Wedding Weekend
Barb and I went to our first wedding where one of our friend’s kids was getting married. I guess that means we are getting old. The wedding of Jonathan (Tim and Linda’s #2 son) and Shea was held outdoors at the Inn at Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz. 200 guests watched as Jonny and Shea publicly proclaimed love for each other.
What a great couple and great families they come from. I predict a long happy marriage with many children! The outdoor ceremony was great! Short and Sweet. Shea looked fantastic in a ruby red trimmed wedding gown. Jonny looked like he always has, only older. We’ve known him since he was a babe. The reception was held right there on the grounds. Guests mingled near the OPEN BAR while the wedding party took pictures. We hung out with Pastor John, a good friend of Tim and Linda. Tim’s Mom, Marilyn came up after her pictures and we had a great time visiting with her. Had a couple of drinks and great appitizers. My fav was the jumbo shrimp wrapped in some kind of pot sticker type wrapper. YUMMY!
My brother John is making a name for himself in his corner of the world. John and Sharrie have been living in a nice little house on a cool little hillside in rural Nevada for the last 19 years. Although their address says Gardnerville Nevada, they are actually 20 minutes south of town. 
Down highway 395 towards Topaz Lake. Thier house is nestled into the western side of Topaz Ranch Estates. To say this little neighborhood is remote is an understatement. I joke that John and Sharrie live 15 miles from the middle of nowhere. I guess you can say its where the Carson Valley meets the Nevada High desert. John caught the digital camera bug a few years ago. He must have sent me a thousand pictures over the years. Lots of grandkid shots, home improvement project updates, and many many sunrises and scenery shots. Over those 
thousand pictures, John turned into a pretty good photographer. John has sent his photos to KTVN in Reno and they have been shown on the local news a dozen times or more. His pictures have also been in the local paper. John is even going to be featured in the Carson Valley Almanac, a local publication that is all things Carson Valley. I asked John to send me a few of his favorites. 
All of these pictures, with the exception of the Topaz Lake picture , were taken either from John’s front porch or backyard. AMAZING. Check out all the pictures in the bro John collection by clicking here.
We’ve been down the Alameda Creek Trail maybe a hundred times since we started riding bikes. The 9 mile trip to the end of the trail at San Francisco Bay is one of our favorites. We’ve always talked about taking our hybrid bikes over on the dirt side of the trail and check out what that side is like. We finally did this on Friday, doing a sunset ride on the dirt side. Got on the trail at Isherwood and headed west. Turned out to be really nice. With the exception of a little police action at the trail where it goes under highway 88O. Seems some sicko tried to assault a female jogger and do bad things to her. She fought him off and he ran. By the time we got to the 88O underpass, there were cops swarming everywhere.
They never found the scumbag. We proceeded on our ride out to the end of the trail. A totally different and equally beautiful perspective from that side of the creek. We rolled up to the end of the trail about 30 minutes before sunset. High tide and a little wind was causing some wave action! Something you don’t see on the paved trail. We took a couple of pictures to document our new adventure, shared a nice juicy orange and headed back home as the sun dipped below the horizon. A great way to start our weekend. 
Varmit hunting season is in full force. The almond tree that we planted 20 years ago is producing an enormous amount of almonds. The squirrels and ravens have a heyday this time of year when nuts are ready for picking. Some mornings there are 30 or more crows up in the branches of the tree. When Niya goes outside they all scatter. There are plenty of times she has chased squirrels either back up the tree or outside the fence when they were eating nuts that have fallen. Its funny to see Niya sitting under the tree while squirrels up top are merrily eating away and dropping the husks and shells on her head.
There is one squirrel that lives down the street. Reason I know this is because as I’m sitting in the backyard office, little squirrley, who has just been to the almond tree out front, jumps from the tree to the roof of the house, from the roof of our house to the roof of my office, then to the back fence, up the telephone pole and down the telephone wire about 5 houses down. All this with a huge almond (husk and all) in his 
mouth. One morning I come out of my office to go to the house and catch the squirrel just getting ready to jump. I think we scared eachother. He took a step back and went for it. Right over my head! Now I just leave my office door open and can watch him make his trips back and forth all day. He must have a pretty good stash of almonds, where ever he lives! Its Niya’s dream to catch herself a varmit!
In a blur that is becoming Kate’s impending move to Sacramento and college life, we took a BIG LOAD of her belongings up yesterday. Kate starts school on Sept 5th but needs some time up there to familiarize herself with the campus, the neighborhood and her new roommates. Anne Marie and Joe have opened their home to Kate so she can live mere blocks from school. 
We rented a small U-Haul truck and loaded it with her Bed, dresser, a dozen or so boxes and miscellaneous other stuff. Joe was on hand to welcome us. After Uncle Joe vacuumed the last bit of dust in Kate’s new room, we were ready to move her in. Set up her bed and stacked her boxes and sort of put things 
where we think they will go. We even “built” an Ikea desk and chair for Kate so she can effectivly do homework and TCB in Sacratomato. We’ll set it all up and unpack this weekend. Said good bye to Joe til then and took the short cruise to the campus. Kate picked up her books at the book store and then we went to lunch at 
I had bought tickets to the Saturday Giants / Dodgers game months ago. The reason I got these tickets was because it was the Dodgers, 
it was a Saturday night (rare 6pm start!), and the seats were on the aisle. What more could you ask for? We met up with Tim and Linda at our house and I drove to the game. Parked at pier 48 and walked into AT&T park. It was “BEAT L.A.” night so everyone got a ‘BEAT LA” Giants cap. YAY!!!!!! Our seats were special. Section 302 in “view reserved”, which means nosebleed territory. Our seats were 3 rows from 
the top row at the last section on the right field side. Our section was “reversed pie shaped”. At the top row there was only one seat. There were 
only four seats in our entire row! Pretty darn cool (and windy!) up there, with a great view of the field, McCovey Cove, the Bay Bridge and most of the Bay Area! Great seats! Unfortunately, we were stuck in a section that had a lot of Dodger fans. and even more unfortunately, the Dodger scored 10 runs in the first two innings. UGH!!. Still a fun night though. (check out the pictures here) The Giants ended up losing 14-7. Man I hate those Dodgers.