Kevin Ebbert Memorial Run/Arcata Forest

I heard from reputable sources including Lost Coast Outpost that an Arcata college student saw a Mountain Lion with some impressive video while they were on one of the Arcata Community Forest trails a couple of weeks ago! I know they exist in our area, but apart from a near-Halloween scare of one in our town a few years ago, I don't think about them much. (I've also not seen a bear in our town, although they rough up others' trash cans occasionally).

In any case, there was another Six Rivers Running Club forest run this past weekend, memorializing Kevin Ebbert, a local guy turned (fallen) Navy SEAL who died in Afghanistan. I decided to run the 10K race, despite not knowing if I'd know anyone there (I did), mainly for exercise. I couldn't talk Kelvin or the boys into running the two-mile version, although competitive Iver wished (in hindsight) that he'd competed, as he'd likely have done well and Cross Country season is coming up (his coach, Kristin, finished a bit after I did).

The start

Courtney at the finish line

10K in the hills in 1:12 wasn't terrible, but the knees sure hurt! My photos look like I'm barely lifting my legs!  Formal results here. A Eureka High sixteen-year-old crushed the long course in ~45 min!

Seeing a mountain lion while running did cross my mind (but it did not happen, thankfully! You're not supposed to run to escape one but it might have made me get out of there a bit more quickly!).

Back to School!

As you can tell from many of my recent posts, the kids had a great summer, which included various camps (tennis camp was their favorite, and Healthsport swim camp was also good for them!), travel (Glacier NP in Montana and cousin time in OC!), Saturday flag football (evening basketball for Iver), cool treats, and enjoying some musical performances (Shrek Kids! and Elf).

Here are some end-of-summer photos I don't think I ever posted. 

Iver's almost-championship-winning (he missed the last game) Bengals

 

HLOC (Humboldt Light Opera Company)'s Elf (The Musical)

Vanessa was here and witnessed their return to school, the last time they'll be at the same campus, as their school runs TK- 5!

(2nd and 5th Grades!).

So big!

Iver was almost too cool for me to take this photo as I dropped him off...

The end of summer is bittersweet, but I really like the routines of the school year and to not have to struggle for childcare. Iver is lucky to have a great teacher (Cat) who also taught him and his class in second grade. Niall says his second grade teacher is currently his most favorite (after two days)!  I think the kids will have a great year! 

Auntie Vee visits town!

Vanessa took some home leave from Senegal and visited the west (best!) Coast, driving down from visiting her friend Cody in Portland (7-8 hours) to see us!  She made it here a couple of hours after the kids' return flight from LA and they've been enjoying showing her/wearing her out at Humboldt sites these past few days. The last time she was here was in 2019, almost six years ago, and the last time we were together was in spring 2023 on a family trip to El Salvador.

We went to the Flynn Creek Circus in Eureka on Sunday and saw a seal swimming in the water near the Madaket Plaza!

I took a couple of days (M/W) off work to hang out an we enjoyed the sunny (but not 90-degree like Africa!) weather.

Luffenholtz Beach, Trinidad 

The kids love this beach but we haven't even been this summer as it's been so busy with Flag Football on weekends and travel!

"The River"

I love going to Clam Beach Overlook and seeing the large pod of harbor seals!

, Vanessa was a beginner at pickleball, but we've played a lot of racket sports in our day (she still actively plays tennis) so did quite well when roped into driveway pickleball! (We also played tennis at the Arcata's Larson Park courts).

We renewed our family zoo pass and took her to the Sequoia Park Zoo on Tuesday afternoon (she watched them in the morning while I worked and was worn out by board games including Humboldt County-opoly).

Redwood Skywalk!

Demon eyes

The bears exhibit is new and we watched a feeding of rescue bear "Tule."

The Barnyard /petting zoo

near the Aviary

Bald Eagle and scurrying rat!

I never want to be close to these!

She was still in town when the kids went off to their first day of school (2nd and 5th grade!).

After I dropped them off, we hiked Trinidad head and had a lovely seafood lunch at Seascape.

 

We watched some (strange format!) US Open mixed doubles on ESPN on her last night before she had to leave to head back to Portland and back to west Africa.  We're hoping that, once her post is complete, we can go on another family vacation in summer 2026. We live so far away from one another and lead very different lives, but it's so great to have time together!