Up and away!

Another good weekend, with less than four weeks to go to my departure now :-(

Most of the weekend was spent enjoying the facilities of the Hobson "resort" (as they refer to their back yard!). That was a very pleasant refuge from the 40+ degree heat.

On Sunday afternoon we went to see Up at the movies. The movie is outstanding — probably one of Pixar's best ever (and they've been making superb movies ever since the original Toy Story), and one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Without giving too much away for the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet, the story is incredibly moving without being cloying, and has a very strongly principle-based message (actually several messages) without being "preachy". Really good stuff — highly recommended.

With Bryn in Uganda (and having a great time — Colin and Janet spoke to him briefly on Sunday), I have the use of his car and so made my own way to Davis this morning to continue the packing. That is going reasonably well. Tomorrow I need to go into campus to return my keys and wrap up things there. More "lasts"!

With the Fourth of July coming up, Friday is a public holiday and we have a trip to Yosemite planned. I'm really looking forward to that: hiking among the mountains, forests and waterfalls.

Time's running out...

Today marks one month to go until I leave the USA — it's scary how quickly a year can go by!

I had a good weekend with the Hobsons. It was somewhat hectic with a whirlwind of kids coming and going: Erin was out for the whole day on Friday at a theme park with some friends; Jared left on Friday morning for a church camping trip to Yosemite; Bryn left for Washington, D.C. on his way to Uganda early on Sunday morning; and Jared returned from his camping trip on Sunday afternoon. I'm going to miss them all terribly when I return to SA.

My time at UC Davis officially ends at the end of June, so I am busy starting to pack up (bought a new suitcase on the weekend!) and wrap up in Davis.

Camping at Camanche

This past weekend we went on a great camping and boating trip to Lake Camanche (just South-East of Sacramento, about 1.5 hours from Colin and Janet's home in Rocklin). We left on Friday just after lunchtime, and took the back routes to avoid the worst of the traffic. Bryn and Jared had invited a couple of friends, so we were a fairly big crowd. We quickly set up camp and then took the boat off to the launch ramp and got it in the water and then moored near the camp site for the night.

Our campsite was in the "overflow" area, so had no showers and chemical toilets (porta-potties), but was relatively uncrowded and had a super view over the lake. Camanche itself is a lovely lake with relatively warm water (about 74 Fahrenheit, according to Colin's fish-finder gadget, or roughly 23 degrees Celcius). The weather was a little strange for the time of year, with cold evening winds both nights, and a few showers of rain in the middle of Friday night. The woodfire was very welcome in the evenings! Fortunately, the days were lovely and warm, with a little cloud around on Saturday to keep it a little cooler.

On Saturday, after a hearty breakfast, we headed across the lake and found an island where we could camp out for the day (the island property being useful in that Freckles could be let off his leash and allowed to wander — he's even got his own little life-jacket!). Different groups went off tubing behind the boat through the day, while others stayed on the island playing with a frisbee or a ball (or reading and dozing!). During the afternoon, Colin, Janet and I left the youngsters on the island and headed up the lake in search of some boat-in geocaches. Unfortunately, the water level was quite high and finding safe mooring for the boat was tricky as much of the current waterline was very rocky. We did manage to find one that had a reasonably decent "beach", and after some hunting around (with much careful banging and prodding to scare off any rattle snakes) managed to find the cache.

On Sunday, Janet and Erin had to leave early as Erin had a girl scouts "ropes course" in Sacramento. The rest of us went out boating and enjoyed the tubing again (Colin also did some water-skiing), before packing up the campsite. We jumped on the boat and found a nice spot for a picnic lunch, before heading out into the middle of the lake for a final swim and a last tube-ride back to the launch ramp to get the boat onto the trailer and head back home to Rocklin.

High School Grad

Today was Bryn and Jared's high school graduation. That's a big deal here (much more so than in Africa, where my own memories are very of a very anticlimatic fizzle-out to six years of high school education!). The ceremony was held in the school's football stadium, with music provided by the school's "symphonic band", and the procession of graduates (in caps and gowns) led in by cadets carrying the US and Californian flags.

The national anthem was sung, and there were speeches (mercifully short) by a wide range of people: the principal, the president of the students' association, one of the valedictorians, a couple of the other students (an "inspirational" message and a class "history"), one of the teachers (chosen by a vote of the students), and the class president.

The graduation itself went fairly quickly with two streams of students coming up on both sides of the stage with names being called alternately from either side. However, with over three hundred graduates, it still took a while!

It was a highly significant graduation for the school which had only opened four years, with this as the first, new "freshman" class (there had been a small graduation last year, as they had also admitted a few transfer students initially). The school has done very well, earning the status of a "California Distinguished High School" despite its youth.

It was wonderful to be here for the boys' graduation. It just seems like the other day that they were babies in Grahamstown — they've come a long way since then!