A Beachy Weekend

We made it to the Beach! Mark drove all night Thursday and asked if I wouldn't mind him driving an extra few hours to the Outer Banks of NC so he could see Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (above is the view from the lighthouse, below the lighthouse is behind us). The kids were too short to climb, though, so Mark did the climb himself. The day dawned hot and sunny and we were in the ocean as soon as we could be! The Banks are beautiful and dreamy, calm and natural. After lunch we headed back up the coast to our planned destination, Virginia Beach. That morning, our trusty minivan hit 100,000 miles. At 4:30 that afternoon as we pulled into downtown VB, our transmission went out on us. 8 hours from home. But Mark was able to get it to a transmission shop before the close of business and get a rental car for us to drive home in. We all got a good night's sleep at our dumpy hotel and woke up trying not to let the vehicular problem ruin our beach day. "It could have been worse, it could've happened on the outer banks" we told eachother and we looked for clean clothes and chased the kids down to get their shoes on. As we stepped out into the bright sunshine for breakfast, putting our cares behind us, Mark promptly stepped into a large puddle of vomit! However, despite the rough start to the weekend, we had a great day Saturday and a long but pretty drive home Sunday. Unfortunately, Mark is back on the road tonight to go pick up the repaired van, drive it home, and reload it for our upcoming Michigan vacation! We won't be posting for awhile, but here is a sampling of our beach trip pics...
Friday morning at Cape Hatteras - we had some awesome waves!

Autumn enjoyed playing in the sand, studying the jellyfish mom caught, and riding Dad's boogyboard at the water's edge.

Evan became quite adept at using his little "surfboard" to ride the waves - Mark and I were very impressed!

Not only did the kids cover Daddy in sand, Autumn surprised him by dumping water in him while he was in this defenseless position!

We had a blast renting this cute bike for a ride up and down the boardwalk!

Ice cream on the beach - does it get any better than that?

On our way home Sunday, we took a detour on a portion of the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, which runs along a portion of the Appalachian Trail. We found out about this place, an old Appalachian homestead, with folks dressed up to the part and the day we were there, live bluegrass music! A very interesting and enjoyable end to our wild weekend!

It's Official...

...We're crazy! Mark and I have decided to take a last-minute trip this weekend to "The Beach" - the Atlantic Ocean, that is! Between Mark's first fire trip of the summer and my trip with the kids to Cleveland last weekend, and our upcoming big Michigan trip, we are squeezing in this three-day getaway because we probably won't have the chance for awhile. Mark expects to be called out to another fire when we get back from MI in early August. So we're off to Virginia Beach, about 7 hours away, leaving early early Friday morning. We could barely find a hotel room, we kept looking further and further up the coast starting at Myrtle Beach, where most Charlestonians go. The best part about it, though, is that we haven't told the kids yet where we're going...just that they're getting a big surprise! Here are some pics from the past week...

One afternoon last week before Mark began his midnight shifts, he and the kids found this fun fountain in the town of Milton, WV, nearby.

We grabbed the kids for a pic with Grandpa while visiting Kiddie Park in Cleveland.

Kiddie Park was not the thrill it was two years ago for Autumn and Evan (here with Makenna); the rides just seemed a lot smaller than when they were two. Afterward, Autumn said, "Can we go to the REAL Kiddie Park now?"
This big old snapping turtle greeted us in the driveway Sunday as we were about to head home!
I got this beauty of the kids chasing a moth of the reststop bathroom on the way home...

And here it is! We love bugs! Hope all of you are well and enjoying the little moments of summer!

Comin' home from Fire

It's 10 p.m. Pacific Time, and STILL 98 degrees here in Redding. Luckily, I'm flying home tomorrow. I just checked out from my stint as an incident meteorologist trainee at the Iron Complex. What an incredible time it was, and though it was hard, it was also easy to keep working considering all of the much harder work being done by the firefighters out on the line, in this oppressive heat. As I took the 1 1/2 hour ride back in the truck transport to Redding, I listened as one firefighter apologized for not taking a shower in 7 days (simply no time... 16 hour workdays in heat and extreme terrain, followed by collapsing to sleep in a tent) and another mention how his son just said "da-da" for the first time, over the phone (his wife told him "Oops, we were trying to save that for the airport.") The third was asking ideas for what he should do with his two days off before returning for another two week dispatch, while also mentioning that his poison oak finally cleared up. There have been hundreds of cases of it in camp. So, wow. My part in this has been quite easy (though Marisa's part has not!!!). The great news is that I completed my certification on this fire, a trainee no more... next time, flying solo. And no doubt, the way the season is going so far, it'll probably be next month.

Gonna get some sleep, early flight tomorrow. Enjoy these pictures of the fire and of camp life!

Containment burn, used to create a containment line. That way if the wildfire reaches to that point, it will run out of fuel and (hopefully) hold.


Burning got pretty active today, with 100+ temps and humidity dropping into the teens percent range. The other photo shows needlecast all over the ground, many days after the wildfire passed through and dried everything out while scorching the ground.

Here, technicians from the National Interagency Fire Center show me how to put together one of their portable weather stations. We positioned it at 4080 feet, near an area that had already been mostly burned over, to help us figure out the kooky winds in the complex terrain (also, to monitor moisture recovery at night). We got it set up and running a few days ago... click HERE to see its current observations. We named it "Iron Eagle" because it was in the vicinity of the Eagle Fire of the Iron Complex.

Our wildfire camp had whimsical portajohns. And another something funny: One of the smokejumpers (they jump out of planes to attack fire starts to catch them early) found an old radiosonde, or instrument pack from a weather balloon, that was launched from the National Weather Service in Medford... from ALMOST 4 YEARS AGO!

A packed section of camp. Last count, more than 1000 people working this fire. The other photo: a dozer line. This is used to mark a containment line out ahead of (and in attempt to impede the progress of) the fire, usually followed by a containment burn of 100 to 150 feet deep from the dozer line. The complex of fires has now burned more than 25,000 acres.

Good night, and can't wait to be home w/ Marisa and the kiddos. I'm coming home, guys!

-Mark

Hello from fires in CA... couple pics

Greetings everyone. Gotta keep this short... a week of 16 hr work days is really wearing me down and I need every minute of sleep I can get; still several days to go. In a nutshell, this has been the most complicated and busy fire weather dispatch I've ever been involved with. The "Iron Fire Complex" is actually an assortment of several fires, while at the same time we are providing support for the "Alps Complex." We conduct briefings, planning meetings, weather updates, and radio transmissions throughout the day not to mention three different forecasts (Iron day operations, Iron night operations, and Alps Complex). All this in an area of extremely rugged terrain of 1500 to 6300 feet, with partial influence of marine layer from Pacific, and smoke-filled valleys (including the one we camp and work in). Number of personnel involved in just the Iron Complex is almost 1,000. It is just the start of what will be a very busy summer. National Preparedness level has been upgraded to 5 out of 5. I will no doubt have to do more fire time later this summer. (but trust me, even though it's hard I love being a part of it)

Here is a sampling of pics... I'll do more later if I can get the time. #1 (above)... a small tree torches a few feet from me during a fire containment burn on a ridge at 5000 ft. elevation. #2 copper smoke-filtered sun in the nat'l forest at about 4500 feet... about the best sun I have seen all week (camp is at 1500 feet and is usually smoked in). #3 me giving a weather briefing a few mornings ago at 6 a.m. #4 a wider view of what one of our briefings looks like.

I could not come out here without the support of Marisa, who is pulling full time hours while taking care of the kids (not to mention, dealing with stolen purse/broken-into car, and dishwasher that busted). How do you do it honey?

And in the Charleston NWS, several of my co-workers are picking up my slack, covering my shifts, etc. while I have been gone. Thanks guys!

Good night ZZZZZZZZZZZ,

Mark