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8/4/2004 1:30:00 PM
Smith River, CA
Summer Night Dreams

Summer Night Dreams

If you could see me right now you'd be laughing ... It is 10.30pm, I am sitting in front of a campfire, the dishes from dinner get washed in a little pot (there is no running water at the campground), but most important I have enough batteries on my comput

Hallo you all!

If you could see me right now you'd be laughing.... It is 10.30pm, I am sitting in front of a campfire, the dishes from dinner get washed in a little pot (there is no running water at the campground), but most important I have enough batteries on my computer to write to you.

We are presently on our trip to our "second" homeland" Bay Area and are having a grand time. I better tell you all about that later on since there are many other things from a few weeks ago.

The end of June Maura and Bob together with Broesel came to visit US.  We had wonderful 3 days, the first evening Barbie, Jimmy and Lara came for dinner, the days we spent at the beach, Balboa Park and sailing. We really enjoyed each others company and the experience of living on the boat together. Broesel also felt very much at home on Lawur and had no problem jumping up to her (not like in Santa Cruz) and was even calm during the sail and heeling of the boat. All the three of them slept up on the deck on top under the stars (it was their wish and it would have been impossible to get Broesel down the hatch ladder into the cabin). On their last morning our boat neighbor came to offer his extra cabin for them... It's nice to have such considerate neighbors!

Right the weekend after we had some more visitors - Dave and Melanie with their 3 months old son Hayden, also from the Bar Area. Dave is a close colleague of Roberts' and friend, he also joined us on our Newport race (they both live on a boat in the SF bay) On the 4th of July we had more friends join us - Tomi, Sonja and Marco (1 year), Miguel and Angie (new friends from SD) and together with our boat neighbors from Texas and hundred of other boats we anchored at Glorietta Bay at Coronado Island for a big 4th of July party. Different music coming out of each boat, dinghies driving around shooting water bombs and guns. It is a big bash and especially the boys had a lot of fun with all the action. At dinner time the barbeque smell went around and at dark a spectacular fireworks could be seen. The pictures on the webpage can give you a much better idea.

Barbie, Jimmy and Lara came for one more sail and "sleep over" before we start taking the boat apart for our deck repair. Well and then we only had a few days before we flew to the Bay Area ourselves. Robert picked us up and we went to Boulder Creek where the boys spent the weekend with the Mobs (short for Maura and Bob). The two of us went back to San Jose to Robert's hotel (at a new mall in a European style with many outdoor cafes, restaurants, little shops, a little market place, etc. very tastefully and nice!) for a few days for ourselves. It was wonderful to sleep in (even longer than the boys already allow us because they don't get up early compared to other kids!), eat when we felt like it, went some shopping where I enjoyed some time at the dressing rooms.... On Saturday we went to a wedding of Robert's colleague up at San Francisco at the newly renovated City Hall. It was a beautiful ceremony and fun for us since it had been a while since we had attended a wedding.

During the week the boys and I stayed at the Mob's. We visited many friends, which the boys had been looking forward a lot. We still talk about all their friends a lot so it wasn't hard for them to jump right back in. One night they stayed at their friend Sammy and he came for a sleep over at Maura's, which they all were at seventh heaven! On Wednesday we went down to San Jose and all stayed at Robert's hotel, since we left for a family weekend - 3 days back packing at the Tahoe National Forest (about 5 hours drive). Packed with a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cooking utensils, food, etc. we left Friday at lunch time. It was the hottest time of the day and Robert and I not necessarily in our best shape but we did great. We hiked about 3 miles in and put down our camp right along the American River. On Saturday we went up about 4 miles (2 hours), only with a little back pack this time! It was a very pleasant hike and it had every possible terrain. We walked through woods, along rocky trails overlooking the valley, through lush wild flower fields and at the end were rewarded with a beautiful waterfall and "swimming pools". We certainly had to walk it all back as well but much to our surprise the boys did not complain at all and did not ask once when we would be back. They had a lot of fun and so did we enjoying the mountains, nature, quietness and undisturbed family hours.

The most exciting thing though was the sight of 3 black bears in one day! We certainly were prepared by the ranger and brochures but it is quite different to actually see them out in the nature and without a cage fence... They definitely don't want any harm and are only out for ones food. As long as one takes care of their things and follows the tips and rules not much can happen. Over night and when we were not at the camp with hung up our food, garbage, toiletries up at a tree about 10 feet high. Two of them we saw while brushing teeth (morning and evening), Robert had heard a crack in the woods and got us together. We were banging our cups, whistling and making many noises. They don't like that at all and walk off without much commotion. The one bear in-between startled us a bit though. We had just set down for a card came and cooking dinner when we heard this loud noise and I saw a smaller one running up towards us about 10 feet away, luckily talking a sharp turning and jumping over a fallen tree stump. We all jumped up and excitement was big but once in a distance walked away very quietly. Sebastian and Benjamin weren't freaked out at all, much to our surprise, and had no problem sleeping that night.

On Sunday after our hike back to the camp ground and beginning of the trail we saw a bear cub (about 1 1/2 years old without a mom), he was not disturbed by humans at all and wandered around picking up the things some campers left behind, which made us really angry. We couldn't believe it that some people would leave their dog food, how dumb can one be?!?! In a year this bear won't be as little and cute anymore.... All in all we had a wonderful weekend and ended it with a fun trip to the hot tub (to wash off the camp grind) and a nice dinner.

Our webpage has a whole lot of new albums and you can go and make yourselves a picture of it all.... I don't want to drain all my battery and will come back with all the stories and news from our trip here later. We sure hope you all have a fun summer, great vacations and will let us know all about it.

Big hugs to you all from the 4 Schmids

Niki, Robert, Sebastian and Benjamin (re-united with Broesel at the moment)

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