Mazama Migration 2010

Sophie and Dave watch Simone, David & Naomi horse around on the bike.

Every Spring for a decade, we've been migrating north to sunny Mazama around the time of David's birthday on May 25th.  Our tribal gathering place is now Michal Friedrich's Wesola Polana.   

You can see the rusty steel "Herd" lined up behind Simone. The alien looking RV's or "Rolling Huts" were designed by architect Tom Kundig.  They are a blast to stay in.

There is now a little restaurant right in the compound so packing for the trip north means we just need to get the bike gear and kids in the car.     

John Gilleland,  Kim Turos, Monica Stephenson, David Stephenson

We've had groups of 70 or so migrate north and other years, most years there are about 20 of us.
We peel off for hikes, rides, swims, climbs and use the farm house porch as our communal living room.

Ah the sun feels so good.

Naomi on the river trail gathering sticks and singing.  

I love how the boots are reversed and the shirt is backwards 

Naomi bare back on the little red machine but donning a helmut. 

Anselm and Simone climbing on one of the Rolling Huts. 

The fields are linked and out in the middle of nowhere we found a badminton court,  a soccer field and above where Simone is standing there is a massive telescope.  

Simone found a pile of feathers in the soccer field.
An eagle had just swooped down for a pigeon lunch and left a bit of roughage behind. 

David and Naomi off to check out the Mazama river.

Simone and Sophie climbing the Wesola rock.

Ahoy Captain Ahab, we'll be setting sail in a few minutes. Come aboard with us. 

Jungle-gym in the forest.

Sophie, Annabel, David and Monica arrived not long after we did.

Strangely, even playing cards seems special at Wesola.

David Stephenson takes many photos and does the annual video interviews of the kids.  

He is taking the photo below.

Isn't it great?  The kids pretty much run wild for the 3 or 4 days we are in the Methow Valley.

Naomi and David hitting the wiffle.  

David made it extremely clear that he didn't want any birthday presents and of course we heard him but we didn't listen. We made lots of things for him, fancy awards, paintings with photos in them, sculptures and pottery, poems...

...after all that, I think he liked them.  The red hat above was also a present.

Treasure hunts are a part of this tribes vernacular.  Thus, continuing the tradition, we hid 20 apricots along the path to the river creating a quick, ad hoc, treasure hunt one heavenly morning.

We looked and looked but we could only recover 19 apricots.  Hmm.

Blaise and Adrienne out for an idyllic walk along the river.

Maryanne and Michal will be parents by July!  

Spinning the wheel that opens the windows of Michal's house up.

  

Here is the house closed up.  When you turn the wheel the steel blinds open and close.

Adrienne, Anselm and Blaise taking in the view from the Delta Shelter.

Each year, David interviews the kids.  Sophie is going first this year.

He asks them questions. 

"What do you know now that you didn't know last year?"

"What do you love to do?"  

"Is there anything in particular that you want to do next year?"

John and Kim out walking with Dante who is groomed with a Lion's mane.

Putting the wheel on for a road ride.

Anselm, Blaise, Adrienne and I went for a hike only to discover we were hip deep in snow.  

We found a few rocks to rest on between the drifts.

It is June 1st, Eliot's 4th birthday.  Blaise made a flour-less chocolate cake and lit matches for candles.  

Wish successfully launched.

Simone, Petra, Eliot in birthday crown and Anselm

A visit to the horses with carrots, apples and an onion. They liked them all. 

PHOTO FRIDAY

Simone and Naomi climb onto David's bike at "Wesola Polana" in Mazama.  This is one of our favorite vacation spots!  The kids love staying in Tom Kundig's Rolling Huts.  Here are more pictures.

Grandma Elinor and Naomi

Being with Grandma is wonderful,

Event at Perkins Coie

Joe Ruben with Funding Post asked a few of us in the early stage investing arena to talk about the start-up environment.  The event was sponsored by Perkins Coie and held at their downtown Seattle office. 

Lucinda Stewart and Bill Bryant were volleying questions frmo the audience 

and gave polar opposite answers which had the room in stitches. 

Yes even in this dire recession, we made it as fun as we 

could (what else can we do) as we shared frank stories of defeat and triumph.

Bill McAleer, Managing Director, Voyager Capital

Lucinda Stewart, Managing Directors, OVP Venture Partners

Bill Bryant, Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Saqib Rasool, CEO and Angel Investor, Conceivian

Cathi Hatch, Founder and CEO, ZINO Society

Janis Machala, Founder and Managing Partner, Paladin Partners

Moderator: Ben Straughan, Partner, Perkins Coie

and of course Petra Franklin, Managing Director, Vault Capital

Heating Up

Wiffling the afternoon away

We're hanging at the Schembre's house (fairly frequent occurrence) and got the wiffle bat out.

Bases are loaded and Lucy hit's one out of the park.  

Simone on 2nd base and pitcher Drew is ready with a "you can hit it" ball.

I'm ready Drew! - Naomi

Did I hit it? - Naomi

Josie Schembre channeling Josephine Baker & Isadora Duncan

When my daughter Naomi refers to Josie, she says, "My good friend Josie" never just "Josie".  It goes like this. "My good friend Josie likes to build things just like I like to build things" or "Mom did you know that my good friend Josie likes to dance?" Does she ever!

 Josie is pictured here and below doing a dance of "Spring."

It is Easter and we are at the Schembres' house searching for eggs in their lovely backyard.

Three in a row

Sophie, Simone and Annabel playing on a hill.

Antigua back yard

Behind the apartment in Antigua, Guatemala were the ruins of a church (above).  The apartment ($16 per month) had a courtyard, an outdoor kitchen under a tin roof and an enclosed bedroom and bathroom.   The back of the courtyard had a door into the space above.  The door didn't close and the remains of the church were so beautiful that eventually I took the entire door off and made it into a table using some of the broken pillars as the base.  The church space became my dining room. The only other church entrance was this opening about 5 feet off the ground.

About a week after getting the apt, I added an oven and a fridge.  Suddenly the neighborswith their flocks of children and their friends children came knocking to ask if they could use the oven and it seemed to always be cooking something.  I had to buy a gas bombe (canister of gas) nearly every week but the breads and casseroles coming out of the oven were worth it.   I also loved having all the kids around and started up an ad hoc dance school to entertain them and keep choreographing.

(more photos coming..)