Rotary Spring

It has been a while since I sat down to post.  Lots of things to write about, most all Rotary. Last week we were visited by a Rotary group of young professionals from India.  It is called a Group Study Exchange (GSE).  Kim and I have hosted similar teams in the past from Thailand, Brazil, and Italy.  It is always such a great experience to interact with these wonderful people.  They were our club's program at the meeting last Thursday.  They had a nicely done powerpoint went over big.  After the meeting Kim took two of the Indians (a university physics professor, and a school vice-principal) to observe the senior project presentations at Portola High School.  They thoroughly enjoyed it.

Next day we took a tour of the Pitchfork Ranch in a horse drawn wagon.  Two beautifully matched Percherons, with Dave Goss at the reins.  It was a fantastic way to see a ranching operation.  All the cows thought we were feeding and came a runnin'.  One of the Indians (a criminal defense attorney named Ashwin) was particularly interested since he was raised in an agricultural family, runs a dairy, and owns horses.

I did not take any pictures unfortunately, but I will try to get some to post.  That evening we had a barbeque here at the house.  Borrowed a huge trailer BBQ and cooked up 4 trip-tip roasts and grilled veggies, while Kim saddled up our little Hobo for the visitors.  Everyone had a great time.  Probably about 25 people in all including club members.

This week is our Rotary District Conference.  Heading down early tomorrow morning to shoot in a "sporting clays" tournament.  Should be a lot of fun.  Shooters move from station to station and shoot clay targets that simulate various game, and hunting situations.  I just hope I hit a few!!  The conference is essentially a huge celebration of the Rotary year with lots of high powered speakers and interesting programs.  Viola competed in the district speech contest back at the 2001 speech contest.  Maggie will be at the conference as a guest of the Portola Rotary Club which is sponsoring her as an outbound youth exchange student to Belgium.

All in all an exciting week or two.  Next on the agenda is our Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) Camp.  I'm a Co-Director and really look forward to this annual event.  This year we will have over 200 young people going through the camp.  I promise to take some pictures to show.

That's All!