During the holidays, we Schmidt's all got together on Christmas Day at our daughter Gretchen's home where we managed to assemble our eleven grandchildren for the picture below:
Left to right in the back row, that's Kyle Crosson, Jonathan Zweig, Aron Szecsey, Daniel Zweig, Evan Schmidt, Jesse Schmidt, and Matthew Zweig. In the middle are Becky Crosson, Dickie, Carl, and Nik Szecsey. Down in front are Jenny Schmidt and Claire Schmidt.
Kyle graduated from California State University in Santa Cruz in 2004. Jonathan is in his first year there now. Aron is in his third year at the University of Calfornia in Berkeley. Daniel is a high school sophomore at El Molina High in Forestville, CA. Evan is a high school sophomore in Alameda, CA. Jesse is in his first year of college at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA. Matthew is in his third year of college at UC Davis(Sacramento, CA). Becky has done some college work at Santa Rosa Junior College and is now working at Starbucks in Sebastopol, CA. Nik is a Junior at El Molina High. Jenny is a seventh grader at the Middle School in Shamong, NJ, and Claire is in her first year of college at Cornell.
AND OUR CHILDREN
Many years ago, when Dickie and I were considerably more physically fit than we are today, we and our children formed a family pyramid for a photo. Here's what it looked like some twenty years ago:
That's Dickie on top; Mary, Heidi, and Gretchen in the middle; and me, Butch and Peter underneath.
And here's the latest edition, minus Dickie and me:
That's Gretchen at the top, Mary and Heidi in the middle, and Peter and Butch underneath.
POINT REYES
One of our greatest pleasures is heading out to the ocean whenever the spirit moves us, as it did on the past Tuesday. Our customary haunt is Bodega Bay, but this time we decided to travel on down to Point Reyes. We've visited there on other occasions but had never before travelled to the northern tip of the peninsula which is home for a large herd of elk. We came
upon them rather unexpectedly as they were feeding and resting by the side of the road. There were, perhaps, a hundred of them scattered across the hills. I counted more than forty elk cows and two bulls in one location. Here's a part of the herd at rest:
Not all of them were lying down. Here are three elk cows that were curious about my approach:
We hadn't seen a bull elk on the way in, but, as we left, Dickie spotted this guy standing near a little gully:
DRAKES BAY
Sir Francis Drake, on his ship, the Golden Hind, visited Point Reyes in 1579 and claimed the land (Nova Albion) for England. You can see why the bay reminded him of the white cliffs of Dover. Check out this scene:
Before we got to Drakes Bay, I made a wrong turn and wound up at Drakes Bay Oyster Farm. That's where I got the shot below of two egrets. The larger bird is a "great" egret. The smaller one (slightly out of focus) is called a "snowy" egret. We see lots of them both around here:
As we drove along the road, we also came upon what I first thought was a hawk, but, after checking my bird books, I am fairly persuaded that it's a prairie falcon. I would be happy to hear from anyone who can positively confirm or correct that opinion. In any case, he was sitting atop a light pole, so I stopped the car and snapped this picture:
That's about it for now. See you again soon.
