Letter From America No 3

Another the letters that I wrote when we were living in the US. It certainly brings back memories.

CA95120

phone:408 323 9624

emails: barry_mellish@yahoo.com

julia_mellish@yahoo.com

hercules_rellish@yahoo.co.uk

6 May 2000

      I just thought that I would send out one more general letter before we return home to England on May 27th for the event of the year - Andrew marrying Gaew. We have been fairly active the last few weeks. A couple of weeks before Easter we went to stay at Monterey to see our friends Pat and Laura. I first met Pat through Scouting a couple of years ago and we have become good

friends. We had a most enjoyable weekend, spending several hours in Monterey Aquarium which is the best that I have been to. Helena had to do a school project on Marine Biology and this was the ideal place to carry out her research. Pat has had a cabin built in Utah some ground that he owns. I imagined some rustic style place, when we saw the photos it was somewhat

different - apart from the master bedroom, four bedrooms for his married children, girls and boys dorms for his grandchildren it has a couple of guest

bedrooms and an assortment of lounges and day rooms. It is more like a small hotel than a "cabin"!

      I did another 10 km road race on Palm Sunday. I was quicker than my first effort a few weeks previous so the training is working. It was still very slow and I still have weight to lose. It never gets easier as you

get older!

      We went to the Vigil Mass on Easter Saturday where we witnessed nine people received into the Catholic Church. A couple were baptised - in a "walk in font" which was slightly different to the way I have seen things done in the UK. The service lasted a couple of hours, as it did not seem like it you will gather that it was interesting and enjoyable. Easter day saw Julia

and I going for a short walk in Quicksilver Park where we saw plenty of wildlife including hawks and other game birds. We will be exploring this park some more.

      On Easter Monday we took off for a few days holiday. We drove up the Northern Coast as far as Crescent City (about 380 miles) then across into Orgeon and inland to Crater Lake. We came home down the middle of the

state via the Lava Beds and Burney falls. The highlights were:

      - the wonderful coastline where cliffs and trees seem to tumble into the sea. One minute we were driving along beaches with a big rolling surf, then we were 1500 ft high in the hills.

      - Fort Ross which is an old (early 1800s) fort built by the Russians on the coast from which they used to go Sea Otter hunting and grow crops to send to Alaska which they then owned.

      - The Redwood Forests especially the Avenue of the Giants. This is a 30 mile drive through 300 ft high Redwoods. Some of the forests were so dense that they reminded Helena of the rain forests in Uganda. We went for some hikes in this glorious country.

      - Crater Lake, this in the remains of a volcano. We were 7000 ft up looking down to the lake which was 1000 ft below us, the lake is six miles in diameter and the most fabulous shade of blue. It is mind blowing, we were standing on 15 ft of snow whilst we were enjoying this. They get 50 ft of snow per year and the winter lasts nine months so the park rangers told us!

      - climbing and caving in the lava tubes by the lave beds. These tubes were formed by lava as it made its way to the surface. We spent a good two hours caving which was great fun - Julia did stop after a while to leave Helena and I to carry on.

      - Burney Falls which are relatively small, just 170 ft but very lovely. We also saw two bald eagles nesting, I took some photos but you can barely make them out as the nest was a few hundred yards away across a lake, I wished that I had a really good telephoto lens, never mind.

      The only disappointment was that we could not get to Mount Shasta or to see the volcanic sulphur pools as the roads were still closed due to snow. We saw Mt. Shasta, it dominates the skyline for miles. It would be fun to climb, "only" 12500 ft, but I suspect that apart from in mid-July you would need all the proper snow climbing gear. It really was a great trip in a part of California that is not often visited by us "foreigner". it is far too good to leave to the Americans.

      Currently we have our niece Nicola staying with us for a few days. She was doing an exchange university year in Vancouver in the UK she was at Glasgow University. She is enroute for LA then Mexico to meet up with friends. It would be good to be young again - never mind, we are getting around a fair bit ourselves. We took Nicola to see some of the sights in San Francisco and around San Jose. I hope that she enjoys her trip, I suspect that she is glad of the break as she only finished her finals last week.

      We are all fit and well, Julia did have a kidney infection - the antibiotics seem to have knocked it on the head. Helena is doing well at school, she is costing us a fortune as she insists on growing so very

few of the clothes that she came over with fit her. Work is going well and I am enjoying it. We hope that if we don't see you at the wedding we do catch up with you when we are in the UK. We will be home from the 28th May (its a night flight on the 27th) until the 10th June.

      We hope that life is treating you as you deserve, all the best.