Memories of my Great Grandma

A legacy has come to an end. I found out on Saturday that my Great Grandmother Amelia has passed away. She was in her early nineties (I don't recall if she was 91 or 92). It wasn't a complete surprise as her health has been deteriorating pretty quickly these past couple of years. I was told she passed away in her sleep.

What I want to do with this post is to share some (okay a lot) of the memories that I have of this feisty Portuguese woman that was my mother's mother's mother. For those of you who got to meet my Grandma Tees and spend some time with her, please post some of your memories of her as well! I also apologize in advance because some of the memories I have are somewhat fragmented and incomplete but I want to share them anyway.

I am not exactly sure where to begin. I guess that I can begin by saying that for most of my childhood I grew up living in a household with my mother and my grandparents, Jack & Audrey. This unique living situation enabled me to be exposed to a great deal of my relatives that I am not sure I would have had the chance to meet and get to know had I grown up living in a traditional mom-dad-kid/s type family. One of those relatives was my great grandma. I know that my mom has been pretty close to my Great Grandma since she was pretty young, and my Grandma Audrey was close to her as well and visited her mom a lot before she passed away in 97. What this really meant for me is that I also got to visit my Great Grandma a lot and hang out on her property and have her on some of our trips. Having said all that, I think I am just going to post my random memories of the times that I have spent with or around my Great Grandma.

My earliest memory was of my great grandma's house in Hayward when she was married to her second(?) husband Gary. It is funny, I can picture the house and I remember that Gary had a big white Oldsmobile Delta 88 in the garage that went to my grandpa when Gary passed away, but I don't remember anything else except for playing in the front yard as a little kid (I was pretty young).

Another early memory is that around Thanksgiving, Gary and Great Grandma (I will also refer to her as Grandma Tees) would come over for dinner and we would always watch "The Bluebird" starring Shirley Temple on TV.

I am not sure when Gary passed away, I don't recall his funeral, and I am not sure when it was that Grandma Tees moved back up to Lake County to her property in Kelseyville. I was pretty young. I do remember my Great Grandma's property before she bought her mobile home though and I also remember the mobile home being new and just set up. I also remember through the years going to the airport for our fancy celebration dinners (before they closed that restaurant). That restaurant was terrible, but the ladies liked it. I suppose I should also mention that the ladies consisted of my Great Grandma, my Grandma, and my Aunt Mary (great grandma's sister). Other ladies also included my Aunt Isabel and Aunt Barbara (also my great grandma's sisters), and Priscilla who was the painting teacher, at times. I also remember going to the Lake County fair to see if any of the ladies had won ribbons for their paintings.

I have tons of memories of playing down near the creek that runs next to my great grandma's property. Those poor pollywogs, they got terrorized by all of the grand and great grand kids! We would also come back from the creek with lots of rocks, obsidian mostly, since she lived at the base of a dormant volcano, Mt. Konocti. I am surprised that her house wasn't buried by rocks! She was a pretty good cook from what I remember. Her roasts that she made in her convection oven were the best. I am assuming she is the person who taught my Grandma Audrey to cook, who is the main person who taught me to cook and bake.

Great Grandma thought I was the biggest brat when I was younger and I admit that I didn't much care for her around same time. We both changed our minds about each other long ago. I am also glad that I was able to give her the opportunity to go to Kauai when Louis and I got married there. She never thought that she would ever go, but she had the greatest time! Who wouldn't, Hawaii is a great place! It was important to me that she be there because my grandparents (Jack & Audrey) had passed away and couldn't be. She was so cute in her Hawaiian mumu's.

I also have lots of memories of Grandma and Great Grandma playing Yahtzee, oil painting, canning all manner of fruits/jams/pickles, shelling walnuts and sorting them, all of the ladies speeding off to go play nickel machines at whatever casino we were at at the time, and hearing about how she won cake mix and other stuff at bingo at her church. There is just so much that she was a part of while I was growing up it is hard to list everything.

One of my favorite stories about her is the fact that she used to chase her kids around the dining table with a broom when they were bad. My Grandma Tees was all of 5ft and to picture her so mad at her mischievous children she would chase them with a broom is hilarious and always brings a smile to my face! Also in her wedding photo to my Great Grandpa she had to stand several feet in front so that they would both fit in the picture (my great grandpa was over 6ft).

In conclusion, my great grandma had a pretty good life. We have a picture somewhere of five consecutive generations living all at one time (Great Grandma Amelia, Grandma Audrey, Aunt Judy, my cousin Stephanie, and her son Alex). I know she is embedded in my memories and in the memories of many others. She will be missed. Thanks for listening.

Waterfall Rating System

It has been suggested to me by several people that I should start my own waterfall rating system. That's a pretty good idea so let me explain how I am going to set up that rating system (and what makes it unique from other rating systems I have been exposed to).

It seems like most of the other rating systems take several criteria in to consideration such as location/difficulty in accessing the waterfall and/or volume, height, ect. I want to base my ratings on one thing... the way the waterfall makes me feel when I am standing near it. I have seen a lot of waterfalls in the last couple of years from famous waterfalls to little known unnamed waterfalls. Each waterfall has been quite enjoyable (well, as long as they had water in them) but there are definite differences in the way each one has made me feel.

So... my rating system is as follows:

5 - When you stand next to the waterfall all you can think is WOW with your mouth hanging open.
4 - The waterfall still has the WOW element but you aren't paralyzed in wonder.
3 - The waterfall is pleasant to look at and feels good to be around but doesn't have the WOW factor.
2 - The waterfall is nice and worth it to see once but I would not go out of my way to see it again.
1 - The waterfall is somewhat disappointing and unimpressive.

With that said, stay tuned for future posts with my ratings attached!

Waterfalls visited in January 2006

My waterfall total for January 2006 is 2.

Castle Rock Falls

I visited Castle Rock Falls on the 15th in Castle Rock State Park. This waterfall has particular significance to me because it was the first waterfall that I ticked-off in my California Waterfalls book. That first visit was in July 2003. I have definitely come a long way fitness wise, this trail took everything out of me the first time I took it. It is a short trail (not even 2 miles RT) with only 200 ft of elevation change. It was really nice to see how much progress I have made, this time the trail was no difficulty at all, I just had a pleasant stroll!



Stairstep Falls

I visited this waterfall on the 22nd. This was the first time I had been to the other side of Samuel P. Taylor State Park (I had always been to the picnic area/campground). When I was younger, this park used to be one of my family's more popular destinations for camping and picnicking but I never knew that there was a waterfall here. I am glad that I took the time to see this waterfall. It was a really nice little hike to get to it.

Crazy Stats

The last two weekends of my life have been awesome (and quite busy)! I have put together some stats of the things that I have accomplished:

States visited: 3 (WA, OR, & CA)
National Parks visited: 2 (Olympic & Redwood)
Waterfalls Seen: 9 (Falls View Falls, Rocky Brook Falls, Marymere Falls, Madison Creek Falls, Trillium Falls, Highway 199 Falls, Middle Fork Falls, and two unnamed falls in the Smith river drainage area of CA)
Miles driven: over 1200 (1000 in the BMW and the rest in the rented Xterra)
Peaks climbed: 2 (Sharp Point/Conical Rock & Mt Walker)
State Parks visited: several (Jedidiah Smith SP, Redwood SP, Humboldt Lagoons SP to name a few).
Redwood trees seen: Many! The CA north coast is full of redwood trees.
New discoveries, random facts uncovered, & goals made: Waterfalls give off negative ions, Gina was on a canoeing team in high school, and a goal was discussed to kayak the north fork of the Smith river in the summer of 2007.

I have to thank all of my traveling/adventuring companions the past two weekends for putting up with me and my crazy ideas (and for adding your own crazy ideas in some cases). Each one of you really added to the experience/enjoyment of the trip and it wouldn't have been the same without any of you!

Negative Ions

For all of you wondering what negative ions are, here is the simple answer:

Negative ions occur in nature (around waterfalls, beaches, mountains, ect.) and when we come in contact with them, it makes us happy!

Well, okay, they are a bit more complicated than that, but basically according to my research (link below from webmd) negative ions help to increase levels of serotonin in our bodies, which help to alter our moods in a positive manner.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/65/72756.htm?lastselectedguid={5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348}

Negative Ion Addict just sort of fits me and is a great theme for my recent (and future) adventures. Thinking about it, I probably have always been a negative ion addict (and an adrenalin junkie)... I am sure that those of you who have know me for years can attest to that (especially those of you I went to high school with!). I just took some years off from my nature side to pursue activities that were more of the inside non-outdoorsy variety. You can only ignore stuff you like to do so long before you just have to restore balance! Admittedly, the pendulum may be swinging way to the opposite side at the moment, but I am enjoying myself immensely!

A welcome note

I have been thinking of starting some sort of website or something so that I can post pictures and share the tales of my adventures for some time now. I am a bit too lazy to figure out how to program my own website, so, I guess for now, the solution is to start my own blog. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I am going to enjoy writing it!