Bree presents her North Carolina poster at the 2nd grade State Convention. She entices visitors to her poster with donuts from Krispy Kreme, which she happily explains was founded in North Carolina in 1937.
The school holds their annual “Crazy Carnival”. It’s never as crazy as all that, but the girls do have fun.
Bree’s second grade class celebrates the last week of school with a walk to the nearby neighborhood of Fremont, and Jan serves as one of the chaperones the event. It’s a beautiful day for a walk. A visit to the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge is a highlight, as is eating a snack in a small park by the ship canal.
The event-filled last week of school continues with the 7th and 8th Grade Showcase. The 8th graders present posters related to their study of England. Anya chosen topic, British rule of India and Hong Kong, turns out to be more challenging than she’d thought, and she ended up doing twice as much as research as was required. She gives visiting kids (and adults) a chance to win candy if they can answer a quiz.
For her exhibit at the 7th Grade Showcase, Liya presents a number of pieces, including an artwork study of Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
Anya’s last day at her K-8 school! Jan drops her (and her sisters) off for the last time, ending 9 years of driving Anya to school. This is also the last day all three girls will be attending the same school. It’s been very nice to have them all at the same place for the past 3 years.
At the morning all-school assembly, Anya sits with her kindergarten buddy, Claire. At the beginning of the year, the 8th graders presented the incoming kindergarteners with balloons. Today, Claire and her classmates reciprocate with balloons for the graduating 8th graders.
Anya graduates from 8th grade in a nice ceremony at the Seattle Children’s Theater. Jan’s mom and Angela’s mom and dad all attend, as does our family friend Angel and her daughter Lexie. Highlights include a funny talk by Anya’s good friend Ariella, and a moving speech by math teacher Quinn Thompson.
Liya and Bree have their final day of the school year, so now all three girls have begun their summer vacation.
In the evening, Jan and Angela take Anya to a graduation party sponsored by the 8th grade parents. The weather’s a little cold for the park on the shore of Lake Washington, but the graduates have a good time regardless. Angela volunteered her time to make arrangements for the party, including a surprise: two giant inflatable “hamster balls” the kids can get inside to roll around. The party is likely the last time such a large number of the classmates — and such a large number of their parents — will ever be together again, so the goodbyes at the end of the evening are bittersweet.
Liya participates in her teacher’s year-end cello recital, playing Henry Purcell’s “Rigadoon”.
Anya participates her teacher’s year-end piano recital. She plays Bach’s Allemande (French Suite #1) and Chopin’s Prelude 15 (opus 28).
We turn off our landline phone service. We’ve had the same number, (206) 325-4651, for about 24 years. It feels curiously sad to say goodbye to this number, but we no longer need it. We don’t make outgoing calls on the landline anymore, and the only calls we received on it that we actually wanted were from a small number of relatives (Angela’s parents, Jan’s brother). Most of the calls were from telemarketers, charity fundraisers, political campaigns, and so on.
Jan and Chris take their mom on a backpacking trip in Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. Jan and Lyn fly down on Thursday to Sacramento, where Chris picks them up for the drive north. They spend the night in the small town of Red Bluff.
Lassen Volcanic National Park is small and somewhat out of the way, so it’s among the country’s least-visited national parks. When Jan called a ranger station before the trip to check on some things, the ranger said we wouldn’t run into crowds. “We’re a hidden gem!” they enthused.
The park is indeed small but interesting to visit. Before heading into the backcountry, we stop at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee visitor center for a look around. As we’re entering the park, a ranger helpfully informs us that some rainstorms have washed rocks onto the park’s only highway, effectively blocking our passage through the park. However, they might open the road again soon. Going around would take longer, so we decide to wait for a bit in the visitor center.
There’s the usual national park movie with a baritone voice, quotes from John Muir, and pretty pictures of flowers and mountains. We also have fun playing with a sand sculpting display that lets you make little mountains and valleys, and see a topographic map projected on top of it. Thankfully, when we’ve exhausted the visitor center’s activities, we learn that the park’s highway has reopened. We drive a short distance to Sulphur Works, a roadside attraction of bubbling mud pits and steam vents — something like Yellowstone on a smaller scale.
From there, we drive to Manzanita Lake in the park’s northwest corner to grab a final hot lunch. There are 6 or 7 fresh-faced teens working at the lake’s small camp store / deli counter. It seems they have all just started working their summer jobs in the park — so none of them really know how to take an order, ring it up, or make it. Confusion reigns, as our orders are written down multiple times in multiple ways, with teens running back and forth shouting instructions or corrections to each other. Lyn and Jan get their lunch orders in a reasonable time, but Chris has to wait 30 minutes for a sandwich.
We head to the Butte Lake trailhead in Lassen’s northeast corner. After the usual 20 minutes of last-minute fiddling with gear, we set out on our hike. Although today’s forecast unfortunately calls for rain, at the outset of our hike, the weather is thankfully dry.
After a mile or so, we come to Cinder Cone, a large, stark cinder cone volcano about 750’ high. Lyn has no interest in climbing to the top, but Jan and Chris decide to make the side trip to the summit.
It’s really windy on top of Cinder Cone! “Hold onto your hats!” warns someone walking down. And, indeed, as we slog up the steep, loose pebbly trail and reach the top, we’re hit with gale-force winds.
The view from the top of Cinder Cone is nice, however. The surrounding terrain is relatively flat, so we can see quite a distance across the park. Directly below us are the Painted Dunes in a range of reds, browns, and greys.
There’s not much living on the Cinder Cone volcano, but a few flowers, shrubs, and even trees have managed to find purchase in the grainy pebbles.
It rains for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. We reach Snag Lake, our destination for the day, and find an area to pitch camp. We do this in the rain, and then wind begins ripping across the lake, sending things flying. We finally get everything set up, and then set about preparing dinner in the rain. By now, everything we’re wearing is soaked, even underneath our raingear.
Chris manages to get a fire going. [Two days later, on our way out of the park, we learn that the park does not allow campfires. In our defense, we did check our backcountry permit, which mentioned nothing against fires. And we don’t mind admitting that fires cheered us up when we were cold and wet.]
As we’re trying to warm up by the fire, Jan looks over Chris’ shoulder — and spots a bear walking into our campsite. It’s only about 50–60 feet away, and just ambling along. It doesn’t seem to see us. We’re no experts, but guess it’s a teenage sort of bear: not a baby, not full-grown.
Eventually the bear reaches a point where it either smells the smoke or hears us talking. It stops, sniffs, and looks at us for a time. It suddenly turns and walks away, then jogs away a little faster. It stops, turns, then watches us again. Finally, it walks directly away from us and the lake, slowly climbing the hillside opposite our campsite.
None of us are particularly freaked out during this encounter, partly because the bear doesn’t seem freaked-out either, and partly because the three of us are sitting together with a fire between us and the bear.
As forecast, it begins to rain. Everyone breaks out their raingear.
It rains and blows all night, and none of us get a great sleep. In the morning, Chris finds fresh bear tracks perhaps 30’ from our tents. Either the same bear came back again, or perhaps a different one. Lyn said she may have smelled the bear going by.
After breakfast, the rain finally stops, and the sun comes out. We’re all very happy to be able to dry things out a bit before breaking camp. We head south following the edge of Snag Lake, then turn west up a long slow hill.
In the mid-afternoon, we arrive at Rainbow Lake, and find a great campsite right by the water. The weather is perfect.
Chris decides to brave the cold waters of Rainbow Lake. Jan and Lyn opt for splash baths.
Dinner is rehydrated Indian food: chana masala and potato samosas — after a fashion. Instead of Indian bread, we have tortillas. Chris warms his tortilla over a fire.
Talking by the fire
All three of us sleep much better Saturday night, since we’re now all warm and dry. Sunday morning is another beautiful day, and after breaking camp, we walk north back towards Butte Lake. After a small uphill, the morning’s hike is mostly a long, long gentle downhill grade.
Pictured: Lyn hiking towards Cinder Cone.
We arrive safe and sound at the Butte Lake Trailhead. After a quick picnic lunch and some washing off in the lake, we drive back down to Sacramento. Jan and Lyn fly back to Seattle, and Chris heads home to San Francisco.