Big Waves

On Sunday the beach was all a flurry with nervous dog walkers and parents staying on high ground out of reach of "rogue" waves. The ocean was HUGE on Sunday. We saw one family get in their car who was fully dressed and soaking wet. This morning we heard that some big waves knocked people off the breakwater at the harbor. From our house we could hear the waves crashing on the beach and the sound of boulders falling. 

~A&R  

Mammoth Ski Trip

We spent last week in Mammoth Lakes with family enjoying the skiing and the great company condo! (Nice perk for working at Yardi Sytems). In three days on the slopes we saw two days of spring like conditions and one of violent wind that caused closure of several lifts. The mountain can use some more snow to refresh the base. We had a great time nonetheless.
~Antara

Did we mention there were mushrooms?

With pride similar to when I "caught" my first king salmon, I write to report I've "found" my first chanterelle mushroom. Dr. Bob exclaimed "Shhh, do you smell them? I just know we're going to find some chanterelles," as he stepped back to point to a waxy orange mushroom peaking through the dirt below. Everyone else was slow to jump on them, so I seized the moment!


At home I scraped off the dirt with a pastry knife, put them in a dry hot sauté pan to "sweat" out the moisture and cooked them in garlic and butter. The result was a meaty, tasty, mushroom morsel that was great with our eggs in the morning.
-Antara



Antara is reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Pollan. She reached a chapter devoted to mushroom hunting the night before we joined Dr. Robert Cummings of SBCC on one of his famous mushroom hunts. Eager mushroom hunters fanned out under the oaks in Toro Canyon Park, and after a few hours time, we compiled our discoveries and Bob identified the mushrooms, telling us something about each one.
-Roy