Pooks Canyon

On September 21st we traveled from Spokane to Sandpoint, Idaho for the marriage of my cousin, Anna, to this really nice guy named JT. Included in their vows were solemn promises always give awesome high fives. I am also a fan of high fives so I really enjoyed this part. Here are the cute kiddos the night before their wedding. Speaking of cute kiddos this is my dad (left) and his large collection of siblings. Mother of the Bride (my Aunt Barbara) is the one in blue. The ceremony was located along the beautiful Pend D'Oreille. I did not take many pictures at the ceremony, preferring to soak in the proceedings sans smartphone. That said, I did sneak in one selfie with Axel before the start. My lovely Aunt Consie is an accidental photo bomber. At the reception, the cutest thing happened. My cousin, Arthur, taught Axel how to tie all sorts of different tie knots. Arthur is a reliable source of fancy men's clothing techniques having completed an internship at Bank ...

For our second trip as fulltime RVers we parked the trailer and drove to a hotel. In our defense, Destination Mendocino was grandfathered-in; I had reserved this hotel room last April when planning my 40th birthday. Yes. I turn 40 tomorrow. When I started this blog I was 29 years old. Insert some requisite time-flies crap here. So Jon and I are on the foggy western edge of North America, eating and drinking our way through an extended weekend of disc golf, hiking, and hot-tubbing. I must say it is downright fantastic. Thursday we started with a walk around downtown Mendocino after ohhhhing and ahhhing at our hotel room (which is over three times older than me). Claw foot tub = Pooks is on bath number four. From the walk we found Patterson's Pub with fresh mussels in a basil broth and a Crab and Shrimp Louie that tasted like I was eating it directly from the Pacific Ocean.  On Friday we hiked nearly every trail in the small Russian Gulch State Park and then Jon pla...

The big adventure began this weekend. I learned on Friday that I get anxious watching Jon drive on busy city highways and narrow mountain roads. Remaining calm is a work in progress.  Once we unhitched at the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Park, a sense of the reality of the situation sunk in on all of us. Axel found a giant pack of kiddos to run with all weekend long. Jon had to work a lot. And I had my good friend Jenny's disc golf tournament to go to: the inaugural DeLa Divas. I got 2nd in Pro Masters( 2nd to first or 2nd to last depending on how you want to spin it). Lots of fun and one birdie. I got to play with Jenny the first round and shot +10. Also present was Candace from SF and her sweet man/caddy Nate. Jenny talked Nate into applying her sunscreen (disc golfers do not like to get lotion on their hands). See picture for the giggles. Seeing Jenny's family rally around the event was really cool. Mom Kathie ran the show at tournament central so Jenny could play...

This weekend we experienced a mixed bag, including a birthday celebration, a disc golf tournament, and a viral Internet post. It all started with Leah turning 18 on Friday.  She requested, as a birthday present, that we let her have the house to herself Friday night to host a party.  Since we live in a small house with one living space, we said yes. It would be hard to have a nice party with one’s parents taking up the whole couch.  The only rule: do nothing that gets anyone sued, evicted, or jailed.  This rule seems to cover most of the bases. Jon, Axel and I were left needing a place to stay Friday night.  We were planning to play a disc golf tournament in Paradise on Saturday morning (a whole 20 minutes from Chico), so we booked a room at the Comfort Inn right near the golf course.  When the front desk asked for my zip code at check-in I felt a little sheepish answering 95926. The tournament, Shasta Series 2015 (#2) at Lava Creek Disc Golf Course, ...

Ham shanks were on sale at the butcher today and, since it is soup season in the Baker household, split pea soup was a natural choice. I might add that soup season made a lot more sense in Boulder, where I may be wandering in from snow shoveling or pickaxing an ice shelf. Here in Chico my only reason to keep the tradition is sheer exhaustion from fancy holiday cooking and baking.  So the soup was a new recipe from the winner of Pacifica's Fog Festival Pea Soup contest. Usually I do the boring puréed soup so this was a real departure. The big takeaways were: use carrots to sweeten the stock then remove them, add some fresh peas right at the end and make a kick ass crostini to go with it. The full recipe is here: http://blog.webicurean.com/2012/09/30/award-winning-split-pea-soup-with-gouda-crostini/ In other news, the soup took so long to make that Axel and I did not get in our afternoon disc golf round. Jon made up for it by taking me glow golfing under the full moon tonight. In the...

I got out of the kitchen by the day after Christmas just in time to burn off some pie and show the dads Chico's finest disc golf course, Peregrine Point.  On the way, we saw a highway patrolman driving slowly in the opposite direction, attempting to prevent some loose cattle from entering the roadway. The cattle must have come our way. Watch out, Dad!  They eventually got a moove-on, and so did we. Bill threw a nice roller out of trouble on hole three.  The canyon views at Peregrine are pretty nice. Jon was stuck in a bush and could only pitch out for par. Anonymous Discraft man. Dad, Scott, and I all threw into this bush, which sucked.  But then we all managed to make the putt, so we were redeemed.  Scott was upset enough about throwing into the bush that he flipped me off, but he was still able to smile because he saved par. Jon and his dad, very close to where someone fell off the...