Pebble Beach

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and we have been exploring more of that shoreline. With Starlink now fully installed, we left, on Wednesday, for a short camping trip. It has not been straight forward getting Starlink, and even more effort to get it to work the way I need it to, but now, I think we’re fully operational. Thank you, my children, for this thoughtful gift. Unless we are under a canopy of trees, we now find ourselves able to connect to the world wherever we are—and that includes being able to find out wherever we are! As we ventured eastward along Superior, we frequently found ourselves sans cellular signal, so it has been more than a comfort to have satellite connections. We enjoyed Wednesday and Thursday with Travis & Joanna and Andrew, including exhausting hiking, fine dining and evening fire pits with marshmallows for roasting and s’mores to eat, but they headed back to Thunder Bay on Friday. We continued eastward visiting Red Rock and Nipigon before arriving at my nighttime choice—the trailhead for Mazukama Falls. However, the description of the hike scared us away! We checked a few other possibilities, and settled for the night 33 km east along the lake. It was in a gravel pit, also along the train tracks. Wendy thinks she counted eight trains through the night! They were all loud! Finally, after the traditional Saturday morning pancake breakfast, we completed the drive to Marathon and our ultimate destination, Pebble Beach.

It was pretty amazing to think of the wave action grinding those rocks smooth and pushing them up the beach this far. I was reminded of the dunes on the west coast of Denmark, pushed up by the North Sea. But, these rocks, mostly 4 to 6 inches in diameter had only been pushed up 10-12 feet. I was thinking of staying overnight in Marathon, but it was only a mall parking lot, and Wendy opted for another try at a lakeshore setting. I found three near Rossport, but after seeing the first two, she had her choice made! Maybe we'll check out #3 as we leave tomorrow. Or maybe we'll stay there tomorrow night! Elsewhere in the world, things are not going so swimmingly and I only have three trading days left in the month, so they'll need to be good ones if I'm going to make quota. My teams are not doing swimmingly either. The Jays have been eliminated from the playoffs. The Riders lost in BC last night. And the Sooners got pounded in college football. But hey, the NHL is in presason, so hope remains! 

Erica wrote, "Eric and I have returned to PA and spent the week in bed. We were diagnosed with bronchitis which is particularly bad for Eric. We both have a round of antibiotics to help and Eric has some extra steroids. We are starting to feel more ourselves though the cough lingers. We had planned to visit Eric’s cousin Moira Koops upon our return, but with our being sick, and her immunocompromised state, we stayed away. She has been fighting cancer for the past six months. Earlier this week she moved to palliative care and on Thursday we received news of her passing. Her attitude and courage has been inspiring to us and we will miss her. We had calls with Haaken and Liam who are also mourning her loss."

Erin enjoyed another quiet and productive week at work. Kristian has begun his work on tire inventory at Toyota. He seems to have picked up the procedures well. 

Travis and Joanna are keeping very busy with BucketDecals. Even as we were out at the lake on Wednesday and Thursday, Trav was able to access business via our new Starlink, so that was helpful to see! Anyway, they got a bit of a break, and managed to walk the legs mostly off of us! Win-win! 

And that's enough for this week.