Christmas with Geoff’s family is no small affair. It goes for days. It’s always a little tough to make it to Texas for the holidays, but it’s always worth it.

Geoff’s parents come to visit for his Birthday. We visit Sacramento, Davis and a cold Lake Tahoe.

In 2008, California hosted the US national surf kayak championships at Davenport, CA. We had amazing conditions, and a great contest.

This past weekend was the national championship for surf kayaking, held at Davenport, CA, and organized by Buck Johnson. I went down a day early to get a practice session in. Friday was super fun. I was on the water from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., one of my longest surf sessions ever, stopping only for short breaks. Super fun. Throughout the day, it was a changing cast of characters, including some really strong paddlers, some people that are brand new to the sport, …

Kim and Geoff went to Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, for a weekend of camping, surf kayaking and crabbing.

Thanks to American Whitewater, we had releases on the NF feather this weekend. I only made it up for sunday, but had a good time paddling with my friend dan, and running into dozens of other paddling friends. Not much water for paddlers this late in a dry year, so we tend to congregate where ever there is some.

I’ve seen the Dave Matthews Band perform something like 40-50 times since ’93-’94. Nearly without exception, I leave every show thinking, “That was the best show I’ve seen.”  Last night was no exception.
After the recent passing of longtime bandmember, LeRoi Moore, I was curious how the band would handle it.   The answer: The replacement player played hard.  Dave made a few oblique references, and they played a touching tribute during the intermission.
A brilliant show.   The encore was amazing.   I’ve never seen that level of crowd interaction, and the …

Kim and I had another fun weekend. Saturday we joined our freinds Erol and Paula for breakfast, then did a bike ride in Napa, stopping at several vineyards. Sunday I went to the Farmer’s Market, then we paddled the SF American with Jeff, Michael and Nini. M&N were in a Topo-Duo, like ours. First time we’ve ever paddled with someone else in a Topo. Monday we did a cool ride round Sacramento with Jeff B., then headed to Walnut Creek for lunch with Anuj and Shefali. Fun time.

With the crazy rise in gas prices, and the fear of recession, papers and magazines keep talking about people taking “staycations”, where you take mini-vacations close to home. I think Kim and I did it this weekend, we had a great time.
Saturday we chilled in the morning, did some yardwork, then headed to the South Fork for a run down the Gorge in our Tandem whitewater boat. Sunday we got a late start, then headed to downtown. We hit the Farmer’s market, then rode our tandem bike around …

After a few days in Guatemala, Kim and Geoff head to Belize for some beachside relaxing and snorkeling.