Starboard rollers give you an idea of how stable these whaleboats are. The tug boat in the distance caused these waves, but we’ve handled far bigger ones without issue. Usually we’re rowing through them so there’s no chance to film it unless I had my GoPro on.
Another lunch with my good friend Ron Baity, but I forgot to take a picture of us together! These were taken outside of Sailor Jack’s in Benicia. It was my first time there. I was disappointed that my first choice of vegetarian platters (the portobello sandwich) was unavailable that day, but everything else I had was delicious.
Men’s row this morning had views of the women’s team boat again. This first shot of coxswain Tori Lin is my favorite this year so far. She was in this position naturally, but I made her pose this way again for the effect.
Was able to take pictures of the women’s team from the men’s boat. The strait was very choppy so the Skills boat stayed in the marina.
Today’s row came with a drone accompaniment. It was driven from shore by coxswain Eric.
I also managed to capture these two loving non-love birds as they flew away together.
I participated in Saturday morning’s “skills row” for newbies with Solano Rowing Club. We always have some experienced rowers on the boat, particularly when we go out into the open water, although the conditions were amazing. I keep reminding myself how lucky we are to be in a place where we can do this year-round. Unfortunately, I didn’t have many opportunities to snap photos in this row. It was all over before I knew it.
Sunday morning’s row somehow allowed us to miss all the intermittent rain. I’m glad we didn’t cancel!
It was nice to be back in the water after the boats were cleaned, as it had been a few weeks for me. Besides the pictures above, I got some with Jim looking like an angel in front of the sun’s corona also after coxswain Tori pointed it out.
Had a nice hike with the Benicia LGBTQIA Network at Glen Cove Waterfront Park and into Benicia State Park along the Carquinez Trail today. I took Bonnie and Snoopy and many folks had no idea Bonnie was blind until we finished. She kept up so well with Snoopy as her seeing-eye dog.
Here are the pictures Christina took:
Another gorgeous January day was a good excuse to use our easy access from the Glen Cove Neighborhood to hike through Benicia State Park, which is one of the perks of living here. It’s great to have such good friends call us up for a spontaneous nature walk/hike.
The foster dogs didn’t know what to make of the journey. Hobbes was extremely nervous to get into the car. Unfortunately, the last few times he was in the car it was to get vaccinations or surgery, so we need to give them more positive experiences with car drives so he isn’t like this forever.
All four dogs got lots of exercise with a bunch of great smells. I keep reminding myself, especially with a blind dog in my life again, that dogs SMELL IN COLOR. When Shea was walking in front of me with the foster dogs, Calvin especially kept looking back to check on me and basically did a bunch of the hike walking backwards, which was endearing but worrisome. It kept getting him tangled in the tandem leash. Eventually I walked in front of them so at least Calvin was looking forward when looking for me. When the foster dogs were left on tandem and off-leash they were trying to stay so close to me that they kept wrapping around my ankles and almost knocked me over a few times.
Bonnie was terrific even off-leash for part of it. When she was on leash I even inspired her to run to catch up with the others for a while. For a blind dog, this is quite a feat, because she basically never runs for fear of running into something, especially in an unfamiliar location. She has to really trust me to keep up that pace. I intentionally ran with a heavy foot so that she could hear me better. Snoopy was also terrific when he was off-leash for part of the hike. He’s a perfect dog.
The views were terrific and I am so glad that we are so quickly moving to longer days, since it was just over a month ago that we had the winter solstice.
