I sat down specifically to write about Dome School, but when I looked at our photos, I remembered that we went on three major summer trips in 2017! In June, we went camping near Bishop, CA. In July, we went to Alaska, and in August we had a multi-legged trip to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Utah.
Jon’s Birthday
Jon turned 40 that June, so after a surprise birthday party with local friends and family at the Watsonville Airport, we went on a camping and hiking trip in the White Mountains, east of Bishop, CA. For our most ambitious outing, we attempted to hike Boundary Peak to White Mountain in one day, but had to bail at Indian Peak, which was an adventure and a half and deserves its own post. Our friend Jan joined us for 4th of July weekend.
Robin’s High School Reunion
I didn’t attend my 10th High School Reunion in Chugiak, AK, so I was curious enough to drag Jon to my 20th, which was held at 49th State Brewing Company, one of Anchorage’s many brew pubs. Great beer! We visited my family and friends and went hiking almost every day.
Scamp Tour
Our old class C RV that I drove up and down the AlCan, was gasping its last, smoggy breaths. We wanted to replace it with a light, little trailer camper, so we could cease maintaining an engine, carburetor, transmission, and everything else that was getting more difficult to fix under the Old Beast’s hood. A 13′ Scamp trailer sounded perfect, so while we were in Minnesota for Dome School, we drove up to the factory in Backus to tour the different sizes and features.
Dome School
After we fell in love with Scamps, we drove back down to North Branch and attended a 3-day Dome School at Natural Spaces Domes. That was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it if you’d like to do much of the dome building yourself, as we do. We toured all the domes on their property, had dome building theory lectures, went over the dome construction manual that Dennis wrote, had some practical experience framing and installing dome triangles, and plenty of question and answer time. Every day, the kind people at NSD fed us in the beautiful Bear Dome.
Jon’s Dad
Jon’s dad and his wife, Tricia, live in Wisconsin. We were happy that they were available for a visit while we were in the neighborhood. We spent a few days at Tricia’s childhood home and joined their friends to celebrate her birthday at a park. It was really fun to catch up with them.
Jenna and Clint’s Wedding
Our friends, Jenna and Clint, got married in Brighton, UT and we were so happy to attend. What a beautiful and touching wedding for a truly fantastic couple. It was so great to meet new people and catch up with old friends.
