Creek Running North

Great time, Chris, thanks for getting this together. I’ll upload feet soon… Thanks, everyone, for coming along! Next year, let’s double the number!

thanks, chris, for setting this up!  i’d met ron in person before, but nobody else—so it was great to meet everyone. 

becky makes a terrific potato salad and dip; chris manned the BBQ, and turned out wonderful teriyaki chicken [despite certain logistical problems, such as an undrainable flood in the floor of the BBQ itself]; joe’s homemade chess pie was a complete hit; pica and numenius brought fresh bread, fresh veggies, and a beautiful afghan flatbread with spinach; la seriosa brought some great cheeses; fred and miguel brought wines, guacamole, chips, sourdough, and i can’t remember what else, or who brought which; embee brought blue cheese, a white bean hummus; etc.  there was talk of hikes, but we mostly ate and talked instead.  i’m forgetting a lot.

i’ve never been to a party where so many people brought binoculars, monoculars, and magnifying glasses—but there was a running commentary about birds in particular.  two artists in residence, not counting the photography—ron had a big camera with a long-distance lens.  great interest in the bird’s nest, stuff out on the bay, and some kind of fungus we saw on the hike back to the parking lot, among other sights.  many, many stories.  lots of laughs.  chris showed us *the* best way to tie shoes.  megan had an unforgettable story about rolled pants legs, among others.

buddy and cora had a fabulous time.  they are not usually quite so excited, but they really love love loved not only going for a few good walks, but also meeting lots of dog-friendly people with food.  thanks for putting up with their extreme happiness!  the canine vote is to do this every day.

My lifelong streak of missing all the good parties is intact (the obvious explanation for this is nonsense, of course, as obvious explanations usually are). Next time you should have it in a civilized part of the world.

So glad you all got together, and glad my feet made it there! Sounds and looks like a terrific party, totally in the spirit of CRN. It’s always great to see Pica, sketchbook in hand, and her fellow hat-wearers.

So glad it was a good time, and look forward to feet-sketches.

“I really love ya cuz your feet’s too big.” Fats Waller

That was fun, and I recognized my feet before looking for the teeny little initials.

Excellent seeing old friend Miguel again—it’s been years! Also eating and drinking and meeting and birding.

If I were a Dedicated photographer, I’d’ve taked a closeup of the grub that emerged from the dead phoebe in that nest. I guess I need a macro lens now.

Then again, if I were a dedicated photographer I’d’ve pulled over into the breakdown lane on the San Mateo Bridge last week and caught the fat patch of rainbow that knitted the cloud layers over Coyote Hills. And we’d’ve both been rendered flat by that semi in the right lane that kept wandering into the breakdown for a quarter-mile at a time, and passed us five minutes later.

So.

i am in awe of kathy a, who *knew* how important the food was going to be to the success of the meetup. she’s amazing.

great food, fascinating people, satisfying conversation. lots of laughs. crn: for teh win.

I think the only legitimate consolation i received for choosing our Beaming Bioneer’s over the CRN picnic (other than the ridiculous travel distance) would be spending the day with Jack Nisbet, author of THE MAPMAKER"S EYE: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau.

Looking through the pictures i see i did miss some great food, damn.

chris put the link to tying his excellent shoelace knot on a flikr page, but here it is:  http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

for ID purposes, i am the red cooler in the photos.  my philosophy of life is:  bring food, everyone will be happy.  this works almost everywhere (except during actual funeral services and most court proceedings).

kathy, it wouldn’t have been nearly the party it was without you. thanks for everything.

I wish I could have been there.

From the pictures of the people who attended, I see the beginnings of a revolution. Long live the Shoelace Jihad! (whose revolutionary motto is “Bring food. And never trip over those annoying laces again.")

‘Twas lovely...the company and the food and the place.  Many thanks for setting this up, Chris!  Really enjoyed meeting and laughing with you all.  All the food was great but Joe’s chess pie knocked my socks off!  I stayed a while after to poke around in the park, walk the pier, soak in the sun setting over the water, etc.  Beautiful place!

PS: said Hat can sort of be seen on the ground at the far left of one of your Flickr pix.

Sorry for the kinda random not-so-great photos of the group.  That’s what happens when you hand a camera to a non-photographer.  I take better landscape photos, but lousy people photos… Seriously, it was a ton of fun meeting everybody who was there, and I hope we do the ballyhooed Sac Valley followup meetup soon!

=v= Nuts.  Between a late start and the East Bay Bike Coalition map being 11 years out of date, I ended up biking into numerous dead ends, many of them in shiny new McGated McMansion developments.  Occasionally I’d see a Bay Trail sign, but these only led to parking lots for unconnected segments of short stretches of path.

If the printed word is to be believed, the folks living in the rundown parts of Richmond and the gentry buying up the McMansions are united in a common philosophy:  No Trespassing.

The EBBC needs a Jack Nisbet, I guess.