Another camping weekend -- this one drier :) The wind was in force, however, and it's too bad I don't have a video of us putting up our tent...it didn't feel funny, but I imagine it looked a bit comedic (took us around 45 minutes instead of the usual 15-20). With a thousand or so stakes (I might be exaggerating), we finally got it to the point where we didn't think it would blow away. The kids had...

...come. I'm always bored to tears when I stay here, especially considering I don't have my car (left it in MI last weekend, to take a break from driving). Anyway! Brandon and I are planning a hiking/camping trip for the second week of September. We're going to go to the Upper Peninsula as usual, and we will probably go to Porcupine Mountains, and other cool places. So Saturday, we walked all over...

Went Camping at Mt. Diablo California State Park ( http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=25098 ) with parents this weekend with the Northern Taiwanese Engineers Association on our annual summer camping trip. The place was gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous and mild, the facilities (free, solar powered showers) were great, and the view in the mornings, when the ocean of rolling bay fog completely...

Learned something new tonight: Never try to host a house party on a summer holiday weekend. I'm like "party!" and other people are like "leaving town! camping!" Which is great, actually. I just wish I'd gone with them! What happened was this was the weekend between the end of my physics course and the weekend of my high school reunion. So I was like, "OK, party here" three weeks ago, without flipping...

Once the mud was cleaned from the tent, it was time to load it back into the car for our spring camping trip with our geeky friends.  This year's excursion took us back to Lanesboro , a bicycling mecca of sorts in SE Minnesota.  We were there a couple of years ago, and had a good time with the bike trails and the river, so we figured we'd pay another visit.  It's an adorable town full of antique shops...

So, after all that, we decided to cut our vacation by a day-- we weren't going to spend another night nestled up against rude, loud neighbors. Last night had been a Friday, and the entire campsite was... We ate a quick breakfast and packed up. We were on the road by 1, and home by that evening. Everyone dove for the showers, and then we just relaxed, which was kinda nice. Disappointing, but nice

...managed to clean our bodies in what has to be one of the most makeshift shower stalls in history. There was no room for me in there at all. Kouryou-chan insists that next year we actually buy a proper camping shower stall. I know you can buy them from the usual reputable camping supply companies. Still, it's amazing how good it is to feel clean! We have a thief in our camp. There's some small animal...

Sunday evenings at the camp are the quietest. No noise, no yelling and screaming (or insecure couples arguing)...just the frogs and the crickets. Our favorite night of the trip.

Biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham has proposed that cooking was a necessary step in human evolution , because cooking breaks down fibers and improves the bioavailability of many nutrients we...we camped, we were always cooking with wood, and damn if it didn't make everything we ate taste better. Even pancakes and scrambled eggs. There was something to the smoke that was utterly wonderful

On Thursday morning, i sent Matt off to school and headed over to get the truck and trailer from Dan and Jake and headed out to meet Robert and got moving. i couldn't wait and got a headstart...so we went to a shop in town and built one. It was big and over-engineered and cost $15, but by-gum, the trailer was cool when Matt and Jake showed up Friday evening so that was all that matters.