Hiding from the Smoke

We're doing the best to enjoy our kids' visit home under less than perfect circumstances. In case you haven't watched any news in the last week and missed the story, most of northern California is burning, and I think we're getting the bulk of the smoke right here in the valley. Mostly we're all getting headaches from it. Joe tried to do some jogging outside but the combination of altitude (he usually runs at sea level and we're over 4500 ft.) and smoke convinced him that the indoor gym was a better option. If the smoke isn't enough, we seem to be passing around a touch of flu or food poisoning or whatever. So we're moving slow and trying not to spend too much time outside.

We made plans to go swimming today but by afternoon we swapped the idea for dining at a local air conditioned, smoke free restaurant.

To pass the time waiting for our food to arrive, Joe showed off his special nose talent.

It turns out that Elena is also skilled at spoon balancing.

Joli.... well, she put her own personal spin on the trick.

More thunderstorms are expected in the next few days - that's what started most of the fires already burning - but with any luck at all we'll manage to get some rain as well as lightning out of this coming round. They're also expecting the wind to change direction, so we can hope for some clear skies and a second chance to spend a little time at the river.