river queen crew & sunset birthday celebration!

on Saturday evening the girls put together a birthday toast on the upper hot tub deck... complete with customized beer mugs for me, wine glasses for shannan (her 40th is in July), decks of cards for mani, and a variety of party favors for Otis & olive (celebrating 4 years old on may 31st).

it was an awesome festive evening. girl couldn't ask for more on her b-day! xo.

the "river queen" mansion on the Russian river

for the long memorial day weekend this year, Mala and I rented a mansion on the banks of the Russian river, and herded 18 of our beloved friends, and their 10 children to join us for some fun and relaxation. it was quite a full house!...

first off, the house itself was amazing! 7 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens, and about 18 porches! the game room (a.k.a. "man town") had a pool table, fusball, & ping pong, and giant tv, and games galore! of course, poker was played. outside, there was a huge hot tub on the deck overlooking the river, as well as a boat ramp stocked with a variety of canoes and kayaks.

it was a whirlwind at times with all the families around, but we never had a chance to get bored. some went wine tasting, I never left the property.

http://www.vrbo.com/286986

my butterflies - growth, change, metamorphosis

it has been quite a year, and my loss that I didn't dust off the blog site sooner to capture some of it. better late than never. a lot to blog in the coming months... and here is a good place to start.

this new tattoo captures a lot of the theme of my last year. growth, transition, evolution, metamorphosis. I'm digging on the nature theme developing on my body, so decided to keep it going. I have such vivid memories of the life cycle of monarch butterflies from growing up, and they seemed to capture my mood nicely.

monarch caterpillars chomping away at milkweed. wrapped up tight in a chrysalis. rebirth. then butterflies frolicking on summer zinnias. I connected with Erik at idle hands just after the new year to give birth to this piece.

Erik originally sketched it to fill my right arm down to my elbow, but I wasn't ready to sleeve out yet. had a dream one night that it covered my side, and we made it so!

we started the inking in early feb, and just finished last week. 6 sittings, which for the size isn't too bad. least I forget anytime soon, however, this one hurt. a lot. my body didn't like anything about this trauma to my abdomen area. ouy! we just worked it slowly.

I'm so happy with the finished piece... if only it would finish healing, and stop itching. ha.

Dressing the Naked boats

Arriving at the put in, our boats were already rigged with the frames and all the food... All we needed to add was our booze and personal gear. This is Pretty close to boating decadence!

A quick orientation to our boat gear, did a loose load, and we moved the boats down to our camp for the night. We spent the rest of the afternoon futzing with the rigging, organizing our gear, receiving last bits of gear instruction... And getting into our boating zen.

Inflated the river couch... And it was a BIG hit. Kudos to ray for stuffing that into the car at the last second!

The group opted to go up to the marble lodge for dinner for one last meal served to us.

It was a gorgeous evening... Made my bed on the boat, and fell asleep under the full moon full if anticipation for the boating to begin! :)

Arriving!

Traveling, packing, and preparing took up all our time I'm that first day... We were all in various states of transition, and leaving our lives behind for a bit. Arriving at the Navajo bridge and seeing the river fir the first time made it real!

Pink flamingo to top it off!

Gear for 16 days... You know you are in an etc trip when nail polish has it's own dedicated ammo can!

Into the canyon and off the grid!

Bags packed. Unpacked. Resorted. Packed again. Leaving shortly to begin a 16 day river trip on the Colorado river through 250+ miles of the grand canyon with an amazing crew of 16 people. Over 4 generations of boaters who have taught each other to be boaters.

I am so ready to detach from the world at large, and just be on the river. I have a lot of life to think about in the coming months, but I need this time more than ever before to begin the process of centering myself again. Breathe. Breathe deeper. I am way out of whack and out of sorts these days. I have set necessary change in motion, and know it is 100% the right thing to do at this time in life. Change is good, oh so good for me. Just have to figure out what I'm gonna do with it. Or not, let go of that anxiety too. more likely, just sit back, let it happen, and see where I go.

And for the moment, I'm going on the river. :)

Sent from my iPhone

Sketchy bush walk

Mid afternoon we had a coffee break stop in a lovely spot out by a small pond. We drank tea, and observed the wAter bird on the pond. Then we set out on a trek across the marshlands. I know many of you wonder if u have boundaries if what ill do... Well, this walk pushed them. Andy decided to take us creeping silently through the bush to try and sneak up downwind of of popular rock where big crocs sun themselves. Really? Sneaking up on crocs? Are you kidding? This was by far my least comfortable walk in Africa, and I was not bummed that there were no crocs to be found!

Rainbow colored lizard

Yeah, can't remember this guys name, but he was cute!

Checkin us out!

That close

Andy was very comfortable with our proximity to the rhino. Me, not so much. But, trust the experts, right? Right?

Yes, they realized we were there!

Yes. Those are rhinos! And yes, we are that close. Big big animals!

Nap time!

Our first bush walk wasn't so productive.... But we drove on down the road, and quickly found 3 napping rhinos. Yes, really. There they were. Andy walked us up to a "safe" distance, and we observed as the rhino realized we we're there....

Bush walking

As we drive into the game reserve part of the park... It became obvious that Andy's forte was really the animals, and tracking. He was very in tune to the tracks and migrations of each animal. He was adamant that he wax going to find us the rhino, the gem if this park.

Andy grabbed his shotgun, gave us our bush marching orders, and we set off on a walk following rhino tracks...

Big awesome bug

Can't for the life of me remember what this is.... But it was a cool bug.

Andy flicked the bug a little, and it secretes a nasty smell to repel it's predators. Good going bug, cuz you are too cool to be eaten!

Rock formations

One if the main draws if the national park (other than the wildlife and cave paintings!) are the granite rock formations. After the flat landscape we had seen up to that point, it was quite wonderful to see some variety! And gorgeous at that.

Green dung beetle!

The guy was disco!

Granaries

The sticks covering the clay/mud structures were recent additions to keep animals and looters from destroying the artifacts in the cave. We could wander freely around the cave, and Andy mentioned the the pottery and pieces are regularly broken by careless "observers"! Ugh.

Layers of cave paintings...

The paintings on the walks of the caves covered many different time periods and styles.

The motopos

It's almost a month later, and I still need to finish blogging the last few days if the Africa trip! I spent a good deal of time over the holidays describing bits and pieces to people I visited... But the details fade soooo fast!

Don't know that I have as much detail to offer right now on some of the places and experiences, but here are the pic's.....

We were picked up at the hotel in the am by Andy, our guide for the day... And we climbed into yet another safari vehicle. As we drove out of town to pick up a few more people, I quickly realized that I had made some major assumptions about Bulawayo the precious day. As I mentioned, lori and I were the only white people we saw all day... I was really embracing the idea that we were in the Africa where people live and work... And I wasn't wrong, but there was another very separate side to the city. The very wealthy white suburbs. Very separate. I was beginning to understand that we stood out less as being tourists the previous day, and more as why are theses white people in downtown? Anyhow. That's what you get for making assumptions!

A 40 mi ute ride out of the city, we came to the entrance to the park, and made our first stop at a cave full of cave paintings, and granaries from a variety of time periods. The cave was believed to be used as a storage place for grains as late as the independence revolution in the late 70's, early 80's.

Our guide's forte was not necessarily historical artifacts... But as a lifelong Zimbabwean, he was fascinating in his narrative of common life in the country through the last 30-40 years.