Saturday, Jan 30th Too much fun

Dick, Al and I were the first ones up so we set out on a walk to the shore of Tamales Bay, about 40 minutes away from Al's house by way of great hiking trails thru a wooded area. We returned feeling like our three mile hike had provided a good workout, only to find the rest of the crew up and ready to head out on another hike. Al and Wendy had planned a day of activities for us to see local sights, so we packed a picnic lunch, and made a stop at an oyster store to pick up fresh oysters for tonite's dinner. Of course, this involved sampling raw oysters by many of our group. (I did have some really great pictures of this venture, but somehow they disappeared from my camera. I'm afraid it may be the result of working on this blog too late at night.) But back to oysters--not feeling that adventurous, I passed. Then we went out to see a herd of elk at a state reserves. We found a buck with about 12 females close enough to see, but not close enough to get any pictures. Our next destination was a hiking area on the Reyes Point penisula and we hiked to the sand dunes where we saw a flock of brown pelicans and on to the ocean. It was a beautiful day-sun shining, blue sky and perfect temperature. We returned home famished. Al fired up his grill and began preparing the 5 dozen oysters purchased earlier. I did try these-cooked oysters aren't slimy like raw ones and while I'm not as big a fan as Judy-they weren't bad. Everyone pitched in and we had a feast prepared in no time. Lots and lots of food, wine, and laughter. No one wanted the night to end, but finally, we all gave in (remember-we had walked about 10 miles today!) and called it a day--15 on a scale of 1-10.

Friday, Jan 29th Let the party begin!

A day of sight-seeing for us until friends start arriving this afternoon. After breakfast (organic-of course) at the Reyes Point Station Cafe, we picked up a few things from a local market and then struck out for the lighthouse on Reyes Point National Seashore where we hoped to see whales migrating south from Alaska. The views were great and the 300 steps to the lighthouse provided a good workout, but no whales. Yesterday, six whales were sighted, but I guess we missed the boat, or whale as the case may be. We did see a large colony of elephant seals at Chimney Rock. We returned to Al and Wendy's just before a rain storm which judging from the lush foliage around here is not unusual. Anything not naturally green, has moss growing on it. The grounds at Sea Ridge are so beautiful. Makes me want to go home and plant all kinds of things in my yard--but I suppose with the South Dakota climate, it might not be quite the same. By late afternoon, everyone started rolling in. Between all of us, there were plenty of wonderful things to eat and drink and we decided to just stay home and graze rather than go out for dinner. Lots of Madison stories were recounted, many that I had not even heard before. We all laughed so much our faces hurt. Somebody should write a book. Madison's cast of characters could rival Lake Woebeggon's.

Thursday, Jan 28th-Arriving at Inverness

We left Fortuna this morning heading to Inverness and another day of spectacular sights and scenery. After carefully checking the maps, we decided it was safe to take a scenic by-pass and venture through the Redwoods on the Avenue of the Giants. Then we continued down the coast on Rt. 1, which provided spectacular coastal views and (surprise, surprise) lots more Redwood trees-guess we could have skipped Avenue of the Giants since we were driving thru Redwoods Nat'l Forest. I finally gave up taking pictures. Just when I thought I'd captured the most beautiful sight ever, I see another one-more breath-taking than the previous one. I have also gotten over the delusions I had about all the reading I was going to do while traveling. How can I have my nose in a book when we are driving through such beautiful countryside?
At Al's recommendation, we stopped at a Salt Point State Park. This provided a much needed break from driving and gave us a chance to hike around a bit and of course, view spectacular waves crashing into the rocky coastline. Then it's back in the car again. We are not far from Al and Wendy's house-Sea Ridge-at this point and are confident we will be there before dark.
However, driving along Rt.1 is like driving the hairpin curves of Needles Highway in South Dakota--across the entire state of South Dakota. It took us lots longer than expected to cover the miles to Inverness. Once again, despite our efforts not to, we arrived at our destination and had to find our accomodations in the dark--always a fun time. But with a few calls to our hosts, Al Tabor and Wendy Walsh, we made it to Sea Ridge House outside of Inverness. Ahhhhh-time for a glass of wine!

Wednesday, Jan. 27th

We made it through the mountains with no sign of any rock slides or closed roads, so I guess it was cleared before we came along. Glad we didn't change our plans and go another way, because the route on 101 is too good to miss. There has been lots of rain here lately, but today was sunny and beautiful--another day of one breath-taking view after another. We hiked thru the Redwood forest, and took a gondola ride along the tree tops at Klamath, CA, and then saw an incredible ocean sunset before calling it a day at Fortuna.
I've decided traveling with all the technology "stuff" that we consider necessities today, rivals the difficulty of traveling with small children. Trying to keep track of all the chargers and cords for cell phones, computers, cameras, garmin and ipod is just about enough to drive me crazy.
Also wanted to include a picture of Dick's new look. My "mountain man" has decided to take a sabattical from haircuts and shaving too. He's kind of scratchy, but I guess as long as he still keeps brushing his teeth and bathing, I don't mind!

California, Here We Come!

After spending the night in Grants Pass, Idaho, Bev and I are about to leave on Hwy. 199 to the Redwoods in Northern California. There's a rock slide that has closed the road and hopefully it'll be cleared away by the time we get to the area, which is maybe a couple hours from where we are. If you don't hear from us, tell someone to look under the rocks! :-)

Here's a shout out to our dear friends, Tom Collins and Kirsten Thompson, for their wonderful friendship and hospitality in Idaho and Oregon. There's a whole lotta love going on in the Thompson family, and we are grateful to have gotten in on that!

More later...

Dick

Tuesday, Jan 26th

Today is Baby Sutton's first birthday! Wish we could "beam" to Austin and celebrate. We'll have to do that next month when we are in Austin. He's a really smart baby, but he doesn't know a thing about time yet.
We said farewell to Tom and Kirsten and headed south. We made a stop in Corvalis, OR and surprised Megan Kleibacker. Megan's mom and dad are our good friends, Wils and Carol and we've known Megan since she was a baby! She was able to sneak away from work for a bit and we went lunch at Dream Pizza, where Pres. Obama stopped when he was in Corvalis. It was fun catching up with her and getting some travel advice to boot.
We are currently in Grants Pass for the night. Don't think we have totally made the time adjustment yet. Seems like we are ready for bed by 9:00. Then again, it could just be another one of those "aging" things. At least we haven't started pulling over for pancakes at 4:00 yet.

Hello from Portland,Oregon!
No, we haven't been abducted by aliens-but I think the sabbitical mentality has taken over and we seem to have trouble motivating ourselves to accomplish much. We'll probably end up living out of our car on a beach before this is over with. Anyway,for those of you still living in reality-land, here is a brief update.
We continued our travels and arrived at the Thompson family cabin in Sandpoint, Idaho (no more scenic bypasses taken) Thursday afternoon where Dick's long time friend, Tom Collins and his wife, Kirsten Thompson were waiting for us. After a brief tour of the area,and a stop at a local winery for a little tasting, we met up with some of Kirsten's family for dinner at a local restaurant. They are very welcoming people and we quickly felt right at home. Kirsten is the youngest of seven and her three brothers still live in Sandpoint. Her mother, who raised the kids alone after Kirsten's dad died when she was two, is 93 and an amazing woman. She learned to ski when she was 60!
The next morning we were up early and ready to ski at Schweitzer! It was the most awesome day of skiing ever. Kirsten skied a lot at a child and is very good, but she and Tom patiently waited for us and took us on lots of intermediate slopes--and there were dozens of them! Kirsten's brother, Chris is a former ski instructor and gave us a few pointers that really helped a lot. Dick took a tumble shortly before we stopped for lunch, but seemed to recover. He seemed sore but fine until later when we noticed he had a couple of bruises on his left side the size of Texas, in various shades of purple, blue, red and black.
On Saturday, we had planned another day of skiing, but Dick was still not moving well, so we just had a relaxing day taking in the sites of Sandpoint, doing a little shopping and going out to Kirsten's brother, Jim's place to see his mules and John Deere tractor collection. We capped off the day by having everyone at the cabin for pizza with ice cream and local huckleberries for dessert.
Sunday morning, we packed up and caravaned back to Portland. Part way there, we shifted so Tom and Dick drove together and Kirsten and I drove together. They had a good time catching up and we enjoyed getting to know each other better. The weather wasn't the best, so we didn't get to see much of the Columbia Gorge. I guess we'll just have to come back sometime! Tom and Kirsten whipped up a great stirfry dinner when we got to their house in Portland.
Monday, Tom and Kirsten had to go to work (work-what's that?)Dick is still feeling pretty tender and his bruise continues to get bigger and more colorful, but he says he's moving a little better. We went to see AVATAR at a near-by 3-D, I-Max Theater. It was incredible! I hope it cleans up at the Oscars. After, we did a little shopping(I found a hot deal on a vest_yea!), journeyed downtown to the famous Powells Bookstore and went out to eat with Tom and Kirsten for dinner at a Mexican restaurant-Esparza's. Highly recommend it if you are ever in Portland. We topped off the night watching the video, About Schmidt-a favorite of all of ours.
Tomorrow, we leave our friends and we're on the road again--- to Inverness, CA.

The Scenic Way to Coeur d' Alene

Was foggy this morning when we first got up, but after waiting a bit, the sun came thru and burned off the fog and we were on our way to Coeur d' Alene. We enjoyed the beauty so much and made such good time, that when we came across a "scenic by-ways" sign about 12 miles from Coeur d'Alene, we decided to be adventurous and take the road less traveled. We thought the scenic route would end up in Coeur d' Alene just like I-90, but just take a little longer. We found a hiking trail which provided a good workout and amazing views of Lake Coeur d' Alene. We couldn't believe how big the lake was--but we found out. The "scenic byway" went all the way along the south side of the lake and then doubled back. It was scenic all right, but only until it got dark! Then, not so much. By the time we had finished the loop, we were 20 miles from Coeur d' Alene, rather than the 12 when we left the interstate! Three hours later, we rolled into Coeur d' Alene--so much for being spontaneous and adventurous. Someday, we'll laugh about this! Hopefully, tomorrow we will be able to see some of Coeur d' Alene in the light!

First Three Days

Well, here we are, three days into this journey and already behind in our blog. I was never able to keep a diary or journal and I guess I'm not going to be much better at this! So to bring you up to date...

We finally pulled out of Sioux Falls about 6:00 Friday night after dealing with multiple technology crises and filling the Highlander with everything we could possibly need during the next month of travels. Be prepared-right? So far the only thing we've forgotten is Dick's teeth! (I can't tell you how disappointed I am) We drove all the way to Chamberlain (one should always start a journey like this by returning to their roots) and spent a relaxing evening and morning with Terry and Sharon. After a lunch of, what else, Caseys' Perfect Cheeseburgers, we were on the road again, heading west to Rapid City and our good friends, Dale and Gina Jahr. We talked and laughed over a wonderful home cooked Italian meal of gnocchi and bolanaise sauce and a few glasses of wine--just to get ready for the Italian leg of our journey in May!

Sunday we drove to Terry Peak with Jahrs and their BIG black lab, Gunner, to meet up with Jay and Keiz Schultz and to see if we could still downhill ski. I am happy to report, we made it to the end of the day with no broken bones and knees still intact! In fact, it went so well, and we had so much fun, we are now the proud owners of downhill ski equipment, thanks to a hot deal arranged by Jay!!!! After skiing, more visiting and another great meal, we headed back to Rapid City totally tired but also feeling like we this was one of the best days ever.

On Monday morning, we bid the Jahrs good-bye. On our way to Bozeman, MT, we made a swing through Belle Fourche to see the geographic center of the United States, at the urging of our good friend and State Bar President Bob Morris. From there, on the way to Bozeman, we saw beautiful scenery, four bald eagles and a sunset that rivaled the beauty of those in Chamberlain. We had a great dinner at Looie's Down Under,a restaurant in Bozeman. Thanks for the suggestion, Keiz--it was great! Tomorrow morning we hope to do a little cross-country skiing before we head to Missoula.

We're off!

My sabbatical has begun! Bev and I pulled out of Sioux Falls about 6:00 p.m. last evening for six months of sabbatical. Surreal feeling! It hasn't sunk in yet, and probably won't for awhile. Kinda like after that last final exam, when you can't study if you want to because you don't even have your books yet for next semester. At the top, let me thank and congratulate my parters at Lynn, Jackson, Shultz and Lebrun for their wisdom and generosity in supporting our sabbatical program for almost 30 years. I know many people envy us when our time comes up to be on the receiving end of 3-6 months of sabbatical. I feel truly blessed. Not only time off, but time to re-connect with family and friends, travel to parts of the country and abroad, and re-discover the "non-lawyer" side of me that I haven't visited in 32+ years of law practice.

We hope to journal some of the important events, places and musings we experience on this journey, so anyone who's interested can follow our escapades, and so that we can memorialize this very special time in our lives. We welcome your feedback along the way. Anyone who is interested enough to read our blog is in our hearts!

Test post

This is only a test of the Dick & Bev Casey Friends and Family Tour--2010 blog!