Up the Sunbeam

-- O nce again, the high country has filled my heart (and my camera's memory cards) to overflowing. I have just returned from another trip to the mountains with my parents who love them as much as I do! This time they took me on a  lake cruise  that explores the wonders of the 55-mile long, 1,486-foot deep Lake Chelan in North Cascades National Park in the state of Washington. I may have seen more waterfalls on that day trip than I think I've seen the rest of my life put together! The spring melt was at its height and every place along those steep mountain faces where water could gather and run headlong down to that deep, cold lake, it came in a rush of blinding whitewater. There were so many waterfalls I kept having to run from one side of the boat to the other to capture the next and the next and the next (such a fun problem to have)! A t the north end of the lake, after a short bus ride, we reached the p ièce de résistance of the tour , Rainbow Falls, a 312-foot ca

-- I feel like I've been a bad blogger the last couple of weeks. I have been absent and silent and sorry I'm not better at this. Gathering my thoughts these days is a lot like herding cats. So many of them crowding around in my head, some of them in clusters, others lone and wandering and scattered. Some of them stumble and lurch in uncertain circles, like kittens fighting for equilibrium on their four inexperienced and uncoordinated feet, while others march in regimented lock step, kicking the unsteady ones unceremoniously out of the way (they look a little pretentious to me). A few are angry and frustrated trying to walk a direct, purposeful line through the chaos of the others, ears back and squinty-eyed, they keep trying to ignore the distractions, with limited success. Don't be surprised if you hear an indignant yowl or a hiss and spat of protest when they get bumped into. Somewhere in the wild and woolly fray, the ones I feel sorry for are the ones who just want to

-- It is quite impossible to spend time in San Francisco without seeing the unusual . Donuts and Chinese Food? Why not? It is a city where oddity is normal, a place where spectacle is commonplace and a slightly magical land where stories on two feet walk freely among the skyscrapers and pass you on the street like a storybook parade of characters. This, like all cities, is a display of contrasts where breathtaking beauty and wretched, hellish ugliness live side by side, where extraordinary wealth and desperate poverty rub shoulders every day without surprise. Despite the fact that I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years, and for most of that time have lived less than 25 miles (as the crow flies) from this world famous city, it always feels like an adventure to go there. The skyline and the city itself have hosted countless TV shows and movies and I have grown so familiar with it through those stories I always kind of feel like I'm meeting a superstar cele