#18 - Labor Day camping

Way back in September we went proper tent camping on our first Labor Day weekend.  The weekend was organised by Stroller Hikes (more about them soon), and there were about 15 families all camping on a private ranch.  Debbie from Strollerhikes and Liza (whose ranch it was) had organised the weekend awesomely - most of the meals were communal, and the campfire never went out.

We camped on a farm with loads of cool old equipment lying around...

... and acres of untouched forest

The funny thing was, I hadn't wanted to seem like a complete alcoholic in front of all these wholesome organic moms with their healthy outdoor lifestyles, so I had packed one modest bottle of wine for the weekend.  But by 2pm on the first afternoon, all the mums and kids were playing in the creek, and all the dads had set up a table playing poker, talking about guns, doing shots of whiskey with one hand and holding bottles of beer in the other.  I dispatched Alex to the store to get some beers and we rolled up our sleeves and joined in.

The real highlight for Ruth (and all the other kids) was the creek.  She played "big one tiny one" with the stones all afternoon.


She adapted to life outside really quickly, she slept really well and enjoyed playing with the other kids and the doggies.  We really enjoyed the late nights round the campfire, making s'mores and watching the stars over a beer.

More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/109CampingWeekend?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfEoYq0y7Odeg#

Pippa Gawley: Private Pilot

Pippa recently passed here Private Pilot's License out here in the US. That's right, she's now a fully paid up Top Gun. Ruth and I are very proud of her.

As you can imagine this opens up a world of possibilities for us to travel further afield while we are here and we're all very excited about that. I'm also particularly excited about never being the 'designated driver' :-)

Since she passed, Pippa has taken me, my Mum and most recently both me and Ruth out on short trips. Of course, Mum had the best weather and so got a full on Bay Tour with views of the city, the bridge and Alcatraz. Ruth and I had to settle for the short hop over to Livermore for a burger at the highly auspicious bar of the local golf club, but nonetheless it was awesome. I am happy to report also that Ruth loved it and even kept her headphones on for most of the flight!

Anyway, here are a couple of videos from the flights (beware, the only sound you will hear is engine noise and your computers speakers just weren't made for that - go on mute!)

The first video is from my flight with Pippa and shows the massive wind farm at Altamont Pass. It's on an incredible scale (the largest in the world?) and you gets a good perspective on that from the air.



The second records Ruth's first flight. Pretty cool huh.