Wetlands Bird Walk and Annual General Meeting

LJ & Mike – 10/5/2023

We were fortunate to have Mark Stevenson, head of the Napa-Sonoma chapter of the Audubon Society, as our guide on a beautiful sunny day on the bay at Wetlands Edge Park in American Canyon.

Before we left, Mark and his two helpers made sure everyone had binoculars and gave us a brief overview of what we could expect to see.  We had frequent stops along the way, as particular birds were sighted, and by use of apps on his phone, Mark could  show us close-up pictures of those birds.

We saw and were able to identify several birds that frequent our own backyards, as well as great flocks of migratory shore birds that stop in the area to feed on the rich mud flats of the bay.  We got to see a flock of White Pelicans, whose wingspan is only an inch shorter than the condor, fly right over us; and had a chance to watch Great Egrets feeding.

Our final stop on the edge of the bay was breathtaking, with sightings of thousands of feeding birds, as well as huge flocks, rising and landing as one.

Many thanks go to Mark for sharing his knowledge and experience so generously and to Betsy for putting this trip together!

We ended the day with a delicious lunch at the La Scala Italian restaurant and a quick meeting to reelect Mike and Klara and to hear reports from Don, Betsy, Tami, and Tony.

On Monday July 18th, seventeen Gang members gathered in South Lake Tahoe.

At Tallac Historic Site, David Long led us on a wonderful walk around the gardens and buildings and along the edge of the lake.  He filled us in on the history of the buildings and families who owned the land.  He introduced us to the Victorian language of flowers with their unspoken messages as he pointed out the wild and ornamental flowers along the way.  This was a very popular summer vacation area for San Franciscans who could afford to travel by train and steamboat to stay in the hotels and cabins that lined the promenade. The walk also included the Taylor Marsh where we saw the recent work of a beaver.

The weather was perfect.  We enjoyed Dave's talk and chatting with each other.  Following the walk, we met at a local restaurant and ate lunch outside.  A big thanks to Dave for leading the walk and to Tami for organizing the day.

The Annual General Meeting for 2021 was held at the Rio City Diner overlooking the river in Sacramento. This was followed by lunch and an afternoon socializing with friends and seeing a visual treat, the stunning murals in downtown Sacramento. Our thanks to Don and Tami for organizing this event.

The business meeting was short and sweet.  We elected officers and heard reports from Don on finance, Betsy on membership, Tami on non-ski activities, and Tony on ski-activities.  Don gave a heartfelt reminder to the group about Roger’s accomplishments as President of the club and specifically establishing our website. There was plenty of time to enjoy our view of the river, savor lunch and share stories.

After the meeting, Tami and her friend Judy each led a group on a walking tour of a score of murals in the R Street neighborhood. The area has become a street arts center featuring a broad selection of public murals representing many artists, styles, and subjects.  The walk was followed by another opportunity to socialize over drinks and desserts in a nearby café.

Several members of the gang took a trip to Utah again this year by joining with the 70+Ski Club. The Skiing was very good as were the after-ski activities mostly in the form of eating and drinking and much conviviality as you can see from the photos above. One such dinner turned into a Dinner Dance enjoyed by everyone. 

One gentleman joined with the group was 102 years old, skiing downhill and dancing at the dinner. Now there is a challenge for everybody reading this. Will you be doing that in 30 -50 years from now??

Despite everything the ski season was very good, if a bit truncated. 

Skiing January 2020. 

Well the season has got off to a good start in the second week of January at Lake Tahoe at both NorthStar and Heavenly, with at least one person needing new boots.

There is another Tahoe trip planned for later in January. See upcoming events or tap on the green   Events Calendar” tab, for more info. 

Some of us are off to Europe for a 13 day trip to Paradiski - France and Geneva - Switzerland in the middle of the month. 

Watch this site for more trips to Tahoe, Mammoth, Lake Louise in Canada.

2019 Annual meeting and Dinner

We had our Annual Dinner and Meeting at the Crow Canyon Country Club in Danville. The food was great and the company even more so. 

Brief Reports from the board were given 

This was followed by Election of 2 of the 4 Officers who serve for the next 2 years.

Roger Avery

Our club has once again gone out for a really lovely day trip this time to the Sutter Buttes. Just in case you do not know about this area, it is known as ‘The Smallest Mountain Range In The World’, as it is only approximately 10 miles in Diameter. It is just west of Sacramento

We were taken on a guided interpretive tour by two members of the” Middle Mountain Foundation”. These hikes are not easily available as they are within the property of surrounding farms. They are only available with guides who are a mine of information. They led us around safely and gave us much information on the trees, animals, birds and trees of the area. We also found out about the indigenous people who used to come to  commune with nature, collect their food in the form of acorns for flour making, and other cultural activities. We saw the stones thrown up during the formation of the Buttes which are now home to about 100 different types of lichen giving a wealth of information to researchers. We had a picnic lunch under the trees and at the close of the hike we went to the Ranch House Restaurant in Yuba City. It was a very enjoyable day thanks to our guides

For more information on guided hikes in this area see the Middle mountain Foundation Website

Another Great day out with our Club

This time 18 of us went to the LICK observatory on Mt Hamilton in San Jose. This was the first mountain top observatory and it was builtin 1888and is still in use. The road up to it was an adventure in itself. It was incredible windy, as it was made originally as a dirt road for the donkeys to haul the supplies up the hill to 4200 feet The views from the top were immense and very wonderful as the day allowed us to see for miles The LICK is an important Scientific research institution, run by the University of  California. 

We were taken around, on a private tour of the facility, by Gail, one of the incredible researchers at the institute.   She gave us the history of the place and much information about the research going on there. She told us of the community living there and how it is still changing. There used to be a school up there but is not needed at present as the children there are not yet of school age. She told us that they have staff members whose job it is to watch for airplanes when Laser Beams are being projected into space for research purposes. We saw the original Dome and learnt of many of the technological achievements, including looking for new planets outside our solar system. It sure was fascinating stuff. It was incredible to walk inside the Domes and learn how these telescopes worked and what they were looking at. There is also a museum on site and the public are welcome 

We finished of the day with a barbecue at a member’s home. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we once again thank Tami and Norma for organizing such a wonderful day for us. 

Rose Marie Avery. 

This year after a pretty successful ski season we  had our first post season event. It was made great  thanks to Joy. 

Joy is a chef and she welcomed us into her lovely home as  Sous chefs for a Kitchen adventure. There were about 20 of us in her kitchen all wearing our aprons and ready to go .She had set up preparation stations for us with recipes and ingredients in front of us.  We all had a go at making a small part of each of the many dishes that were going towards the party food. It was very well organized with each of us spending 15 mins at each station. One person kept the time and sounded the end of each 15 mins.  Joy kept an eye on us all and gave us tutorials on how to do things efficiently and easily. We all had such fun with the occasional glass of wine too, smoothing the way to a great day.Guess what, we all learnt something from Joy that day, and will hopefully be able to put the many tips into practice. A number of men joined the ladies as Sous-chefs. Those that had no interest in cooking stayed at the Belew house during the preparation time, nattering and playing Pool .

After all this we went out around the pool and had a brilliant party. This time all the men joined in

Thank you so much Joy and Tami for organizing such a really enjoyable day, and thanks to all the others  who helped make everything run so smoothly.

Our next summer event is to the Lik Observatory  outside San Jose. It is scheduled for July 18th , (date not yet finalized) and will be followed by a barbecue. So look out for the information in the events section of this screen.

Rose Marie Avery

Ski Season; January - April 2019

We have had a pretty busy ski season despite some poor weather . Several trips to Tahoe  were made, visiting both Northstar and Heavenly, in January February and March.

There also were, two 2 trips further afield in the US, to Big sky Montana, Utah and Mammoth.

Some members went abroad taking a trip to Jan Val Gardena in Italy with a pre trip to Lisbon Portugal. 
There is one more trip planned to Tahoe at the beginning of March and into April.

Everyone reported having a good time on these trips although one in Tahoe was subject to such snow and wind  in California that it caused the mountain to be closed. This cut most people’s trip short. However it did not put our members off from going on any trip that weather permitted. 

As you can see one of the photos, shows how deep the snow was  and another shows how much one of our members was having a good time with  large plates of food . The second plate was not his but it certainly looks from the photo that it might have been.

All the trips were well attended and the participants got together for lunch and dinner/party time each day. California welcomes the rain and snow,  as it has ended our drought but wish the Torrents / Falls came down on non ski days.

We are now looking to our summer event that both skiers and non skiers participate in. They are being planned as I write so keep an eye on the right upper part of this screen for that news. 

What a lovely day we had in Santa Rosa. We toured the Luther Burbank Gardens and learned how important he was to Californian Agriculture with his multiple experiments of grafting and seeding and enquiry. He spent his whole life looking for different and  improved plants to grow in our fertile soil. 

Men and women are still experimenting and carrying on his legacy in these gardens. 

We then toured his house and learned about his life and how he and his wife lived.

Our lunch, enjoyed by all, was at an unexpected place at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, Sky Lounge.
In the afternoon we  visited the Charles Schulz Memorial Museum. This brought back lots of memories for our group and it was quite amazing how prolific he was. Our Docent was a friend of his and was able to give great insight as to what made this man tick.

Thanks once again to Norma and Tami for their research and organization which gave us all such a splendid day out.

Rose Marie Avery

This outing was amazingly interesting, informative and  often emotional.  7or 8 prisoners volunteered to talk with us . They were extremely forthcoming about their reasons for incarceration. They spoke to us about their life at San Quentin and how they were taking advantage of the many programs offered them with a view to easing them back into normal life on release.  

They stayed with us during the tour of the facility, generously answering all our questions. We saw where the prisoners produced the prison newspaper. It was very professional in every way and was produced once a month.  

The prisoners also produce a pod cast called earhustle. It won an international contest in 2016 from 1500 entrants. We also saw the recreation Quad, the prisoners cells ,the hospital and  the prison ER,  the prisoner made murals and the old very dark dungeons from the 1800s.lastly we saw the execution chamber.  All our very many questions were answered.

The cages you see above of some of our members in cages are used for the prisoners during group therapy. What looked like a very non therapeutic situation  is in fact well thought out. By doing this the prisoner are  safe and can speak freely as no prison guards have to be present and other prisoners cannot become violent towards another. The Therapist is also safe. 

We spent about 4 hours on this tour which kept our interest all the time. 

Thank you Don, Tami and Norma for arranging this excellent tour.

If you want more information about the podcast you can find it at www.earhustles.com

Rose Marie Avery

Ski Season 2018

We are  at the end of a busy ski season which was enjoyed by all who took part. There were 5 trips to Northstar and Heavenly at Tahoe. and also trips to Mammoth, Utah  and Japan. The Japan trip included time in Tokyo and time in the Japanese Alps at Hakuba Valley.

It was a successful. and enjoyable season.
Our thanks goes to Tony Suh's whose organization made it possible for us to join the 70 + organization  at both Utah and Japan and join  our LA sister ski  Club at Mammoth. This all added to the enjoyment and variety of our club events,

We are now looking forward to our Summer and  Fall events. Look to the Top right of this page to see what has already been planned thanks to Tammi Beleuw and  Norma Dillon. There will be something planned for most months of the summer and fall season and we look forward to many participants taking part .  So keep looking there to see what is next and sign up or else you will miss a great time. 

Rose Marie Avery.