Christmas with Ginny and Wally

21-29 Dec 2015

 clockwise from top: Ginny and C.J. with Rob's flowers, Wally on Tam, Katie and Irina, 

Wally and G, Ginny with MMOA scarf;   center: Wally,

Ginny had asked us to come down to the Bay Area to celebrate Wally’s birthday (12/24) and Christmas with them. There was also the partial remodel/partial re-leveling of their house to be shown. That sounded like fun and it was fair turnabout since they had been up for Thanksgiving last year. The final straw was that Ginny wanted to make a Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte for Wally’s birthday and C.J. had the good recipe she had used for our wedding cake 39 years ago. Plus, of course, Wally would be willing to do his Swing dealer thing and adjust C.J.’s new PG harness.

21 Dec, Mon – Thankfully it wasn’t raining as we threw the last bags into the car and drove off around 0800. We made it through Portland with only minor slowdowns, bought gas at Costco in Albany and followed GPS directions to Cloud and Kelley, a pub in downtown Corvallis. Mark Forbes was there already with ___, an old friend of his. C.J. and I shared an order of shepherd’s pie which was pretty good. Then we got back on the road again. After a couple of pit stops (big glass of diuretic Coke at lunch) we pulled into Medford sometime after 1700. We got gas at Costco in Albany and then checked into our Motel6 room (51). A Black Bear Diner was within walking distance so we went there for dinner, sharing a big burger with parmesan chips. We skipped the BBD dessert offering and got an Oreo-peppermint candy cane Blizzard at DQ on the way back to our room.

22 Dec, Tue – It was raining again as we left Medford at 0800 but it wasn’t cold enough for the rain to change into snow as we climbed into the Siskiyous. There was a lot of snow on the side of the road, especially as we went over the 4300ft summit. We had heard that Mount Ashland had been open for skiing but had to close down when there was so much snow that trees had fallen and knocked down the power lines. The agriculture inspection station allowed us into California even though we had a package of lettuce. We ran through some showers but the weather cleared as we went farther south, not enough that we could see Mt. Shasta, but there were blue hole and sunbreaks as we got down near Vacaville. Passing Shasta Lake we could see that the water level was still very low in spite of all the rain that has fallen this season. We stopped shortly after noon to visit with Bill F who said he wasn’t feeling well enough to come down to Ginny’s for Christmas. C.J. left him his tin of cookies. We stopped at Camping World in Vacaville to get a sticker map of the US – Christmas present for the trailer. Then we stopped at Costco for gas. We also went in the warehouse to get a pizza for dinner with Wally, and while we were there we spotted some of the chocolate truffles we like, although packaged in an unfamiliar manner. In addition, we replaced our bottle of Kahlua at the low California tax rate (cheaper than Iss. Costco’s price before tax! 15), and we got some bananas. It was sunny for the rest of the trip and we got to San Anselmo around 1600. Wally showed us around the newly leveled house now firmly secured to the bedrock of the hillside, rebuilt deck and a paving stone patio (to the tune of big bucks). The north wall of the downstairs had lost a couple of windows to the new shear wall but had gained new triple-panes swing-out wooden windows. Ginny’s guestroom now has a bed that folds into a cupboard, not like a Murphy bed. The Therapedic mattress was very comfortable despite having two separations that allow it to fold.

23 Dec, Wed – Ginny and C.J. made bacon and French toast for breakfast with blueberry syrup. Later Ginny and C.J. went out to do some shopping. Wally and I removed some old sliders from the dining room chairs and replaced them with larger ones. The weather was sunny but it never reached the house and the wind reports showed that it was too strong to consider flying, wrong direction, too. Late in the afternoon C.J., Wally and I worked on C.J.’s new Swing Connect harness adjusting it so C.J. could slide back into it after launching. It still needs a foam cushion to get her up higher so that her armpits are not rubbing on the side supports. Wally also installed the front-mount reserve parachute from her old harness so now her new harness is ready to be flown; it won’t be comfortable for a long flight, but it’s ready. The self-contained backpack is nice and small compared to the large, capacious one she’s had for a long time, but, despite the lack of a thick foam back protector, the backpack barely holds her wing and concertina bag. C.J. will have to carry her helmet and instruments under the top flap (which we did not bring down to CA with us).

24 Dec, Christmas Eve, Thu – A big day of eating out. We went to breakfast, meeting Kim and Mike Galvin at Bogie’s Café sort of across the road from the Civic Center on the hill above San Rafael. Back at 410 Oak, we hung out the rest of the day while C.J. worked on her awards article and had me do some research for an article on fundraising for the RRG. C.J. also baked the chocolate cake layers for the Schwartzwalder kirschtorte for Wally’s birthday. Around 1500 I took a walk up the road and through the gate to the Worn Spring Fire Road. I got back around 1600 in the drizzle (although the sun had been out off and on since 1000). When Ginny got back from a Christmas errand, we drove to Tiburon for dinner at Guaymas, a Mexican restaurant right on the Bay. We had a great view of San Francisco across the water. Later we took a walk along the Bay under the full moon to the Caprice restaurant, then back through the town to where Wally had found a parking place beyond The Lodge at Tiburon. 

25 Dec, Christmas, Fri – Ginny made a nice veggie scramble with bacon for breakfast. Then we opened presents. Ginny had gotten Wally several things relating to golf including a virtual golf lesson. Wally presented Ginny with two silk scarves from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. C.J. got a pair of leggings with clouds and a bright blue insulated vest, and we got gift cards for books from Barnes and Noble and music from iTunes. The weather was bright and sunny but the wind direction was from the N or NE so flying was not a possibility. Late in the afternoon we took a walk up into the watershed along the Yolanda Trail to a sunny overlook where we spotted a big coyote on the hill above. Back at the house by 1530 we thought Cousin Scott from the Farnsworth side of the family would be arriving soon for Christmas dinner but the traffic was incredibly bad leading up to the Golden Gate Bridge and he didn’t get here until hours later than expected. Nevertheless, dinner was excellent with fresh turkey, Wally’s stuffing, yams, and green beans with lots of almonds. For dessert we had the rest of Schwartzwalder kirschtorte and it was even better the second day. C.J. and Ginny spent the next several hours going through family pictures and documents with Scott.

26 Dec, Sat – After Wally and I ran down to United Grocers for milk, butter, bread and veggies, we had oatmeal for breakfast. Around noon C.J. and I went into San Rafael to try to get some foam for her harness at a foam store. Unfortunately, they did not have a large enough piece of the density that C.J. needed. We continued on over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and south on I-880 to Mountainview where we arrived about 1545 to visit Andrei and Irina and their almost-four-year old daughter Katie (Katarina Andrea) and their 2 ½-month-old daughter Anna Sofia. Andrei’s Russian-speaking parents were there as well helping with the kids. We were treated to Old World hospitality with wine, cheese, meat and crackers, then a delicious meal of grilled steak and salad, followed by persimmon and tres leches cake. We waddled away sometime after 1700 and took 101 north to the Dunbarton Bridge (Rte 84) and across to I-880 again to avoid the traffic jam at the Golden Gate Bridge. Ginny and Wally had leftovers almost ready so we sat down to another meal. I didn’t feel too piggy because after all we had missed lunch. After dinner we ran our slide show of the cruise. The temperature was supposed to drop down to freezing at night so Ginny pulled her deck plants in close to the house, under the eaves, and covered them with cloth.

27 Dec, Sun – We got up around 0800, a bit late but there were no pressing plans for the day. Ginny and C.J. cooked up another scramble along with some good sourdough toast. Around 1000 or so Wally checked the weather and thought that Tam might be flyable. C.J. hung in her harness before we left to check that all the lines were in the right place relative to the reserve parachute lanyard. (Wally showed C.J. what a modern reserve looked like – MUCH smaller and lighter and expensiver) ($500). We got going sometime after 1100 with Ginny to drive. We had to stop and go back to get Tam stickers when Wally found out that C.J. and I no longer had them on our helmets. We stopped at Pan Toll ranger station to check in. At launch there were light cycles blowing in and we got our wings and set up. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready, the up-cycles had died and the flag on the ridge was showing N-NE-E-SE, all bad directions for the mostly W-NW-facing launch #2. So we packed up and stuffed all the gear back in the truck (where Ginny had been sleeping most of the waiting time). Wally checked the wind one last time and found it was coming up the launch again. We rushed to setup and we were all on the launch when once again it died and began blowing gown. That was it; we packed up again and drove down via the route to the north through a redwood grove and the Mt. Tam Water District (Marin County). We stopped at the Alpine Dam to see how high the water level was - only 4 ft below full. We took the back way from Fairfax up to Oak Ave. Ginny didn’t feel well and slept through another dinner of Christmas turkey and leftovers. I made a reservation for the Tiki Lodge in Medford for Monday night and got packed up as much as I could. Wally reported that Kim and some others had had flights at Mission Peak up to 30 minutes. Too bad it was such a long trip to Mission. And we also heard that someone had had a good flight at Tam on Saturday.

28 Dec, Mon – Up at 0700 to see Ginny off as she left for work at 0730. We made oatmeal for us and Wally for breakfast. After C.J. stripped the chest bed, Wally showed us how it folded up. (Yeah, I could make one of these things.) We got on the road about 0845 and took Rte 37 across the top of the bay from Novato to Vallejo. We didn’t stop for gas until after we had dropped in at the Williams Airport to see Bill F, gave him the rest of the box of cake flour (from the kirschtorte) and got a bag of local oranges in return. He was off to see his doctor down in Woodlands. I thought we could make it to Redding before getting gas but the fuel warning light came on near Red Bluff and we ended up going into Andersen and buying enough gas to get us to Medford and maybe beyond. Weather continued to be good as we started to climb up to Mount Shasta; the mountain was partially visible and there was a wavy line of blowing snow (?) above the top. Past Weed we ran into some snow flurries and it looked like it had snowed not too long ago. The road was bare and dry, wet in places, as we crossed the 4000-ft Siskiyou summit. We were in Medford by 1500 and decided to get gas before checking into the Tiki Lodge located in central Medford. C.J. immediately got to work, hoping to write and finish the article Nick requested on the fund raising for the Risk Retention Group (RRG), or self-insurance. After the funds put into the RRG by USHPA (letter of credit on the HQ building and savings), the large HG and PG schools and the Foundation for Free Flight, we still need to raise $930,000. As of today, the members have contributed around $303,578 and a single member has promised another $100,000 if the members get to 830,000. Mark Forbes just published a list of contributions by state and WA has 19% of our pilots contributing 46,000, second only to CA where 12% of the members have coughed up $88,000. [Later (1/9/16) contributions are up to $559K so progress is being made, still $440K to go. Our local HG club has donated $10,000 from our rainy-day fund because this is a really "rainy day".]

29 Dec, Tue – Up at 0630 so we could make an 0800 start. There was the usual motel continental breakfast but we just grabbed some bowls, cups, milk and drinks so we could microwave some old-fashioned oatmeal. There was an apple for fruit as well as our somewhat-overripe banana, so we made a pretty good breakfast. We left at 0807, made a couple of pit stops and stopped once for gas in Olympia, and were in North Bend shortly before 1600. There were few traffic slowdowns even in Portland. We picked up mail before heading home to a cold house which warmed up pretty quickly with a hot fire in the woodstove. C.J. heard from Nick and had to get to work editing so we didn’t go to the dance workshop.