Pears galore!

This past weekend's major outing was to the Pear Fair in Courtland, CA, which is approx 20 miles south of here.

I'm not sure why I was so excited about it. Others, being somewhat disappointed after visiting it, are seeming to really wonder why I was so excited about it. Nevertheless, I had fun! For some reason (hmm... might it be that I love food?), food festivals intrigue me! I'm all about trying varieties of interesting foods in all forms. Last year, Amy, Shomir, Betza, Tom, and I visited the Asparagus Fest in Stockton, which was a good time. I know of at least one interesting festival I feel I really must attend sometime-- the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA (!), but I'm sure I could quit residency and not have enough time to attend the various (tomato, strawberry, peach, etc.) fairs that are held around this very "fruity" state!

I have to credit our awesome class photographer, Brenden, for 98% of these photos.

The acres and acres of pear orchards we saw on our drive along Hwy 160


Learning about pear buds


Group shot smiling b/c we're having so much fun: Anika, Char, Amy, Phi, me, Dr. N


1st and most important stop: pear pies (they ran out very quickly so we lucked out by coming early)



Char, digging in (we all had a "piece of the pie," if you will. Very tasty!!)

Oliver and Anika (Anika is eating for two!)

Phi and me investigating the CA "lemon law" booth

Amy and me contemplating which, of all thes foods there (pear strudels, pear smoothies, pear-mosas, pear cider, etc...), we should try next...

Guess what won.... Pear ice-cream!

It actually looked (and tasted) a bit suspiciously of vanilla, but I have to admit that there were pear flecks.

"Are you sure this is not vanilla?!"

Amy is still not convinced (I, however, chowed down regardless. Vanilla is still one of my favorite ice cream flavors!)

(Amy, take a bite, will you?!)

I think she may have taken one bite by now!

Phi downing his

This picture, taken as we awaited the start of the "Pear-ade" (!), strikes me as funny. Doesn't it look like everyone is saluting w/ the ice cream cones??

I would totally get dressed up in this pear get up year after year... for lots of money (or payment in pears)

Various "pear-ade" flags

Go, tractor, go!

A break from the 100-degree weather to stand by a large inside fan

We all took home a ton of pears (a huge bag cost us only $10!)

Hmm.. gotta start researching the next food festival!

Thanks again to Brenden for being such a great photo documenter!

Fun in the sunshine!!

We definitely have been making the most of the California summertime! Oh, how I love to play outdoors. Some snapshots of recent fun activities:

Frisbee!! (thank you, Brenden, for the photos)
Now, granted, frisbee when it is about 105 degrees out is perhaps less pleasant than is frisbee when it is 75 degrees (I do miss playing at Soldiers' Field in Rochester!), but it is becoming a bit of a Tuesday afternoon (post- resident blocktime and post-typical intern clinic) tradition. We just have to bring lots of water!

Phi, Brian, Anna, me, and Rachel


Offense


Defense (Char with the frisbee)



Naoya, the "Ninja" (he can catch a frisbee like no one else I have seen!), explaining "how it's done" to Mike :)


(Ninja in action)


Kyla chasing Anna



Group again with Swati doing I don't know what (I'm not sure what the deal is w/ the green color)

Free food

A past random Friday:

Phi and Joe dressing up as cows in order to get free Chick-Fil-A

I was just mad that I had already eaten by the time they'd called me to tell me about this deal! :)

Rafting

Last weekend, Alvin organized a rafting trip on the Middle Fork of the American River. I had actually gone last year with Phi, Brenden, Mahsheed, and Brenden's brother on the same route, but it was, again, a fantastic time on some class IV rapids!!!

Group in the parking lot (Aline, Jessica, Kyla, Amy, Swati, Alvin, Anna, Jim, Teresa, and me)

Joe was out of town, but we had an FP/OB (Aline, Kyla, me and Jessica) + Amy/Swati boat going It was great bonding and, as we joked to our Peruvian guide, Ivan, "if someone goes into labor, we have you covered." To which Swati (combined FP/Psych intern) countered, "If you want to talk about your 'feelings,' I'm here, too." :)

Don't these pictures (which I stole from the American River Rafting Company's website), look like we were living on the edge?! :) Aline took some with her waterproof camera, which I will try to get later, but these capture the trip (or at least Tunnel- Chute Rapids) quite well! This is really us!

Still alive...

Although the mountain water was pretty frigid, most of us (including me, who hates being cold!) jumped in and did some swimming-- it was kind of fun to float down some mini rapids and, once your whole body was numb, it wasn't cold anymore! :) Will try to get some pics of that up when possible.

Swati, Amy, and me drying off at the end!



The northern California Coast

This past weekend's trip was up to the highway 1 coast north of here in Mendocino.

Kelvin and I took off Friday and spent some time around Ft. Bragg/Mendocino before hanging out in SF last night and San Jose this morning.

Pacific Hwy 1 near Fort Bragg (Glass Beach)

The beautiful "sea glass" you can find (this place used to be the city dump!)

Mendocino Headlands State Park

(Free!) wine-tasting in Mendocino County (no, I was not driving)

Although we didn't get all the way up to the Avenue of the Giants, we also drove through Navarro Redwoods State Park and also saw, on the other end of the spectrum, a pygmy forest of short trees! We also got to do some sea-kayaking (which I had never done before!) near Van Damme State Park and got really close to some seals, sea lions, starfish, and other marine creatures, which was awesome (sorry no pics, as I was terrified of capsizing)!! The area and drives (just about 3.5 hours from Sac-town) were beautiful! Ah, I love California.

One more weekend of freedom left before I start FM Wards!

Three off on the Fourth

God created heaven and earth (including California mountains).
And (three-day) weekends.

I was so blessed to have the fourth of July weekend off!

I am currently rotating at CommuniCare, an underserved family medicine in West Sac (Love it! Soooo different than our own UCD clinic. But that's another whole post!) and, when the director said, "We don't have clinic on Friday [July 3]," I believe I asked, "Why not?" not even thinking that, even if a holiday was coming up, I would actually have it off. Somehow, being on random ER rotations and whatnot, I was able to have Thanksgiving and Christmas off last year, but I don't think I realized that some normal working people might have a three-day 4th of July weekend and I that I would, too!

Also reflecting and feeling that I was kind of disappointed with my California-exploration efforts last year (after feeling like I hit up many new and cool places my intern year), I was so excited to go somewhere new! Unfortunately, most of my residency friends here either had commitments or had to work one or more days, so it was going to be either "go solo" or not go. Knowing me (well, and seeing that lots of pictures are below), can you guess which option I picked?

I did a bit of research. Several places on my "to visit" list in CA include Mendocino/the coast, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Hearst Castle, and Lassen Volcanic Park. Will have to go to these at some point. But I remembered that Lesley's sister got married down at Mammoth Lakes (just southeast from Yosemite) and I've heard good things about that area, too! So off I went!

I left Friday morning and took what ended up being a breathtaking drive along the Sierra Nevadas. I am not one to really enjoy driving/ long car trips (and, as friends and family have told me, should not really do much more driving than is absolutely necessary regardless of whether I enjoy it). The route there, which took approx 4.5 hours, took me east along Hwy 50 around Tahoe, and then on small county roads to 395- south. I have a major weakness for mountains and lakes and could easily move to this part of the state!

Here are some shots along the way (don't worry, I pulled over to snap these!).

My first stop was to Convict Lake which whose names comes from an incident, noted to be in 1871, when a band of escaped convicts led a shoot-out.

Pretty, huh?

I then drove past Mammoth (very cute town) to the Reds Meadow Valley which had beautiful views such as that at Minaret Vista, pictured below.



I think this is Mammoth Mountain (where the ski resort is)

Other views:

Lake Mary

I decided to camp in the valley (thanks to Kate for the use of her tent) down by Devil's Postpile National Monument.

This monument is very interesting-- it looks fake, but is made of basalt columns formed when molten lava slowed and cooled.

This photo is for Joe

The postpile (thank you, Japanese tourist, for taking this photo for me)

I went on a few mile hike to Rainbow Falls, pictured below. Wonder how this got this name!

For some reason, I was exhausted and, after pitching the tent at the campground, I did a little bit of relaxing and reading but pretty much conked as soon as the sun went down! I fortunately was a) not eaten by a bear and b) slept quite well for it being outside in the wilderness!

On Saturday, I decided to do a bit of a longer hike to Duck Lake.

Wow. What a gorgeous day and what gorgeous scenery. The 10-11 mile hike takes you up to a series of alpine lakes with beautiful, clear blue water.

No tourists were around to take these photos-- they turned out pretty well for being taken with my camera timer!

I had to hike through a bit of snow to get to the top and was feeling a bit nervous about not telling anyone my whereabouts when my leg sank into this; however, all turned out well without any avalanches.

Duck Lake Summit- 11,000 - ish ft?

So I headed home not too long after finishing the hike. I came back seriously renewed and refreshed from some reflection time alone in some of the most beautiful country I have seen in a long while. And I was very excited to see this on my Prius's "consumption" gauge-- check out this gas mileage I got for approx 30 miles coasting down from Lake Tahoe!!

Saturday evening, I had some 4th of July bbq with Kate, Kate's neighbors, and Kyla, and we watched fireworks over the river without the hassle of fighting the crowds at Cal Expo. It was a perfect two days...

... and I still had another one off! WOW!!!

Sunday was also fun because it held a celebration of Sarah and Matt's baby due in October. Termed a "Barbeque" and NOT a baby shower, lest we scare off all those guests with a Y chromosome, it was loads of fun! Kyla (awesome decorating), Aline (rocks all around), and Anna (thanks for providing all the photos!) did a great job with everything!

Kyla with the cute tablecloths

(the small flag on display in case people couldn't find Kyla's house)

Various beverages for choosing

The happy couple

Matt (with Susanna's baby Sage), obviously ready to be a parent!

Anna, Kyla, Matt, Sarah, Aline, Suzanne

Jesse and Amy

Blanca, Darrell, Kate, Jesse, Amy, me, and Ben

Ben and Kyla (Kyla, you look gorgeous in this picture and I refuse to consider un-posting it)

Opening gifts

They got some cool things, including a baby food-maker!

If I quit residency, I am going to go into diaper-cake-making (I can't keep up with cake-decorating like Cathleen!). Would anyone purchase one of these? :)

The hit gift-- the BOB! I definitely would like to borrow a baby just so I can get and play w/ one of these! :)

Sarah seems to like it!

We play the beanbag toss game in California, too (but it's not quite the same as at the Sviggum farm... :( )

So while I could lament that I only have a two day weekend this weekend, I am not. Weekends are amazing, and summer weekends are the best (rafting tomorrow!). Two more weekends left before I start inpatient family medicine wards.