July 13 to July 17

So that's two posts today, though the last was written on the 12th and covered us up to there. I wrote to some friends earlier today explaining that I wouldn't be doing the day to day coverage after I leave the US, but really, I think I'm done with that after this post. I've been traveling a lot, so it felt like there was a lot to say...or at least a little to say about a lot of things. Now, however, I'm at the end of the time where different things are going to happen. I'm in Reno now, and although I'll be going to Sacramento again this weekend to visit Chris, a high school friend, I'll be doing the same kind of thing most of these days...I think.

Anyway, last Thursday, I had dinner with family, chatted, and went to bed relatively early. On Friday, I drove out to visit Paula in Redwood Valley, north of Ukiah, a quaint hippiesque town. She's living and working on a ranch where they raise chickens (for meat and eggs), goats, and sheep (recently sheared). The ranch is a kind of commune, with around five homes that I recall, different families living on the same grounds. The primary home had recently been burnt down, a sad loss probably due to some old wiring (the house was from around 1910). I got the tour of the grounds, which seemed haphazardly arranged, as though things had been added as they were needed in the areas that seemed most convenient. The ranch structures, mostly clumped together, were pervaded by the earthy but not completely unpleasant smell of animals and manure. Old farm equipment, some dilapidated beyond use, lay randomly about, as if left wherever they had stopped functioning. One of my favorite things was the garden, where evening primroses (I think they were called) bloomed in, of course, the evening...it was a rare treat to stand and watch them open. Paula and I had dinner in Ukiah, which has a cute downtown area, and where some (overly) optimistic hippie-types were protesting Bush (big surprise) and calling for his impeachment. I wish.

Though I had planned to stay with Paula through the weekend, she unfortunately had to leave on Saturday morning to be with her family after a death in the family. I left early and went to a campground nearby, Clearlake, but they were full, not unexpected since it was the weekend, so I moved on to Colusa where there was a state park. I camped there for the night, walked into town to see the new Harry Potter film, and read. All in all, a relaxing day.

Sunday I hit Sacramento, visiting Marin again. We went into Old Sacramento this time, where some old building have been preserved and turned (appropriately) into tourist traps. It was fun to see the old buildings, though, and Marin told me that the originial first floors had been below what appeared to be street level now: the settelers built on a flood plain, so the originial first floors had been filled in.

I came back to Reno after that, and have been hanging out since. Reno is not exciting, but it's relaxing and I've found a coffee shop that has decent coffee and free wi-fi.

I probably won't post again until after I get back to Hawaii on July 24th. Until then...Aloha.