Sunday was Easter, and Gregory had a blast! He had his first Easter Egg hunt with his cousins, at his Grandma's house.

He really enjoyed himself as he hunted for eggs. Angel put eggs all over the yard (Gregory's Grandma had probably 200 plastic eggs), and he had a hard time at first figuring out which eggs to pick up. Then it took him 3 or 4 tries before he knew to put the eggs in his basket.

Gregory's growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago he was so small I was afraid I'd break him.

It's events like these that really make it worth being a parent. I shouldn't get too gooshy though, I don't want everyone to squish when they read.

This next picture was taken for the New York Institute of Photography, for my Unit 2 assignment, Converging Lines. Lines have to converge towards a subject, and who do you think the subject was? Of course.

How can you not love our boy?

On Saturday, I hiked into the Spenceville Wildlife Area, which is about 25 miles outside Marysville, CA.  The destination: Beale Falls.  It was a nice hike, rolling hills and some rocky areas.  There were a few other hikers out there, but it wasn't too bad.  The best part about it, of course, is its price... free.

About half of the trail is really an old road that led to the towns of Spenceville and Waldo, neither of which exist any longer.  There was an old copper mine that was closed in the 1900s, and when they left the place, they just left the environment a rotten mess.  Recently there was a cleanup done, and some replanting, so that entire area is closed off

Once at the end of the gravel road, you walk through a metal gate that takes you to a path through beautiful green, rolling hills.  I don't have those pictures yet, but I will in a day or so

As the trail winds around, it goes by Dry Creek.

This Saturday I decided to go hiking to a waterfall. I succeeded... well, sort of. This is the sordid tale.

I recently found out about some waterfalls near my house (within 30 miles), so I decided to find some new places to take pictures.  I figured I could see various waterfalls in different weekends over time.

The first place I wanted to try was Beale Falls, which is just outside Beale AFB, in a place called the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge.  I left my house at 9:30am and drove up to the place.  When I got there, the entrance to the hike was blocked by some park rangers, who said the whole refuge was to be closed from 3-29-03 to 4-6-03.  My guess is due to the situation in Iraq, the AFB was doing maneuvers.

Fine, so I decided on the second destination: Feather Falls.  I drove the 20 miles back into town, and the 40 miles to the trailhead for the falls.  I arrived at noon and started the hike in haste.  The first sign I saw said to leave 4 to 5 hours round-trip to the falls and back.  This is an important thing to remember.

An hour into the hike I decided to eat my lunch, so I did.  A short time later, I crossed a small 30-foot waterfall that ran underneath a footbridge.  This, I found out later, is called Frey Creek Falls.

I finally arrived at the lookout for Feather Falls at 3:30pm.  I ran into another photographer there who had an Elan 7E, but he didn't seem too interested in talking.  He told me he had been up to the falls quite a few times and really enjoyed it up there.


This shot was 1/60 @ f/11, Fuji 100 film.  I'm thinking of perhaps using this for my Unit 3 90-degree lighting assignment.

Now for the fun part... when I got to the lookout, the first thing I did was take off my shoes, and when I did, I realized I had a nice dime-sized blister on the pinky-toe of my left foot!  No, I didn't bring any band-aids, so I realized I'd have to hike back with the blister.  Not the end of the world, I suppose.

At 4:30pm I started back with the idea that hey, it'll take the same amount of time to get back as it did to hike in, right?  RIGHT???

Wrong.  As I walked back, the toe was slowing me down.  I also noticed that as I would walk downhill, my right knee would ratchet, and my entire leg felt like a wobbly cane.  This also slowed me down.

6pm... 7pm... hey look, it's getting darker, this is interesting.  7:30pm... 7:45pm... Oh look, there's a marker that tells me I have a mile to go, at least I THINK that's what it says.  Yeah, that's what it says, I can see it now that I'm up close, hah, it's so dark... SAYYY where did the trail go?  My, it's so dark I can't see the trail!  Did I mention I didn't bring a FLASHLIGHT?!?!?!

Out came the cell phone, and on came its light.  Not much help.  So I walked a bit farther... "HELLO?!?!  If anyone can hear this, I'm stuck on the trail without a flashlight!!!"

.8pm... 8:30pm... how am I possibly going to find my way out of this nice, dark forest without light?  Light, hmm, do I have any light... hey, what about THE CAMERA FLASH!!!

So off I went in search of the trailhead, using the phone to light my feet so I wouldn't trip, and the flash every time it would recharge to give me my bearings as to the direction of the trail.  When I finally got to the end of the trail, I didn't realize it, because there were no lights anywhere there.  I vaguely saw a building in the distance, which I thought might be the bathrooms.  Suddenly, I noticed I was on asphalt once again, and realized I was in the parking lot.

I found my car and took off at 9pm.  I was finally within cell phone range to call my wife at 9:30pm.

So that was my Saturday.  How was yours?

I can't play guitar anymore!!! GRRRR...

Ok, I'll explain. There's a Choir Tribute Album in the works, produced by fans on the Internet. I committed myself to doing one of the songs, Sad Face, from the Chase the Kangaroo album.

Of course, I haven't gotten to even a rehearsal stage yet, I'm still arranging and planning.

So anyway, I picked up my friend Ryan's classical guitar the other day, and even with the nylon strings, I couldn't stand to play, it hurt so badly! After a month and a half of testing my blood from the fingertips, it hurts to play.

Now I know why B.B. King likes the kind you test from your arm so much.