Wilderness First Responders and Guanacos

Hello everyone!  Sorry I've been slacking on my blogging, but I have a pretty good excuse... I was out backpacking with the Chulengos (the PY-3 NOLS students) and therefore didn't have a wifi signal.  So I've got to back track a little to catch you up to where we are at now.

As I mentioned one or two posts back we were camping at Estancia Chacabuco while the students did their Wilderness First Responder course taught by the Wilderness Medicine Institute.  Estancia Chacabuco used to be a huge ranch that raised sheep -- one of the biggest sheep ranches in all of Chilean Patagonia.  A few years ago, however, a man by the name of Doug Tompkins purchased it and some surrounding small farms to create a wildlife preserve that connects two other national parks in Chile.  It is an ongoing project, but we were privileged enough to get to spend ten days there studying first aid.  One of the coolest parts of the Chacabuco Valley are all the Guanacos that are roaming free.  Guanacos are in the "camelid" family and are related to llamas and alpacas.  A young guanaco is called a "chulengo" and is the name that the NOLS PY-3 students were given.  Since it is spring down here we saw several newborn chulengos.

 Here the students are working through a scenario where they are practicing building splints for a tibula or fibula fracture.  The students were "in class" from 8-5 pm with a one hour break for lunch, but probably half of their class time was spent outdoors doing practice scenarios like this one.   After a month of kayaking the first aid training was a welcome change of pace, and the food that was served to us by the dining facility was very good and very welcome!  Our metabolisms were still in high gear, so we appreciated the tasty Chilean food that was served.

The picture above shows Hunter getting worked on by Will, and as you can see the guanacos were also very interested in what was going on.  In a scenario like this the person who is a "patient" is supposed to act the part by moaning and yelling in pain until the medical responder begins to do proper treatment.  I think the guanacos were wondering what all the commotion was about.  In the photo on the left is Kyle receiving care from Alex and Peter. The WMI instructors put "moulage" on the patient's leg to make it look and feel more realistic.

Here is Isi working on Jimmy.  At first he was looking at the camera and smiling, so I told him that didn't look right in the picture... he needed to get back into his role.  So, here he is looking like he's really in agony.  Pretty good acting huh?  The Wilderness First Responder training teaches the students to go through some basic steps to first treat imminent life threats such as airway obstructions, lack of breathing, circulatory problems or severe bleeding etc.  Once they've stabilized the patient then they move on to treating other injuries such as a broken bone or laceration.

 Well, Sarah looks like she's hurting, so I don't know why Betsy thinks it's so funny!  The next steps after treating major life threats is to go through a "head to toe" physical exam to make note of any other injuries or physical abnormalities, then take a full set of vital signs and, if the patient is conscious, ask the S.A.M.P.LE. questions.  "SAMPLE" is an acronym that stands for Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Pertinent Medical History, Last food and fluid intake and output, and Events leading up to the incident.  By asking all these questions the rescuer can determine if there is a illness or other cause to the medical situation.  By the end of the ten days of WFR training the students' brains were full and they were ready to get back into the wilderness and see what backpacking adventures lay ahead.  Their new first aid skills will come in handy for treating minor cuts, scrapes and blisters, but also allow them to look after one another in the event of a more serious accident or illness.  The goal in the backpacking section is that they will be able to hike on their own for a couple of days without immediate instructor supervision, so they will need these skills.

Luke and Devon are taking good care of Jack... while the guanacos watch inquisitively.

Map of our region of Patagonia

I thought I would give you a visual of where we kayaked.  Here are a couple of maps.  In the expanded view you can see several large features:  Pacific Ocean to the far west (left), Gulfo de Penas in the upper left hand corner, Isla Merino Jarpa is roughly in the center.  I drew a line denoting the route we took -- in blue/purple pencil.  To the North of Isla Merino Jarpa is the Northern Icefield and to the South you can see the Southern Icefield.  In Spanish they are called "Campo de Hielo Norte" and "Campo de Hielo Sur" respectively.  In the upper right hand corner of the map you can see the town of Cochrane which is the closest town to Valley Chacabuco (where we are now) and you can see Lago Cochrane, which is one of the lakes we will be backpacking next to in a few days.

Isla Merino Jarpa is roughly in the middle.

 Below is the same map but I zoomed in a little bit.  You can just barely make out Isla Sombrero which is the furthest west we went on our kayak expedition.  We could feel the ocean swell coming in from the Gulfo de Penas.  And you can also see the town of Tortel there on the map.  Tortel is just about at the end of the road.  There is a ferry that will take you a little bit further south, but if you want to drive all the way down past the Southern Icefield you will have to go back north and into Argentina, then head south and back into Chile.  The Careterra Austral doesn't extend all the way through the southern part of Chile.

In my next post I will show you what the students are up to currently, and where we are at.  Our backpacking section will start in just four days.  We will be backpacking for two weeks and then the students will have a cultural section where they stay with a Patagonian family for 8 days.  Then the semester ends and they will be off for Christmas break!  But more on all that later!

Home Stretch -- Chulengo style

We had some good weather as we neared our ending point: the small town of Tortel.  As we got closer and closer to the Rio Baker the water got more and more fresh and more opaque -- it was the influence of all the glacial melt in the area.  Our last campsite before Tortel was a place called San Rio Marlin.  There is a small fisherman's shack there and the beach is only semi-protected.  Before arriving there we had amazingly calm conditions, but as we approached the beach the wind (again) began to pick up a little.  We landed and unloaded our boats and before we new it there were 2 foot seas and white caps just off shore.  Once again we were glad to be safely on land.  The plan was to spend two nights there and finish up all the course paperwork including student evaluations.  Each student gets a thorough evaluation of how they've performed as an expedition member.  Categories for the evaluation are: Leadership, Expedition Behavior, Outdoor Living Skills, Risk Management, Sea Kayaking Skills and Environmental Studies.  Some of these students are taking this course for credit and will be able to transfer the credit to their own university and put the credit toward their major.

Luke made us a birthday cake to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday.

The Marine Corps birthday was November 10th, so I happily woke Luke up that morning with a fine solo performance of "The Marine's Hymn" ...  Luke was in the Marines for a year and a half before being honorable discharged due to an injury sustained in a vehicle crash while training.  The LAV he was riding in rolled over when the driver tried to take it up too steep of a hill.  After getting out he decided to get some replacement adventure and education on a NOLS course in Patagonia.  It's been fun to have a fellow Marine on the expedition.

Our last morning of kayaking was touch and go (like other days but with a little more pressure to make a move).  As I went to bed the night before I noticed the wind picking up and started hearing it in the trees.  As I lay there in my tent I thought, "Uh oh, I hope we didn't miss our window to paddle our last 5 miles."  The trouble was we had a pick up scheduled and if the weather didn't allow us to move the next day we might have to delay our pickup and it could mess up the schedule for the coming days. Needless to say I didn't sleep very well that night wondering what the next day would bring.

When I got out of the tent at 6:30 am the next morning the weather was gusty and unsettled as was the sea state.  The student leaders of the day made an appropriate call to make a few preperations to get ready but then sit and wait for a window of calm.  At 8 am the weather did settle down a little and we decided to load kayaks.  Then it picked up again.  Then it mellowed.  We decided to get a boat on the water and see what it felt like out there.  Then the weather picked up again and we landed that boat.  As soon as it was on land the wind and seas calmed...  So then we decided we were going to have this fickle weather regardless... and we also knew we had less than two miles to go before we were in protection.  So we launched all the kayaks even though the weather wasn't great and started paddling down wind toward our point of protection in the Rio Baker.  We made it safely, and the students did a fine job of handling their kayaks and staying together as a group.  All the skills we had taught them and that they had been applying up to this point were put to good use that last day.  Way to go Chulengos!

Once we were in the river mouth we had a nice semi-leasurely paddle up stream (with the help of a tail wind) against the current.  But within a couple of hours we were unloading our kayaks on shore in the same place we had started 25 days prior.  We had a good debrief that night and played a fun game then went to bed.  The next morning the bus picked us up and we began the drive to our next section in Valle Chacabuco:  Wilderness First Responder training.  As we travelled through the low mountains it began to snow!  Not unheard of for this time of year (early spring) but somewhat unusual.  Hopefully it will warm up a bit before we go backpacking in a few days!

Some snow on the road down to about 1000 ft.

Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat

 So, Halloween was Jimmy's birthday... so Isi (on the right in the picture) made him a very nice cake... and improvised a candle.  People were dressed up -- I don't know if you can tell?  In the middle is Hunter dressed as Curious George, and the Man with the Yellow hat is to the right of him.  We had super hero show up, and knight in shining armor, Facebook Man, came... and several others.

 We left Isla Sombrero after spending two nights there and then we began heading back toward Isla Merino Jarpa.  Once we arrived at the very west end we turned north again to begin making our way back to Tortel by way of the north side of the Island.  The north side of Isla Merino Jarpa is amazing... lots of steep granite walls, ancient looking ferns, and many, many waterfalls.

 Here we are traveling back east.  The weather continued to change daily.  Some days it rained all day, other days were cloudy with little rain but lots of humidity, and then occasionally we would get a sunny day.  When you are living outside for weeks on end you really appreciate the sun!  But, Patagonia is so beautiful even when it's cloudy and the weather is inclimate.  The extremes are why many people come to visit and why very few people live here!

 Eventually we made it to Coleta Guillardo, a shallow beach about 20 miles from our ending point.  We gave the students the option of pushing on and trying to travel up to the Stephenn Glacier.  But with just 5 days left to get to our pick-up we would really have to push it.  In the end the students decided to take a more relaxed approach to the last few days of sea kayaking and do some day hiking and exploring on land that we hadn't had time for thus far.  Coleta Guillarda was a good place for hiking because the forest here is thin and there is a lot of open rocky space to get up high and see the views

Isla Sombrero

During the second ration period, which was 8 days, we continued west through Canal Baker toward Canal Messier.  Our original plan was to cross Canal Messier and explore the archipelago that is further west.  But it can be a big commitment to cross Canal Messier because it runs north and south and tends to funnel the weather.  So, just because you get a good window to cross one direction doesn't necessarily mean you'll have an easy time crossing back.  So, because of the amount of time left in the course and the other goals we had in mind to accomplish with our remaining days, we decided to set our sights for Isla Sombrero to the north and go check out that Island.

Crossing Canal Baker toward Isla Zealous

On my birthday, which was October 29th, I woke up to a beautiful sunrise!  A very nice birthday gift!  The previous day had been very calm and great for paddling, especially for crossing Canal Baker.  But you know the saying, "Red sky in the morning, sailors (and kayakers) take warning."  As we loaded our boats and began to get on the water that morning we noticed the wind picking up in the distance.  In fact, you can see a faint wind line on the horizon in this picture to the right.  We needed to paddle north 15 miles or so to get to Isla Sombrero, but as we made our way the wind continued to build.  We travelled for several miles and hadn't seen a good pull out in a while and knew there might not be much until Isla Sombrero.  But getting to Isla Sombrero required several more miles of kayaking and a one mile crossing in more exposed waters.  So, in light of the circumstances and building weather conditions, we decided to turn around and head back to a beach we saw along the way in our first two miles of travel.  This beach we nicknamed "shrimp beach" due to the little shrimp-like creatures that were hopping all over the beach at night.  We spent one night there and hoped to have a window to travel the next day.

 

Isla Sombrero in the distance...

When we woke up the weather was blustery and we could see some wave action in the distance.  We decided to watch the conditions while we cooked breakfast and then meet again to make a decision as to weather to pack up camp and give it a try.  At 8:00 am, after eating some breakfast biscuits and drinking our coffee, we decided to pack up and give it a go.  Once we were on the water we still had some wind coming and going, but if it didn't deteriorate much we thought we'd be successful.  Once we got to the area that we would have to make our crossing from, we could see more white caps and were feeling more energy in the water, so we retreated to a protected cove to make a decision.  While we sat in the cove eating our snacks and drinking water, the weather began to improve-just a little bit.  A few more minutes went by and we decided to paddle out again and look at the crossing one more time before committing to it.  Sure enough when Isla Sombrero was in view we could see the sea state between us and the Island was much calmer than just 30 minutes ago, so we started our crossing.  As we travelled the water became calmer still as we neared the lee shore of Isla Sombrero.  There was a residual swell of 1-2 feet wrapping around the island from the open ocean to the north, so landing on much of the rocky shore line wasn't an option.

Rock wall made by indigenous people long ago.

We could see from the chart that there was a small bay indicated in the center of the southern shoreline.  We decided that was our only good option at this point and so we headed for it.  There was a lot of kelp growing in the water and the view to the west was beautiful!  As we neared the small cove I could see that it was going to be a nice protected spot to land.  What a good feeling to paddle into protection!  Sure enough there was plenty of room to land our boats and we began to scout for camping options.  Right away I noticed a rock wall in the intertidal zone that indicated this was an area frequented by the indigenous people long ago.  They would build fish traps on these shallow beaches -- at high tide the fish would swim in through an opening and then they would use a woven net to block the exit as the tide dropped back down.  It also appeared that the indigenous people had cleared spaces on this beach to land their canoes.  It looked like three neatly prepared parking spots at low tide.

Our scouting had revealed some nice camping options in the woods, which was great.  We decided since the next day was Halloween and one of our student's birthday (Jimmy) that we would take a layover day and spend two nights here.  We got to sleep in a little bit and then met for some classes and reflection time the following day.  Then in the afternoon we got on the water in the protected bay and practiced some self rescues and bracing skills in the single kayaks.  The sun even came out!!  By evening time we cooked dinner and then met for a little Halloween party and birthday celebration.  I'll see if I can get a few photos of the costumes in my next post.  Once we went to bed that night the wind began to blow pretty hard and huge gusts ripped through the trees throughout the night.  Thankfully we had nice protection there in the woods. Then at about five o'clock am the last gust blew and the weather calmed down a lot.  We watched the weather for a little while and then decided to pack up camp and move... the adventure continues....

Hot drinks and kayak repair

The boats dropped us off at Punta Rachel, a nice little beach on the south side of Isla Merino Jarpa.  The Island of Merino Jarpa is nestled between the Northern and Southern Icefields of Patagonia.  An icefield is a huge conglomerate of glaciers that covers an enormous piece of mountainous terrain... and the reason those icefields are there is because there is a huge amount of precipitation throughout the year AND cold temperatures.  We experienced both!  :)  But, that being said, we did get a handful of dry days and even three or four sunny ones!  We appreciated them both.

During the first ration we focused on getting to know one another, learning how to camp in a wet/cold environment, how to cook and bake, how to kayak and we also got started on some of our leadership curriculum. 

Feathercraft kayak repair.

 After our first day of skills training we began to notice that a few of our sea kayaks had been damaged during transportation.  These kayaks are designed to be collapsible and are made with an internal aluminum frame and a rubberized outside "skin".  They also have two inflatable tubes that run along the sides which when inflated help tighten up the skin around the frame.  Well, a couple of the inflatable tubes (called sponsons) were punctured, so we had to patch those, and one boat in particular had a damaged frame.  So we got out the little hacksaw and some aluminum tubing to use as a splint and we went to work.  In the end the boats worked great and stayed afloat! :)

In the picture on the left you can see Lloyd and two students working on the boat repairs (Jack and Isidora).  When these boats are taken completely apart they can be packed into a large piece of luggage and taken on an airplane.  Pretty cool.

Paddling west in Canal Baker.  Fresh snow at 500 feet.

 After a couple days of basic kayak training and paddling around our protected bay, we decided we were ready to venture out into more exposed waters and move our camp to the west further along Canal Baker.  We had a strong headwind and were only able to make about seven nautical miles that first day.  Then the next day we made about another seven miles.  Eventually we got to a good camp where we decided to take a layover day and do our re-ration and teach the students some necessary classes to prepare them to be Leaders of the Day. 

Dinner and hot drinks.

    
This campsite is in a small bay called Puerto Lorenas.  We took one intentional layover day here but then the wind picked up for a couple of more days and we weren't able to move... well we tried... got all packed up and paddled out to the mouth of the bay, but the waves were 2-3 feet tall and breaking.  We got a little feel for it, but turned around and went back into our sheltered cove.  We affectionately named that camp "Ewok Village" because for the most part we were camped in the woods.  Abbey, one of the other instructors, is a very good cook, and made some excellent meals... can you tell what that one is?  Looks like bow-tie pasta something-er-other.  Delicious.  She and I quickly learned that to keep Lloyd happy we had to give him several hot drinks per day... you can see him here enjoying one in his Nalgene bottle.  He likes hot cocoa the best.  He and I will also be working together on the backpacking section coming up in seven days.  

Punta Ana... arriving and unpacking the kayaks.

 This is a fairly typical looking "beach" in the area we were kayaking.  This area around Isla Merino Jarpa has so much fresh water coming into it that the water isn't very salty and therefore the intertidal life is sparse.  As we traveled further east we saw more and more barnacles, mussels and other marine wildlife.  After pulling up on a beach we would unload the kayaks completely, move the kayaks up into a safe spot above high-tide and then begin setting up camp.  Sometimes there was space on the beach and other times we had to look for little nooks and crannies in the woods.  The "Chulengos" got to be very good and very creative campers! 

The Puffy Jacket Paddling begins

Hello everyone!  We left the NOLS base on October 14th and began the long drive down to Tortel where our kayak expedition began.  There is only one main road traveling north to south in Patagonia called the Carretera Austral.  It would be the equivalent of I-5 in Washington and Oregon except that much of it isn't paved!  But it's a beautiful drive through the mountains to the sea.

This is the main highway in Patagonia... the mountain is Cerro Castillo.

We stopped for a roadside picture.  This is the Rio Baker headwaters.  

 Once we arrived in Tortel, we set up camp, cooked some dinner and got a good nights sleep.  The next morning we waited along the bank of the Rio Baker (Baker River) for our two boats to arrive that would take us 21 miles out amongst the islands and drop us off to start our kayak expedition.  Once we got out in the more open water of Canal Baker we had some rough seas, but we made it safely to our first camp: Punta Rachel.

Here is our boat... we are loading all our gear and rations...

This is the second boat that has all of our kayaks loaded into the bow.  Plus four students and an instructor.  Full load!  Eventually the seas got a bit rough and the kayaks took a bit of a beating.  But we transferred all the people onto the bigger boat while it was still calm.  Pretty nice weather, huh?  We did have some sun off and on during the kayak section, but we got our fair share of wind and cold.  We even got some snow flurries a few days after this shot was taken. 

Here are most of the students riding on the bigger boat.  You can see Will and Peter in the front row... Jimmy, Isi, Jack and Devon in the second row... hunter poking his head out on the right... and Abbey and Elle there in the back. 

Well, it takes about 10 minutes to upload one picture here at the Valle Chacabuco Park where we are now staying.  I will continue to add photos and stories from the past 25 days... and then eventually I will have you all caught up on the adventures we've been having.  At the moment the students are here at Valle Chacabuco, Concervacion Patagonica, participating in a Wilderness First Aid course that will last nine more days.  They just got out for lunch, so I'm going to run and get some food too!  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and for looking at my pictures and captions.  Everyone is healthy and happy and we are learning a lot down here!  See you soon!  --  John

The "Chulengos" arrive...

Today the students arrived!  Remember we are calling them the "Chulengos"?  They liked their new name.... and can you imagine this was day one of 135 days of camping for them?  And with a few exceptions, most of that time will be remote, backcountry camping--this will be a life changing chapter in most (if not all!) of their lives.

What did we do today?  Mainly we gave them a thorough orientation to the coming weeks and months, and then we dove in head first and started packing food!  We packed all the food for the coming two expeditions (sea kayaking and backpacking).  Here are a few photos from our day:

Time to eat lunch!  Some good Chilean food.  Isadora is the young woman on the left and she is our Chilean scholarship student.  She is from a smaller town near Santiago, but she has lived near Coyhaique for a few years recently.  We are glad to have her!

Sam is carefully weighing our lentils... 35 bags of 1/2 kilo... 

Packing food in the "Techo de Papas"... L to R: Hunter, Devon, Kyle, Luke.

Time to set up tents... lots of learning  happening in the next few days.

Home sweet home for 135 days....

Ok, here are the "Chulengos"!!  15 students, 3 Instructors.

Here is the instructor team for the sea kayak section:  Lloyd, Me, and Abby.

Concervacion Patagonica

Today was our second day of briefing.  We get three days of briefing and prep time before our students arrive on Monday morning.  For me this tends to be the more stressful time of a course because there are just soo many details to organize and a lot to get done in a pretty short amount of time.  But we are making good progress.  We do know that we are going to start our kayak course from the small town of Tortel which is nestled in between the northern and southern icefields of Patagonia.  Our plan is to paddle out west toward an archepelago near the open coast and near the Gulfo de Penas.  We are expecting a lot of rain, wind and cooler tempertatures (hence the Puffy Jacket!).  I will try to get a photo of my co-instructors and me tomorrow, but below is a picture of Lloyd and I--he's one of the people I'll be working with, and in fact he will also be doing the hiking course with me after the kayak expedition (if you'd like to see the area that we will be hiking go to www.concervacionpatagonica.org it is a very large private park in Chile that is working to preserve and protect a number of threatened animal species).  Lloyd has been working for NOLS since 1993, so it is great to get to work with him and learn from him.  On Monday I'll try to get a group photo with us and all 15 students.  Oh, by the way, our group name is the "Chulengos" which is the local spanish name for a young Guanaco.  What is a guanaco?  It's a mammal that is much like a llama, but is indigenous to Patagonia.  We will be seeing a lot of them on our hiking course.  Alright, it's nearly midnight here, so I need to get some sleep... thanks for reading and thanks for praying for our preparations, safety and for a succesful expedition!

Lloyd and I are looking at our route options for the hiking section we will do in November.

This little kiddo is Alana (not sure if that's the correct spelling) and she is the one year old daughter of Corey and Milenka... they are NOLS instructors who live  here in Coyhaique and work year round at the NOLS branch.  It is fun to have some little ones around to liven things up!

Explanation

This is the morning view from just outside the "Nido"... The sun is rising... In the east, just like in the Northern hemisphere.  :)

I forgot to explain why I chose to call this Blog "Puffy Jacket Paddling."  Well, often when I tell people what I do for a living and tell them that I've worked quite a bit in Patagonia as a sea kayaking instructor, their response is, "Isn't it summer down there? Must be nice to go from summer here to summer there!"  See, the thing is it is early spring here and therefore it's COLD here.  :)  Truth be told, it will warm up some eventually, but on the Patagonia coast where we do our kayaking it is fairly cool and wet year round, much like the Olympic Peninsula.  So, most of the places I've had the privilege of kayaking over the years are places that require a puffy jacket to be comfortable... And who doesn't want to be comfortable?  Anyway, there is no doubt my puffy jacket will get plenty of use down here this season.

Enjoying the warmth of the puffy.

Quincho

Thought I'd give you a few more pictures of the NOLS base here in Patagonia.  Nols has operated in Patagonia since roughly 1990, and it purchased this property just after that... But the property has had many improvements since then, including all the buildings.  The base is just about 11 km south of Coyhaique, the nearest town.

This is the "Quincho"... A traditional style Patagonia building.  Here all the meals are prepared for students and staff while they are at the Campo.  That is my reflection in the glass.

This is inside the Quincho.  You can see the wood cook stove where there is always hot water for  hot drinks ready to go.

And one more angle of the Quincho with the hillside behind it.  the Quincho was the first building built on the NOLS property, and it has expanded and been improved over the years.  It's a cozy place with a fire going and 25 people or more packed in there!

I made it!

Sunday I had breakfast with my brother, Bill, and his family in California, then I drove my rental car to the airport, turned it it and went to catch my flight.  I had a lot of flying ahead of me!  I flew from LAX to Dallas, then from Dallas to Santiago, Chile, and from there south to a small town called Puerto Mont, and then the final leg from Puerto Mont to Coyhaique.  Over 24 hours of travel!!  I arrived at the NOLS base at about 6 pm on Monday.  It was very quiet since virtually everyone had gone home for the evening--but I did find a room that had been set aside for me in the small building called the "Nido" (which means nest in Spanish).  The Nido made of bales of hay and then covered with stucco.  I'm staying in the room called "El Condor."  The weather here is pretty cold still since it is early spring.  There have been some strong winds and little sprinkles of rain off and on.  The last two days I have been resting up from the travel and connecting with quite a number of friends that work here whom I haven't seen in two years.  It is good to be here!

Flying over Patagonia:  These are the mountains in the south near Coyhaique.

This is the "Nido."  I'm in the room on the right.  "El Condor."

Time with family

I left Seattle on Saturday morning, bright and early.  Actually the sun hadn't come up when my mom graciously drove me to the airport.  The last two weeks in Seattle were great for connecting with family and friends and charging up my emotional/spiritual batteries in order to make the trek south to Patagonia.  I scheduled a stop-over in Los Angeles (Fullerton to be precise) to visit my brother (Bill) and his family.  Here are a few pictures of my time in Seattle and Fullerton with the family:

My niece, Elena, turned one year old while I was home.

Elijah and me building Lego cars.

This is Haddasah, the youngest daughter of my sister Anna. 

And here is my brother Bill's daughter, Marcella.