TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

This week we saw a FOX at the cabin! Wildlife update. FOX just hanging out looking all awesome at the cabin. Then we spent a bunch of time working on our Halloween costumes. I love Halloween SO much, and all of my wonderful friends who love it just as much. Adam and I working on the SAFARI JEEP! SAFARI ANIMALS I'll post more pictures soon - it was a great Halloween Safari Adventure at the Neighborhood with a million Bren friends and animal dances. Happy HALLOWEEN WEEK! Love Allison & Mattie Dog

Hi everyone! First, thanks to all my buddies who came up last weekend for a rip-roaring wild west cabin party/BBQ! It was a million tons of fun with a million tons of good food (including the best all time pasta salad from Sara). This week... We decided it was time to relocate our friend and cabin local black widow, "Lil' Buddy." Mattie and I were just fine when she was staying up high in the bathroom corner minding her own business. But then she relocated to the LOWER bathroom corner and a little too close for comfort, so she had to move outside to an oak tree. Lil' Buddy pre-relocation. Last weekend was the Wild West BBQ, with hot dogs, salads, pasta salads and S'MORES for days. We played music, drank wine and beers, and watched sun fade over the Santa Ynez River(bed). Then we had an awesome slumber party, coffee in the morning, and said Goodbyes early the next day while the turkeys gobbled from down the road. Adam and Bobby (in fancy boots) man...

This week in the history of Mattie and Allison, there were: fires, front porch sits with beers, turkeys, friends, family dinners, bouldering sessions, and OSPREYS EATING FISH AT RED ROCK. Here are some pictures. Holdover picture from last weekend's trip to Big Sur. Dylan, Jessie, Me, Dad. Sara, Sam, and Bobby sitting down for dinner in the cabin. AN OSPREY WITH A FISH. Lil' truck, Bobby and Sam hang out for a Paradise Road cabin sunset. Our buddies, the wild turkeys. They wake us up in the morning.

Hey guys! Another great week on the Central Coast. Mattie and I are still getting used to the wild turkeys that come stomping along the front porch of the cabin every morning - and to the raccoons doing hat-dances on the roof at night - but we are in love with our new little place in the oaks. THE CABIN. It's all wood and beautiful and cozy. There are deer, wild turkey, feral pigs, and a million quail all over all the time. There's a little wood-burning stove that we've had no use for yet because the weather is perfect and warm, and the sunsets turn the living room yellow like fall. It's two miles from Paradise Store and zero miles from paradise. I spent last weekend with family. We headed up to Big Sur for the 21st Annual Jade Festival and spent the day hanging out with Dylan and Jessie. Dylan made an incredible comic book about Jade Hunting that he sold by the millions to jade rats at the festival. It's one of the best things ever. Dylan. Published autho...

HI family and friends! It has been a long two weeks since I last wrote. I finished teaching the math and stats intensive courses at UCSB on Friday, so finally have some breathing time. It was fun, stressful, challenging, and rewarding, and for the first time in my life (and maybe the last...) I had an ocean view office out of the 4th floor of the Bren School, with a wall of windows looking over Goleta Beach and Campus Point. I didn't have time to miss the mountains, but an email from the Ljungs up in Mono City had me a little anxious today... It also reminded me that I hadn't posted about my last hike in the mountains before heading down. I hiked with John and Mary on a beautiful little 8-miler, starting near Tuolumne and going up to a great lake (help? Cathedral Lake? maybe?) for lunch. The lake was incredible, and there was rusty red granite everywhere. I tried to find bedrock mortars, failed, and we walked back down the dusty trail, down Tioga Pass, and I was back at my ...

We made it back to our stomping grounds, and could not be happier for 2-3 weeks of living with Sam, Sara, Bobby and (sometimes) Adam. Teaching starts Tuesday. Not a bad walk to work. OH HELLO UCSB.

Another great week in the Eastern Sierra. Here are things that happened. SIDNEY TURNED 6. BUCKEYE HOT SPRINGS (and rednecks galore). BIGHORN SHEEP and BIGHORN SHEEP EXPERT. BOBCAT. SARDINE LAKE HIKE.  PTARMIGAN. SOCCER GAME and GREAT DAYS with JOHN AND MARY. MOBILE STATION. MAMMOTH PASS TO RED'S MEADOW HIKE. THE DOOR HANDLE AND STEREO BREAK IN THE TRUCK. THE ASPENS ARE TURNING COLORS. Here are some pictures: 6 YEARS of the amazing Sidney. Lunch and bookstore tours with Uncle Dan in Carson City. RED TAIL on the way to Buckeye Hot Springs. Bridgeport is weird. Mattie paying her respects to Jordan locals (Mono City hills). Bighorns somewhere near Lundy Canyon. Mattie in shelter for the first big rain of fall. Mono Basin, doing what it does best. REALLY. THIS HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE. Looking down on Sardine Lake, then Walker Lake, then Mono Lake after a hike up Bloody Canyon. We've had the best time up here. Last weekend...