I heard about this the other day- Facebook can automatically tag photos using face recognition technologies. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just don't like it. In this article from cnn.com, they claim the technology isn't really that good yet, so we don't have much to worry about. Sure, the sci-fi futuristic movies make the technology look much more advanced that it really is in real life. (Hello, people, don't get caught in tv land or movie world!)

I just don't like the idea of being tagged in some picture that I don't know about. What if you have weird look on your face? What if it's a silly picture from a high school spirit day? What if you just don't want to associate with people anymore that were with you in the picture? Now, I would assume that you are notified when you are tagged, and that you can still un-tag yourself. But goodness, all that work? Anyways, I have yet to log on to Facebook and see what has changed. I'll try to update when I do!

On another note, VBS ended well! It was our first VBS ever for our church, which I think I noted in a previous post. Overall I was please, though I would have hoped to have some more unchurched kids too!

That's all for now!

Vacation Bible School!

Day two is already done of our first VBS! It is exciting to see all of the kids come out. It really does take everyone working together though! I thought the best thing to do would be to just post some pictures of the actions. Hope you enjoy!

Opening Assembly

Lesson Time

Games

Snacks

Crafts

And the fun underwater scene that everyone can be apart of!