whew, thanks karen! I was afraid I didn't remember your number by heart correctly. without signal, was unable to retrieve my address book.

hey folks, I'm alive!! we're alive! back home. SO glad to be back. good lord, camping was wholely surreal .. first, animal control crisis, five kids, then the news we heard about missing pregnant woman then the all of sudden smoke came, darkened the days, the blue lake and us.. lake tahoe was black. blackened. we didn't camp very far from where 3,000 arces were burnt, about 25 miles away. you wouldn't believe how giant the smoke was - my.. the smok was coming north, directly at us, we didn't see any fire - only orange glows in grey smoke.

we were supposed to be home yesterday early afternoon but the main roads were closed and we were very tired from crazy rangers, crowds, alerts and tons of cars and felt it was a hassle going up, around the lake so we stayed there another night. for free. and took us all day to get back home today! goodness. but we DID had fun. white sand shorelines, french toasts, campfires, and smores.. they don't taste the same at home.

candace - I didn't bring my ark with us, only my golden fluffy. at the next camping we will; crayola and two or three felinekids. cindy, so sorry we didn't came back in time! we could try again next monday?

please keep lake tahoe victims in your prayers - I've seen enough. nearly all of my tahoe pictures are murky and in them, there's a fire truck at every block. it was odd seeing that lake again very differently after I passed it almost two weeks ago.