(For other parts of the family news click: Most
recent, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999, 1998)
September 19 to September 30: A lot of
business travel again! Diether has to fly to North Carolina and
Maryland for business meetings, Jutta has to fly to Europe for a
symposium. After the meeting she spends 2 days with her parents
in the Saar region of Germany. While Jutta is in Europe, Diether
has to drive to Valley Springs in the Sierra foothills for a
meeting. Ben had first planned to come along, but then he had to
work on that Saturday. Diether left at 10 in the morning for the
1pm meeting. There was enough time for a lunch. The meeting
lasted until about 3:30PM, leaving enough time for a number of
photography stops on the way back to Cupertino.
September 14 to 17, 2000: Ben has to work again, and cannot come along. Diether and Jutta drove to the north shore of Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. We enjoyed the beautiful serene scenery of the Lake, Jutta swam in it, whenever she got an opportunity. As time permitted, we explored Nevada around Reno with Mt Rose, the Galena forest, Washoe Lake, Frankentown, and Verdi. We also had several meals in various places of Truckee. On another day, we had German pastries in a bakery of Tahoe City. On Sunday afternoon, we returned to the San Francisco Bay Area. Because of heavy traffic close to Sacramento, we continued on Interstate 80 and then on 680, rather than taking Interstate 5 and 580.
September 13, 2000: Our 25 wedding anniversary, celebrated with a good dinner at home, and the expectation of a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe.
September 10, 2000: A relaxed few hours with good weather in Santa Cruz with swimming in the ocean for Jutta, and lunch on the wharf for Jutta and Diether. The rest of the time was spend in Cupertino for small chores, and some errands.
September 9, 2000: It was time again for the
Grillfest (BBQ) with the Bay Area "Studienstiftler" at
the house on Alcazar. 
Andreas, Dirk, and Friedbert
worked the party preparation again, we just provided the backyard.
There was a good selection of food and drinks, and many leftovers.
The guests, the organizers, and Diether and Jutta ( 45 people,
with 5 young children ? )enjoyed a pleasant sunny afternoon with
interesting conversations with highly intelligent friends from
many different professional fields. The environment of the
backyard had changed from last year , because some trees had been
cut in preparation for a move of a fence, others in the neighbor's
yard had been pruned. Friedbert, the forestry expert was shocked
by the lack of experience, demonstrated in the pruning of the
trees in the neighbor's yard. However, he predicted, that the
trees would survive.
Labor Day weekend, September 2-4, 2000: On
Saturday Diether and Jutta drove to Greenfield for the long
weekend, 
while Ben stayed in the Cupertino area
to be with his friends and for work. After some chat with the new
neighbors, we madeit to the house to find everything in good
order. There were only a few traces of mouse activity. In the
late afternoon we were joined by a friend from Sunnyvale. We had
coffee and cake, followed by a short hike on Carmel Valley Road.
After dinner, we went to rest to prepare for an 
early morning drive to the "mesa" to watch
the sunrise. On Sunday, we got up at 5:30am, had a short
breakfast, and boarded the jeep to drive up to the top of the
"mesa". The neighbors had forgotten to move one of the
trucks from the driveway, and Diether had to drive through the
rocks. We arrived on the top before dawn, and prepared for taking
photos of the rising sun. The morning fog added to the beauty of
the scenery. The sun came up slowly behind the eastern hills of
the Sierra de 
Salinas and the fog, illuminating the
eastern sky. It was also visible on the higher mountains in the
west. After it had risen from behind the hills, we turned our
attention to taking pictures of interesting landscape features in
the morning sun, follwed by a 30 min hike. We returned back to
the mobile for a late breakfast. While setting up the umbrella,
we discovered a lizard in it. We had another quiet afternoon,
evening, and night at our Greenfield retreat, before returning to
Cupertino and Sunnyvale on Monday (Labor Day) morning to miss the
brunt of the holiday traffic. We completed the long weekend with
a stay at home, where we found, that Ben had started more work on
the Oldsmobile car.
Sunday, August 27, 2000: After breakfast, we
checked out of the motel, and drove to Angel Lake. We stopped on
the way 
to hike a few hundred yards on the trail
to Winchell lake to take some photos of the local vegetation and
the Clover Valley south of Wells. We continued to Angel Lake,
where Jutta went swimming, while Diether photographed the
landscape and a group of bikers.
Shortly before noon we started our return to Salt Lake City on
Interstate 80.
At the exit 378, we saw a food sign and followed it on highway
233 to Montello, 24 miles from the exit. 
We had lunch
with cold drinks, and some discussion with locals (two of them ex-Californians)
in the Cowboy Bar and Cafe. The place is
for sale and was offered to us. We were somewhat tempted to
stay in the sparsely populated area with less than one person per
square mile. Despite the desert location, enough water is
collected from occasional precipitation. 
The locals convinced us to continue to Salt Lake City via the
northern end of the Great Salt Lake (Highways 233 and 30, and
Interstates 84 and 15). Before we returned the car at the airport,
we had a small dinner at a Dennys coffee-shop. Our flight was on-time,
and after a frustrating wait for a taxi at the San Jose airport,
we arrived home shortly before midnight, where we gave Ben a
short report of our trip.
Saturday, August 26, 2000: After getting up
semi-early, we had our first breakfast at the hotel in Wells, and
then headed to Elko on Interstate 89. We ate a substantial
breakfast at a coffeeshop close to the Elko airport before
driving to the highest trailhead (about 8700ft) in the Lamoille
Canyon. From there we took our daypack and hiked towards Lamoille
Lake. We 
were well rested, and the overcast sky
helped to make the climb very comfortable. We enjoyed the
beautiful scenery. After about an hour we reached the first of
the two Dollar Lakes, and from there it took just a few minutes
to reach the Lamoille Lake. To get a better position for taking
photos, we hiked a bit higher. Then we decided to continue to the
Liberty Pass. On the way we passed another hiker from Elko, and
we met a couple returning from Liberty Lake past the pass. When
we reached the pass, there were several families from
Elko with their young children. We continued on for
a few hundred yards to look down to the Liberty, Favre, and
Castle lakes basin, and decided not to descend to the Liberty
lake, because of the climb for the return. We also did not have a
Wilderness entry permit. After taking some pictures to document
our presence at the Liberty Pass sign at an elevation of 10450 ft,
before returning to the Lamoille Lake. There we rested for a
while, and Jutta went swimming in the ice-cold lake with snow
just above it. We wished, we had brought lunch, because we
started to get hungry. Therefore we hiked back to the parking lot,
and drove to a picnic area a couple of miles down in the canyon.
After the late lunch at about 4pm, we drove back to Wells on
paved highways 
and freeways.
After a tour to the railway line, and the almost completely
abandoned old part of town, we had a drink in the bar of a casino
just across from the hotel. The bartender had just come to town
from Montana a few weeks earlier to live with her boyfriend. She
told us about the stores in town. After dinner in the casino'’
restaurant, we returned to the motel to rest.
Friday, August 25, 2000: After early morning
breakfasts at the hotel (coffee and Danish) and one of the local
casinos (coffee, eggs, and toast), we bought water and asked for
the way to Angel Lake. We thought, we had followed the directions,
but ended up on the dirt-road with almost no tire-tracks. It was
interesting to see some of the houses and yards outside of the
city, but soon became convinced, that we were not heading to the
intended destination. We turned around and found the sign
pointing to a wide paved road running parallel to I-80 for a
while, and then climbing into the Ruby Mountains. 
The vegetation changes from desert to lush green
with a good view of the desert lands
from the
higher elevations. The road ends in a national Forest Service
recreation area at Angel Lake. The parking fee is $4.-. There
were less than 5 families camping there. It was cloudy, and we
first took a short walk along the southern side of the lake to
its western end, taking many pictures. It started to drizzle, and
we headed back to the car to protect Diether’s electronic
camera from moisture. There Jutta changed to experience the lake
ie swim in it. According to her, the water was very cold, but
Diether remarked, that he "had seen colder water".
We descended from the mountain to return to I-80 to drive to Elko.
We had planned to minimize strenuous activity on the first day
because of the high elevation.
We arrived in Elko at about 11am. Driving on main street we
noticed the giant shovel with engraved names in front of the 
court house. It lists the participants of a July 4,
2000 demonstration against a road closure at Jarbidge Canyon to
the north of Elko. It is remarkable, that a county honors the
participants of an anti-federal-government demonstration.
We parked the car to look for a map-store and a place to eat. We
asked for a place, selling maps, and were sent to a store, which
was closed for lunch from 11:30 to 12:30. We decided to go a
museum/country-music store instead, and ended up buying a music
tape and several books, including a trail guide about Elko County.
We had tried to buy this guide at home, but is was not available
at amazon.com. We bought several other books, including one on a
trail opening demonstration in Nye County. The Nevadians seem
more outspoken politically than the Californians. (The Arroyo
Seco Canyon is still not open after about 3 years, despite the
petition at Miller's Lodge.) We talked to the store attendant and
a customer for a while. A relative of the customer owns a ranch
with about 1,000,000 acres in the area. We were given the web
address of a rural publication http://www.rangemagazine.com,
which covers many of the local issues of the ranch country. The
store attendant recommended a Basque restaurant for lunch. We 
took the advice, and found a restaurant in a large
family room. We ordered the special menu, which included soup,
salad, a main dish, ice-cream, and a glass of wine. Everything
was very good. The main dish was "steak-frites", a
common lunch in France. Even the meat had the quality and taste
of French meat. The servings were much too generous, and we took
leftovers along for dinner. The owner of the Basque restaurant
also keeps a boarding house for retired Basques sheepherders.
Many years ago, Basques came to the area to be sheepherders.
On the way to the Lamoille canyon (about 20 miles from Elko) in
Spring Creek, we bought fuel for our car, and an ice-box and ice
for our dinner. We used the pavement of the parking lot to break
the ice in its plastic bag to fit it into the box with the food.
We 
continued our drive to the Lamoille canyon taking
the paved forest service road all the way to the end - 12 miles
up the canyon. There we parked (no fee required), and took a
short walk. The high temperature in the upper 80s combined with
the elevation exhausted us after only about 40 minutes. We were
afraid, we would faint from exhaustion, and we turned around.
Jutta thinks, that the excellent lunch with wine also contributed
to our weakness. But we had seen enough to confirm our plan to
come back the next day for a day-hike to the Dollar Lakes, and
Lamoille Lake.
Rather than going back immediately to Elko, we decided to turn
Northeast at the end of the canyon road to follow a sign to the
Pine Lodge hotel in town of Lamoille. Across the road from the
Pine Lodge was a school event. Some very tame deer was close, and
we took a picture from just a few yards away. Pine Lodge has a
dining room and bar, and we decided to have a cold drink in the
bar to compensate for the hot weather. We noticed, that people
waiting for a place in the dining room were dressed remarkably
formal for a Thursday night dinner. We decided to rather eat our
leftovers from lunch later, than have an early dinner. Diether
suggested taking a shortcut to I-80; Jutta did not trust the
shortcut, and confirmed its viability with a local at the bar.
The road is shown on the map with Elko and Wells at http://www.mapquest.com.
We decided to take the shortcut across a dirt-road, which passes
a few ranches. 
The drive was pretty, but so long, that
Diether became concerned about having taken a wrong turn. However,
the Ruby Mountains were a good marker for orientation, and we
continued until we reached Highway 229. There we decided not to
go north to I-80 but to take a southern detour through the
mountains and Ruby Valley. We admired the beauty of the sunset in
the cattle ranch country of the Ruby Valley. Shortly after we
reached highway 93 the night started. In the desert, we could see
oncoming traffic a long time before it finally passed us. We saw
some of the irrigation system, which have a light in the center.
Wells was visible from a distance by the lights of it's casinos.
We returned to our hotel room, and had dinner.
Thursday, August 24, 2000: We started a mini-vacation by taking the Delta Airlines afternoon flight from San Jose in California to Salt Lake City in Utah, where we rented a Hertz car. To make optimal use of daylight, we postponed dinner, and drove to Wendover on Interstate 80, where we had dinner in one of the casinos. Wendover has many large casinos for the people from Utah, where gambling is prohibited. It is interesting to see, how much money people must loose in the casinos for the owners to build the big impressive casinos. From Wendover we continued our drive to Wells on I-80 West, where we had reserved a room in the Best Western Hotel. On the way, we drove in the dark, and construction areas with one lane only it was quite scary at times to be boxed in between two large trucks at about 70 mph. We arrived at the hotel at 10:30 pm, checked in with the innkeeper, and got some good rest quickly.
August 20, 2000: Ben had to work,
while Diether and Jutta drove to Santa Cruz in the morning. Jutta
started with a swim in the ocean. There were lots of pelicans
around, and there was some concern about swimming with so many
big birds in the air. 
After Jutta's short morning
swim they went for a walk in the Santa Cruz "Natural Bridges"
state park, followed by lunch on the wharf. The art festival on
the wharf was very crowded. The music of a live band was not very
good, but some of the artwork was excellent. Jutta liked the
painting of an artist from Santa Cruz, and Diether and she
decided to buy it for the living room. In the evening, they
attended mass at Queen of Apostles,
followed by dinner and some late evening work at home.
August 14 - 19, 2000: Jutta had
to travel on business, starting in the Northwest and continuing
to the East Coast. She had planned to return on Friday night, but
United Airlines helped her to a hotel stay in Denver on Friday
night. She arrived in San 
Jose on Saturday morning for
a relaxed day at home.
August 11 & 12, 2000: Diether returned from a business trip to the Southeast of the US on Friday. On Saturday morning Diether and Jutta drove the old Jeep Cherokee to the Greenfield cabin. On the way in, they had an early lunch at Miller's with a discussion of the convention of the Reform Party showing on TV. They continued for a short meeting with John I and some other neighbors, and checked the mousetraps in the cabin (one mouse had been caught). Because of the high temperature over 100F they continued to Carmel to have lunch there. After a stroll on the Carmel beach, they returned to Cupertino for a good dinner, where some local friends, Ed and Terri, joined them on short notice.
August 5&6, 2000: Diether and Jutta spent the weekend at the retreat in Greenfield, talking to the neighbors, enjoying the cabin, and some time on the mesa.
July 31 - August 4: This is a workweek for Ben, Jutta, and Diether. Diether was supposed to fly to Southern California for two days, but cancelled the trip for business reasons. Ben was busy working and partying in a typical behavior for an 18 year old.
July 24-30, 2000: Jutta spent some time with family friends at Martha's vineyard. Diether and Ben worked during the week. Diether went to a farewell party of a friend from England, who will return there after about 25 years in the USA. Many of his friends came for the party, and told good stories about him.
July 22&23: Diether and Jutta spend the weekend at their Greenfield retreat. Because of the warm weather, they left early and had lunch at Miller's Lodge to chat a bit about local news. There is still a petition on the wall of the coffeeshop to re-open the road into the Arroyo Seco Gorge, which was closed about three years ago. The road leads to swimming holes on the Arroyo Seco river, and trailheads for hikes into the Ventana Wilderness. The swimming holes had been used for weekend recreation by the local farmworkers, but are not accessible anymore now. This road closure seems similar to the closure of the Jarbidge Canyon Road in Nevada.
July 17 &18: Jutta had to go on a business trip on Monday. Diether worked in the local office of his company on Monday and Tuesday, and completed work on the website, and some emails in the evenings.
July 15 & 16, 2000: Ben had
to work, but Diether and Jutta had time to drive to their weekend
retreat in Greenfield to relax. 
They met the new
neighbors, who are working hard and professionally to clean up
the warehouse, and to improve the property to the South. At the
same time, they enjoy the outdoors with their family and friends.
Diether and Jutta continued the survey of the area with a
handheld GPS system (shown in the photo surveying a fence) to
have a better idea on the property lines, the dirt roads, and the
trails. On Sunday morning, they unpacked some boxes, they had
brought from Cupertino, had lunch at Millers, and returned to
Cupertino in time for afternoon coffee.
July 5 - 12, 2000: Diether, Jutta, and Ben had to work on Wednesday, but in the evening they had a good farewell dinner with Diether's parents, because Diether had to travel the next day, and was not able to accompany them to the airport on the Saturday of their departure. Diether travelled from Thursday to next Wednesday on business with stops in the central part of the country, and on the east coast. Jutta took his parents to the San Francisco airport on Saturday for their return to Europe.
July 4, 2000, Independence Day: After
preparations for the afternoon party with friends, Ben, Jutta,
Diether, and his parents had lunch in the backyard of the family
home in Cupertino. At 5pm friends joined for a BBQ. Ben and his
girlfriend
left early to join another party. The
rest of the group - except for Diether and Casey as drivers -
went to De Anza College for the Independence Day fireworks.
Diether watched the fireworks from the roof of a neighbors house.
These neighbors had come to the door earlier to ask for a ladder.
July 1-3, 2000: Ben had work
assignments again. Diether and Jutta left early on Saturday
morning to join Diether's parents in a hotel on Donner Lake. The
parents had visited Klamath Falls, the Lava Beds National
Monument, Redding, and Reno, before arriving on Donner lake on
Friday. Jutta, Diether, and his parents had a good lunch in
Truckee on Saturday, and enjoyed Donner Lake in the afternoon.
Jutta and Diether had dinner with some friends in Tahoe City. The
parents had not wanted to come along. On Sunday morning Diether
and his father drove to Reno to check with Alamo on a car rental
extension, and 
returned to the Donner Lake hotel just
in time for lunch. After an afternoon on the lake, the family
drove to Tahoe City for a stroll and dinner. After dinner they
returned via Kings Beach because of an accident on the direct
road between Tahoe City and Truckee. On Monday morning Diether
and Jutta took some more photos of Donner Lake, and then the
family prepared to return to the Bay Area. After lunch in Truckee,
Jutta, Diether, and his parents returned independently with the
parents driving via San Francisco, and Diether and Jutta via
Stockton and Livermore. There was a joint dinner in Cupertino,
except for Ben, who was partying with friends.
(back to pre-July-diary, Jan-Jun 2000)