Isn't she adorable? I haven't gotten to meet her, but I love her already. I'm returning home on March 29 to see her in person for the first time! I can hardly contain my excitement!!!
Monday, February 22, 2010
I'm an uncle!!!
So this is completely unrelated to anything AmeriCorps, but I just wanted to announce the birth of my niece, Zoey Alyssa Lee! Born February 22, 2010, 6:18 p.m.
Isn't she adorable? I haven't gotten to meet her, but I love her already. I'm returning home on March 29 to see her in person for the first time! I can hardly contain my excitement!!!
Isn't she adorable? I haven't gotten to meet her, but I love her already. I'm returning home on March 29 to see her in person for the first time! I can hardly contain my excitement!!!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Upside of Topside
Our new home for this project is a quaint little four-bedroom, four-bathroom cottage called Topside. The name is descriptive enough; it is perched at the very highest point of the camp, which means trudging up and down a steep hill every time we leave our residence. Aside from the daily workout, the team is quite thrilled with our new home. It's by no means luxurious with its thin, crooked walls; worn, outdated furniture; and occasional rodent or bat visitor. But in its own rustic way, the cabin is comfortable and it's always a thrill to glance out the window and catch a glimpse of the redwoods.
This is my tiny piece of the cabin. I claimed this little corner the moment of laid eyes on it. While it may not be the prime spot, I like how it is set apart from the rest of the house and how the light filters in every morning from my small window overlooking the garden. It feels private, personal, and inviting, which is all I need to be content in my new home. Plus, there's plenty of room to stash my stuff and hang my clothes. I share a bathroom with several other boys, but it's connected to my bedroom and is the largest one in the house.
Here's a few shots of some of the other sleeping areas of the house:
During waking hours, however, most of our time is spent in the common areas of the house. The living room comes equipped with two sofas and a papasan chair and an ancient television set that makes any movie we watch, no matter how recent, look like it it was filmed in oversaturated 1960s-era Technicolor. We get no reception, not even the basic channels, but thankfully lots of our team members brought DVDs, including multiple seasons of good TV shows.
The kitchen is amply stocked with loads of dishes and cooking utensils, and there's plenty of storage space for our massive quanities of groceries. Unlike Sheridan, we have a refrigerator entirely to ourselves. As an added bonus, the camp frequently has food remaining after its weekend retreat visitors have left and generously donates the tasty leftovers to us. As a result, we very well may have chicken maribella, teriyaki vegetables, beef chili, or apple cake with whipped cream for lunch instead of ham or turkey sandwiches. The giant wooden dining table has become a real hub of the household. This fine piece of craftmanship was made by a previous NCCC team and can seat the entire team if we squeeze in tight. Aside from meal times, it has also become the site of team meetings, jaunty conversation, and games of water pong and is a great place to use your laptop or read a book. The table is also right next to the woodburning stove that keeps the room nice and toasty during the drizzly Northern California winters.
This is my tiny piece of the cabin. I claimed this little corner the moment of laid eyes on it. While it may not be the prime spot, I like how it is set apart from the rest of the house and how the light filters in every morning from my small window overlooking the garden. It feels private, personal, and inviting, which is all I need to be content in my new home. Plus, there's plenty of room to stash my stuff and hang my clothes. I share a bathroom with several other boys, but it's connected to my bedroom and is the largest one in the house.
Here's a few shots of some of the other sleeping areas of the house:
During waking hours, however, most of our time is spent in the common areas of the house. The living room comes equipped with two sofas and a papasan chair and an ancient television set that makes any movie we watch, no matter how recent, look like it it was filmed in oversaturated 1960s-era Technicolor. We get no reception, not even the basic channels, but thankfully lots of our team members brought DVDs, including multiple seasons of good TV shows.
The kitchen is amply stocked with loads of dishes and cooking utensils, and there's plenty of storage space for our massive quanities of groceries. Unlike Sheridan, we have a refrigerator entirely to ourselves. As an added bonus, the camp frequently has food remaining after its weekend retreat visitors have left and generously donates the tasty leftovers to us. As a result, we very well may have chicken maribella, teriyaki vegetables, beef chili, or apple cake with whipped cream for lunch instead of ham or turkey sandwiches. The giant wooden dining table has become a real hub of the household. This fine piece of craftmanship was made by a previous NCCC team and can seat the entire team if we squeeze in tight. Aside from meal times, it has also become the site of team meetings, jaunty conversation, and games of water pong and is a great place to use your laptop or read a book. The table is also right next to the woodburning stove that keeps the room nice and toasty during the drizzly Northern California winters.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
An Introduction to St. Dorothy's
It's been a week since I've arrived at St. Dorothy's Rest, and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Since we've been here, things have just gotten better and better, and I hardly know where to begin. The camp is only a three-hour drive from Sacramento, but in the solitude of the redwoods, it feels like a world away. I absolutely love it here.
Our sponsors, Katie and Ben Evenbeck and their adorable 9-month old daughter Lucie, have been simply delightful. They are the perfect hosts for our team. Coming from a camp background, they are very well-attuned to team dynamics and morale and have been so patient an gracious in the way they interact with us. They are also very attentive and responsive to our physical needs, rushing to provide us with whatever shortcomings we may identify. On our second day here, they found out we didn't have a television and brought one up to the house along with a DVD/VHS player. Ben has given us access to his library of really great reading, and we have an account at the hardware store in case we run short of supplies during our work day.
Food is definitely not an issue. On the first night we arrived, we were treated to an amazing dinner of lasagna, ravioli, salad, bread, and for dessert, chocolate cake and the best apple pie I've ever had, no exaggeration. On Sundays after the weekend's retreat guests have left the camp, we have unlimited access to the leftovers in the refrigerator, and what tasty food it is! As a result, instead of turkey and ham sandwiches, I've lunched on chicken mirabella, beef chili, spinach ravioli, vegetables teriyaki, and apple cake with homemade whipped cream. It's been quite the luxury.
When we arrived on the first day, we were greeted in the rustically elegant Main House with coffee, tea, and fancy trappings for lunch sandwiches. The first couple of days of our project were simply orientation, starting with the Main House, and got a rundown of the history of St. Dorothy's, the oldest continually operating summer camp in California. Ben took us for a quick stroll around the property to look at the various cabins and get us situated in our new home (more on that in a future post).
The next day, we began our orientation in the morning with a nice, long discussion on hope, faith, love, and luck, the four key values on which St. Dorothy's operates. We also did a corny little activity where we each drew out our own personal newspaper and what the headlines would look like by the end of our project. It was a little cheesy, but I know a lot of my team members appreciated the exercise and opportunity for reflection. We also had an intensive planning session in which we hammered out our weekly routine, like the whos and whens of cooking, cleaning, and laundry. I was very proud of the way our team pulled together and got organized. It boded well for the rest of the project.
In the afternoon of the second day, Ben brought us on a hike deep into the redwood forests behind St. Dorothy's. The camp is hoping to acquire more land soon, and it was exciting to hear Ben's ideas on how to expand the camp programs with a ropes course, outdoor kitchen, water sports, and other activities. The woods were absolutely gorgeous. It was truly postcard-perfect with hidden waterfalls and a burbling creek tucked between the towering redwoods. It was like Ferngully.
Once we thought it couldn't get any better, Ben took us on a tour of the community the following day. We started the morning at Howard Station Cafe, which is hands down the most delicious breakfast I've had in memory. I had eggs benedict, perfectly cooked, and the best potatoes I've ever had in my life (again, no exaggeration intended).
We then headed down to the Sonoma Coast by way of Highway 1, a winding ribbon of concrete and twists and turns through vineyards and hills until it reaches the Pacific Ocean. We drove through the town of Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed. By way of film references, the closing scenes of the The Goonies was also shot in Bodega Bay.
We ended up at Goat Rock Beach at the mouth of the Russian River as it feeds into the Pacific Ocean. The coast here is no white-sand paradise; it is cold, craggy, and treacherous but also breathtakingly beautiful. It is an intimidating and intriguing vista that forces viewers to reflect on the power of the boundless oceans. Waves crash on land with astounding force, throwing up massive white fans of ocean spray against the salt-blown bluffs and leaving a carpet of fluffy sea foam on the sand in their wake. Giant rocky monoliths rise from the rolling waters, enduing centuries of pummeling with staid perseverance. We spent way too much time wandering the glossy sands and basking in the therapeutic sights, sounds, and salty smells of the ocean.
We looped along the Russian River through Monte Rio and up to Guerneville, where we visited the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. Ben brought us here so we could see what we would be working toward. The park features redwoods literally thousands of years old. One display showed a cross section of a fallen redwood that germinated in 948 A.D. and marked off important historical events, starting from the landing of the Vikings in North America all the way to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. You couldn't help but feel reverent as you walked through this living canopy so steadfastly flourishing over the centuries. The place had a serene yet majestic beauty, unassuming yet awesome.
With an orientation this good, I only hope the rest of the project lives up to the hype. It's undoubtedly gorgeous, and I wake up every morning feeling so incredibly blessed to not only live, but also make a difference in such a beautiful environment. I'll have to keep reminding myself of this truth even in hard times ahead. But now if you'll excuse me, it's sunny outside, and I think I'll find a nice shady spot to curl up with a good book and some tea.
Our sponsors, Katie and Ben Evenbeck and their adorable 9-month old daughter Lucie, have been simply delightful. They are the perfect hosts for our team. Coming from a camp background, they are very well-attuned to team dynamics and morale and have been so patient an gracious in the way they interact with us. They are also very attentive and responsive to our physical needs, rushing to provide us with whatever shortcomings we may identify. On our second day here, they found out we didn't have a television and brought one up to the house along with a DVD/VHS player. Ben has given us access to his library of really great reading, and we have an account at the hardware store in case we run short of supplies during our work day.
Food is definitely not an issue. On the first night we arrived, we were treated to an amazing dinner of lasagna, ravioli, salad, bread, and for dessert, chocolate cake and the best apple pie I've ever had, no exaggeration. On Sundays after the weekend's retreat guests have left the camp, we have unlimited access to the leftovers in the refrigerator, and what tasty food it is! As a result, instead of turkey and ham sandwiches, I've lunched on chicken mirabella, beef chili, spinach ravioli, vegetables teriyaki, and apple cake with homemade whipped cream. It's been quite the luxury.
When we arrived on the first day, we were greeted in the rustically elegant Main House with coffee, tea, and fancy trappings for lunch sandwiches. The first couple of days of our project were simply orientation, starting with the Main House, and got a rundown of the history of St. Dorothy's, the oldest continually operating summer camp in California. Ben took us for a quick stroll around the property to look at the various cabins and get us situated in our new home (more on that in a future post).
The next day, we began our orientation in the morning with a nice, long discussion on hope, faith, love, and luck, the four key values on which St. Dorothy's operates. We also did a corny little activity where we each drew out our own personal newspaper and what the headlines would look like by the end of our project. It was a little cheesy, but I know a lot of my team members appreciated the exercise and opportunity for reflection. We also had an intensive planning session in which we hammered out our weekly routine, like the whos and whens of cooking, cleaning, and laundry. I was very proud of the way our team pulled together and got organized. It boded well for the rest of the project.
In the afternoon of the second day, Ben brought us on a hike deep into the redwood forests behind St. Dorothy's. The camp is hoping to acquire more land soon, and it was exciting to hear Ben's ideas on how to expand the camp programs with a ropes course, outdoor kitchen, water sports, and other activities. The woods were absolutely gorgeous. It was truly postcard-perfect with hidden waterfalls and a burbling creek tucked between the towering redwoods. It was like Ferngully.
Once we thought it couldn't get any better, Ben took us on a tour of the community the following day. We started the morning at Howard Station Cafe, which is hands down the most delicious breakfast I've had in memory. I had eggs benedict, perfectly cooked, and the best potatoes I've ever had in my life (again, no exaggeration intended).
We then headed down to the Sonoma Coast by way of Highway 1, a winding ribbon of concrete and twists and turns through vineyards and hills until it reaches the Pacific Ocean. We drove through the town of Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed. By way of film references, the closing scenes of the The Goonies was also shot in Bodega Bay.
We ended up at Goat Rock Beach at the mouth of the Russian River as it feeds into the Pacific Ocean. The coast here is no white-sand paradise; it is cold, craggy, and treacherous but also breathtakingly beautiful. It is an intimidating and intriguing vista that forces viewers to reflect on the power of the boundless oceans. Waves crash on land with astounding force, throwing up massive white fans of ocean spray against the salt-blown bluffs and leaving a carpet of fluffy sea foam on the sand in their wake. Giant rocky monoliths rise from the rolling waters, enduing centuries of pummeling with staid perseverance. We spent way too much time wandering the glossy sands and basking in the therapeutic sights, sounds, and salty smells of the ocean.
We looped along the Russian River through Monte Rio and up to Guerneville, where we visited the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. Ben brought us here so we could see what we would be working toward. The park features redwoods literally thousands of years old. One display showed a cross section of a fallen redwood that germinated in 948 A.D. and marked off important historical events, starting from the landing of the Vikings in North America all the way to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. You couldn't help but feel reverent as you walked through this living canopy so steadfastly flourishing over the centuries. The place had a serene yet majestic beauty, unassuming yet awesome.
With an orientation this good, I only hope the rest of the project lives up to the hype. It's undoubtedly gorgeous, and I wake up every morning feeling so incredibly blessed to not only live, but also make a difference in such a beautiful environment. I'll have to keep reminding myself of this truth even in hard times ahead. But now if you'll excuse me, it's sunny outside, and I think I'll find a nice shady spot to curl up with a good book and some tea.
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