Jumping off cliffs, cussing worthy of an "R" rating, and other things I learned from my teacher

I woke up way too early this morning.  After spending so much time in the sun yesterday I went to sleep pretty early.  I was in a room with Patrick, Nick, Anissum, Issa, and Rissa.  There were two big beds and two air beds on the floor.  The sleeping arrangements were made before I fell asleep.  Patrick and I were to take the two air beds.  Issa and Rissa would share the big bed and Anissum and Nick would share the futon. 

Now, when I woke up at 5:00 a mere three hours after they finally turned off the lights and tv the only bed that was "correctly" occupied was my own.  

No, no, no... it's not as bad as you think.  It's just that Patrick fell asleep horizontally on the futon leaving Nick in the air bed and Anissum on the floor... sleeping on top of my backpack and towel more precisely.  And... for some reason... Issa too was on the floor with a pillow.  I don't know how Rissa got lucky enough to have the big bed to herself but there it is.

So... after waking up at 5:00 and retrieving my backpack at 6:00, Rissa woke up.  She and I spoke for a while on the balcony before deciding to walk into town to see what was open.  We returned shortly thereafter with hot cocoa and a white mocha.

By 7:00 my parents and Patrick were also awake.  By 8:00 Anissum and Nick were awake.  By 9:30 everyone but Patrick and my parents went back to sleep.  By 10:45 everyone was out of bed.  And by 11:15 everyone was checked out and waiting in the car.

Our first stop was the Downieville graveyard.

My great great grandfather was a judge in Downieville. He's pretty famous there as he is rather notoriously known for having hung quite a few many men and women.

He's buried here in this graveyard that opened in 1861. It's really quite a beautiful site once you get past the morbidity. (ha!)

There are several graves marked "unknown" and this led to a small discussion on the area, in general, being a big gold mining town... and with that who would attracted to the area in the 1800's.

We also saw some graves for infants. Some so young they weren't named. We discussed our thought about that as well.

But it was hot there in that cemetery and for goodness sakes there was water to be in!

My daredevil niece, Rissa, was the first to jump from the rock ledges into the water of this second water hole we swam in in Downieville. Nick also jumped before he and Anissum went off for some other exploring.

Patrick also jumped a few times from the rocks before we left this area for lunch.

It was pretty hot in this area and even my water hesitant dog, Bailey, worked out a way to cool himself while the rest of us weren't watching. It's important that you know that he was away from the crowd in this picture. If we were to walk closer to him, he would immediately climb out of the water and lay of the sunny rocks panting heavily.

sidebar: For you and Loki... Shaun, I have tried to post more Bailey photos today. I understand the needs of my readers here and would hate to deprive you both of the real star in this group. How rude of me to only post a picture of a sick Bailey.

Eventually though the desire for food (the only known way to get these kids to leave the water) pulled us away. We had dinner outside of the pizza place in Downieville called, "The Gallows". The pizza, as always, was tasty. We had two pepperoni pizzas and one greek pizza. The greek pizza would have been a trillion times better with a white sauce but that was really my only complaint.

After lunch we went to our third and final water hole in Downieville. Earlier in the day Patrick had walked the town with my parents and he had decided this place was the best Downieville had to offer. So here he stayed in Patrick's choice water hole for the next several hours.

Bailey clearly approved of Patrick's choice and took his spot in the water away from us contently.

Here we had to keep him on leash because there was another dog off leash who came over instigating drama with him every 15 minutes or so before the dog's owner finally left the beach.

Free from the need to be ON Bailey I swam across the river and found my own rocks to jump from.

Seeing their teacher jump safely from the rocks those hesitant in the past (Issa, Nicole, and Sabrina) followed suit and took turns with Patrick climbing on the rocks and jumping out.

Anissum and Nick spent a good amount of time taking tubes down the rapids just upriver from us.

Everyone really got all the time in the water they could have wanted and them some. The teens were shocked when their question of when do we have to leave was met with a, "when YOU'RE ready." In the end we didn't get out of the water until after 5:30.

Nicole ended up cutting up her foot pretty good on a fall and Issa got out around that same time. But Nicole continued to be content to play her DS (with Kiana who was never really the fish the rest of her family and these kids from Oville are). And Issa? Well she seemed quite content watching everyone else swim.

About and hour before we finished my mom suggested we rent "Stand By Me" to watch. There was something about the woods and water today that reminded her of this favorite movie of mine. I reminded her of the "R" rating for language and she blew it off. My mom of all people! I for one always thought the rating was unjust so I was all for a viewing.

We packed up slowly and stopped at an In-N-Out on the way home. Contented with hours in the sun, bellies full of burgers, shakes, and fries everyone enjoyed a showing of "Stand By Me" to end the evening.

Well it ended the evening for me. After the movie I took and shower and began working on this post. My mom and dad went to bed. And most of the teens put in "Forrest Gump" to prepare themselves for our upcoming visit to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory Restaurant on Pier 39 in San Francisco.