My First Whitewater Rafting Experience

On the weekend of Friday, June 23 2006, Sean, my mom, and I went to the American River for my first taste of rafting. Sean had been before and fallen out, my mom rafted in Montana safely, and this was my first whitewater experience. During the seven hour drive, my mom and I listened to Don’t You Know There’s a War On? by Avi. It was a great story about a boy living in Brooklyn during WWII. We arrived at Sean’s house five hours into the drive. I had to go swimming to cool off, as it was extremely hot in the Great Central Valley. His pool was very warm as well, 80+ degrees! Then on our way to the American River, I exasperated Sean and my mom by asking them a lot of trivia questions about traveling around America. Did you know that Canada is bigger than the United States? And since when did Santa Fe become the first US capitol? I looked it up, and yes, in 1846 it became the first territorial capitol for the region.

On our walk to the campsite, we met Joe, a friend of Sean’s who made our camping trip even more enjoyable. Once we got to the campsite, Sean and I set up camp while my mom went to help gather more luggage. This was my first time setting up a tent and I was excited about my first camping experience.

The next morning, I got up and was ready for rafting. When we left, I was a little scared at first. We boarded a bus, which dropped us off at Chili Bar, the start of our rafting experience. Then, after hearing the safety briefing, we met our guide. My guide’s name was Scott and he was very cool. Once we were aboard our raft, I had to get used to being a lefty while paddling. It was fun learning about changing my dominant hand to the opposite side.

Some of the rapids were really easy, and some really hard. The tough ones that come to mind were the Meat Grinder, Troublemaker, Satan’s Cesspool (which you can guess was really hard), and Hospital Bar Rapid. After that one Scott said you could either go to the hospital or the bar. My new friend Owen and I had to get down into the raft so we wouldn’t fall out.

About halfway through the rafting experience, we stopped to have lunch. The food was great. I ate way too much. Then it was back on the raft ready to conquer aqua world again. I never fell out of the boat and was energized as much as the Energizer Bunny. Once the rafting trip was over, we had dinner and I crashed into my tent. The next day, I got up at 5:30, had a long and satisfying tête-à-tête with my comrade Joe, and tried to get my mom and Sean up. I had no luck. Owen and I went frog catching while my compadres slept the morning away.

Once everyone was up, we packed up and I slept in the car. I needed it! When we got to Sean’s, I went swimming again. It was very refreshing in the 100+ degree heat. Then my mom and I left for the six-hour drive back to southern California. On the way back, we listened to C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair. It was a very good. We got home and I had to rush to take a shower and I had to get to bed. It was way past my bedtime and I needed to dream about frogs, camping, and rafting.

The South Fork of the American is an ideal rafting trip combined with various family fun activities, such as skipping rocks, wading in the river, finding frogs, camping, and best of all making new friends and eating tons of food. Camping under the stars with the river behind us lulled us to sleep as we dreamt of our next time rafting the Gorge and the next brutal rapid. This is a great getaway for any family who wants to have the best time together. And guess what, we had real showers and bathrooms in the wilderness too. Mom, can we go on the Kern River next?

James

American River Adventures

Welcome to our weekend briefing on our trip to the American River with American River Recreation. Our preliminary photos of our post-whitewater adventure are seen below. Stand by for a full report of our weekend, our camping experience, and our whitewater photos down the South Fork of the American River. Rumor has it we may have a guest writer on Backyard Adventures. If the guest writer is unavailable, I will post the weekend events and how exciting a trip we had. This concludes this briefing…

California's Backyard

Here are a few of our favorite pictures of our trip to Yosemite National Park last weekend. Yosemite embraces a spectacular tract of mountain-and-valley scenery that I love and had the opportunity to share with Lara. Can you imagine a California girl who has never been to Yosemite? The park harbors a grand collection of waterfalls, meadows, and forests that include groves of giant sequoias, the world's largest living things, and tons of granite monoliths that are fun to hike to. Maybe our next adventure to the park will include hiking to a granite dome or a back-country lake? Places that come to mind are Waterwheel Falls, Glacier Point, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, Tuolumne Meadows and Wawona.

Highlights of our trip include Yosemite Valley and its high cliffs and waterfalls, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, a reservoir in a valley considered a twin of Yosemite Valley (Sean's Secret Hiking Spot – Don't Tell!), and a brief stop in a stream to let Kosmo out to do his thing (or was it let Sean out to do his thing?). After completion of our mission to tackle nature's beauty, Lara and I enjoyed Kosmo's favorite running track. Here is Kosmo checking out the cows in a nearby dairy. The cows were very inquisitive and enjoyed our company. Maybe that is because Sean talks to them on his favorite running track? After driving and walking in the Great Central Valley, it was time to get back to civilization. Next adventure, the American River and white water rafting! Stay tuned for more pictures, activities, and playing in California's backyard…

Graduation Reflections – Spring 2006

Graduation this year was bittersweet for me as my 8th grade students graduated last week. The class was a very accomplished class, with gangly kids, foreign students, races and religions of all sorts, and bright and ambitious young people inspiring to do great things. I have had bright classes and ambitious classes before, but this one had that rare blend of both. A significant fraction of the class made it into a elite local charter school, while most of the others will be going on to Catholic college prep-schools with various honors and scholarships. It was a wonderful year and I had such eager students and supportive parents.

In contrast, students in Baghdad, Iraq recently completed final exams. For many of the 12-year-olds bent over their exams in classrooms, where the stifling heat already edged toward 117 degrees, Wednesday’s tests would signal the end of their families’ days in Iraq, with the summer holiday approaching. With the school year reaching its close, and life in Baghdad unbearable for many, some of the mothers at al-Mahaj school in north Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighborhood began collecting the school records of their sons and daughters when calamity happened.

I will miss our lunch time conversations about our favorite books, from what we anticipate will happen in the last Harry Potter book, to how much to believe in the Da Vinci Code. We discussed how the Catholic Church leaders were upset, “Do they really think people won’t think or research for the truth? What does it say about them if they don’t want to even discuss it? It’s just fiction isn’t it?” And one of my Hindu students pointed out that she found her copy in the fiction section. Other school activities I will miss are the Anne Frank lessons, laughing over the poetry of Billy Collins and "yet another favorite poet, Miss G?", and various other literature lessons to begin anew next year.

The shooting sprawled over three neighborhoods – one Sunni Arab, one mostly Sunni, one Shiite – where busy streets form the otherwise unremarkable dividing lines. Insurgents, Shiite militias, Iraq’s overwhelmingly Shiite police, the slightly more trusted army forces – all were said to be in the fight. Residents could not be sure, or tell how it started. In the fights that roil many of Baghdad’s neighborhoods, with automatic-weapons fire heavy and explosions sounding, no one without a gun sticks his neck out to investigate.

I will miss watching their friendships continue to grow and watching them struggle to get their minds around concepts like stoiciometry in science and deconstructionism in literature, and of course, geometry. But struggle they did, and they got it. They sent packages and letters to troops overseas and sought out other ways to help in the community.

In comparison with their peers in Iraq, for whom staying alive and cool may be more important as final exams commence. School guards with AK-47 assault rifles stood watch around al-Mahaj. Fathers chatted outside, their own pistols discreetly hidden under shirts or tucked away close by in their cars: Kidnapping is rampant in wartime Baghdad. Then, sometime after 9 a.m., bullets started flying. The 12-year-olds, well into their math tests, “were terrified,” screaming and sobbing, said Um Bakir, a mother who recounted the battle that broke out in north Baghdad. Drivers on one main street turned around and sped back out, flashing their headlights to signal oncoming drivers to do likewise. Iraqi forces blocked another street as a vehicle carrying Iraqi soldiers rushed through.

It’s like the fossas (the nick name Sean gives the students from the movie Madagascar) suddenly grew up into these mature, wise, beautiful people and then they have to leave. I wish my students the best and I look forward to another year like this one. The hardest part for me of course, is showing up to work the following day to an empty classroom. No laughter in the hallways, no smiles to greet me at the door, no challenging questions, just silence and emptiness.

In the official account, provided by Col. Sami Hassan at the Interior Ministry’s operations center, insurgents had attacked an army checkpoint near the school. The insurgents then withdrew, seeking cover “inside residential structures,” Hassan said. Soldiers chased them through the area, past shops and schools. Hassan said three policemen and eight insurgents were killed in the fighting.

To the class of 2006—I will miss you—go and do the great things I know you will, and always remember your roots.

To the class of Baghdad 2006, our prayers go out to you. We wish you safe passage to family retreats, safety from bad people preying on another man’s religion and way of life, and support from your fellow students in free lands is at hand. May 2007 bring new light and learning to those who wish harm on young adults and education and experience provide a guide to things to come.

To the class of 2006!

Original Story: Fear reigns at end of Iraq school year (ELLEN KNICKMEYER and SAAD AL-IZZI, The Washington Post, Published: June 1st, 2006)

Purple Clouds

Nature's way of announcing to the world
that it's graduation time!

When I was at Whittier College, there was a jacaranda tree that grew right outside my dorm window. Buried in books and papers, I would hardly be aware of the end of the year approaching, until I was greeted with this. They seem to bloom all at once, always taking me by surprise. It's that time of year again!
--L

Awfully proud of this boy...

James placed 6th in Math and 4th in Social Studies in Pentathlon--and at promotion, received the Social Studies award and 3rd honors in his class.

Well Done, James!