Mum said it just wouldn’t be summer if we didn’t squeeze in a Truckee River float, so we started our big road trip with a […]
Chronology
The Wager
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann Goodreads: On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed […]
Istanbul
Istanbul is such a crossroads of the world: Turkey is one of the few countries on the planet with its main territory straddling two continents […]
A Wedding in Mcely
Finally, the event that was the genesis of our summer Europe adventures: Oliver and Veronika’s wedding in the rural village of Mcely in eastern Czechia. […]
Prague
After an almost sleepless flight across the Atlantic via Istanbul, Mum finally joined us in Prague and was greeted with lots of big hugs from […]
Brno
I do love traveling around Europe by train. It’s so easy rolling into the station a few minutes before departure, no security checks, hop into […]
Budapest
From Riga it was a short hop on an Air Baltic flight to Hungary’s capital. Budapest is an incredibly grand city, with Buda Castle and […]
Riga and Western Latvia
It was quite a pretty drive along the coast from Tallinn to Latvia’s capital on a luxurious (and cheap!) Lux Express coach: endless forests of […]
Tallinn
The Valtenbergs are never ones to miss a wedding, especially one in somewhere as fun as eastern Czechia! When we received the invitation to Oliver […]
AVS Promotion II
Amazing to think today marks the end of an era: no more kids attending Alexander Valley Elementary! It seems like only yesterday when Lilia was […]
Healdsburg Junior High Promotion
And off to high school she goes!
The 2025 HFFCF Fair
It’s that time of year again: months of work with sheep and rabbits all coming to fruition for the 2025 HFFCF far. The new format […]
The 2025 HFFCF Parade
Disco theme this year!
The Final Shear
One final day at the salon before we head to the fair
The Healdsburg Sheep Salon
Stan, Kenny and Betsy are looking mighty fine after a day at the sheep salon! All ready for the HFFCF shearing tomorrow…
The Anxious Generation
The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt Haidt is one of my favorite writers, his other book on a similar topic – The Coddling of the American […]
American Nomads
American Nomads, Richard Grant Made me want to hop back in The Tank! Goodreads: Fascinated by the land of endless horizons, sunshine, and the open […]
Healdsburg Home Track Meet
Last home track meet of the season! Fun to watch all the kids out there giving it their all… Pretty impressive to see one of […]
The 2025 Sugar Bowl Pond Skim
One last weekend of the ski season for us. No way we were going to miss the Sugar Bowl pond skim for two years in […]
The Art of Risk
The Art of Risk, Richard Harris Goodreads: Are free-solo climbers, underwater cave explorers and big-wave surfers crazy … or cautious? How do soldiers and fighter […]