Tucker family blog

Feather River Salmon or Steelhead

2010-11-29T11:44:00.001-08:00

Feather River Salmon video

2010-11-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Fly fishing on the Feather river

2010-11-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Tanner and I went up to the Feather river to try to catch some steelhead. It was a very tough day of fishing but we still managed to catch some fish. I ended up hooking two Steelhead but losing them, caught two salmon and one squawfish.

Recent fishing photos from the Little Truckee River

2010-10-31T10:33:00.001-07:00

Tanner with his first Monster Brown.

Tanner has been on fire lately.

Maya on the Walker

2010-09-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

Fishing again on the E. Carson and W. Walker

2010-09-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Raquels video

2010-07-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

Raquel gets a monster fish

2010-07-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

East Carson

2010-07-16T00:15:00.000-07:00

Fished the East Carson with Tanner today. What a great day. All wild fish and all
released..

Photo of Mikes stringer of trout

2010-07-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Fishing at Lowe Twin Lakes
Does anyone have the number for the Game Warden?

Eastern Sierra Fishing trip July 2010

2010-07-06T00:30:00.001-07:00

We made a trip to the Eastern Sierra and had a great fishing
trip. Make sure to scroll down to the previous post to view
my video of my big brown trout.

East Walker brown

Tanner with a nice San Juaquin wild brown.

25 inch monster brown from the East Walker river

Look at the mouth on that thing! Check out the fly still in it's mouth

East Walker Brown

2010-07-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

Press play to see a video of an East Walker River Brown trout that I caught this morning. The fish was just over 25 inches!! Caught on a dry fly.

Maya and I fish today

2010-06-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Maya and I fished Prosser Resevoir today.

Fishing with Maya

2010-06-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

We fished Prosser Resevoir this morning with Tanner and did very well.

Monterey

2010-04-08T20:43:00.001-07:00

We spent part of last week in Monterey for spring break.

San Francisco

2010-03-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

We took a day trip to San Francisco. Maya wanted to go to the ocean to look for Dory and Nemo. The weather was great and we had a terrific time. Maya would have stayed on the beach all day if we had let her.

Super Bowl with family

2010-02-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, after going hiking in the morning, we went over to Peggy and Debbies' house to watch the Super Bowl and to meet their new dog Dex, Dexter, or Tucker. They have not settled on the name yet. Grandma and the dog seemed to have really hit it off with each other.

Grandma with her new friend.

The brothers watching the game together.

Hiking over the weekend

2010-02-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

We went hiking with Jamie, Shannon, Aidan, and Landon on Saturday. We drove down to Fairfax in the Bay area and hiked Cataracts falls trail. It was a really nice hike with beautiful waterfalls. However, Maya is not a little baby anymore and the weight of carrying her almost too much for me. She is going to have to start hiking with her own two feet soon. Raquel did great with Noah.

We stopped in Vacaville on the way home for dinner and
found some toys for Maya and Aidan to play on.

Christmas shopping with Maya

2009-12-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

Little Truckee River

2009-11-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

Recently I was lucky enough to find the time to go fishing again. It sure is tough trying to keep up with my fly fishing addiction with a toddler and newborn at home. It had been more than a month since my last fishing day. I left for the day with my favorite fishing partner (Foxy) not knowing where exactly I would fish but decided to try the Little Truckee first. I caught my first fish after just 15 minutes on the water on a brown San Juan worm. The next fish came on a black micro mayfly. Both fish were Brown trout between 16 and 18 inches long. Other than those two fish the day was pretty slow. I am not complaining though, the L. Truckee is a really tough place to fish, you have to really know what your doing. So I feel pretty good about the two fish. I did see a monster brown which was at least 26 inches but could not convince him to take my fly. The water was extremely low and the fish were super spooky. I managed to spook several large (20"+) browns throughout the day.

Second brown. Check out the micro mayfly in his upper lip.

Apple Hill

2009-10-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

Raquel and I took Maya and Foxy up to Apple Hill for one last trip before Noah came home. We had a great time and the weather was perfect.

Truckee River 10-4-09

2009-10-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

I hit the Truckee one last time before Noah came home yesterday. It was a really tough day. The weather was cold, and stayed cold all day long. It even snowed on me. In fact at one point it was almost blizzard conditions. Well, it should be no surprise then that the fishing was pretty slow. In fact for the first four hours, not even a bite. It was after I finally accepted that I was going to get skunked and started heading back to the car that I decided to try one last hole. On my second or third cast, I got a hit, set the hook, and caught the first fish of the day. I have never been so happy to catch a wild 9 inch fish in my life as I was with this one. I caught him on a size 20 orange zebra midge. A couple of casts later, I caught a 16 inch rainbow on a size 6 October caddis.

More photos of Noah

2009-10-04T21:50:00.001-07:00

Noah Tucker born 9-23-09 at 10:54am and weighing 4lb, 1oz

2009-09-23T16:35:00.001-07:00

The end of summer

2009-08-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the last week of summer for me. Where did it go? It seems like I just went on summer break a few days ago. What have I been doing? Well, probably what most would expect and definitely not what I would have expected. This summer has been very different than what I would have envisioned.

Just a few days after school let out for the summer, Raquel and I went to Kaiser for another ultra-sound and found out that we are expecting a baby boy this time. His name is going to be Noah Craig Tucker. Right after the appointment we went to Las Vegas to spend time with Mom and Mike. While in Vegas, Raquel and I celebrated our anniversary by spending a night on the strip at the Luxor. It was only the second night of Maya's life since coming home from the hospital that she did not spend the night with us, the first was last years anniversary which was also spent on the Las Vegas strip. As our stay in vegas was coming to an end, Raquel received a call from her Mom saying that she didnt feel well. Raquel had her brother taker her to the emergency room. It was discovered that she had a bad heart valve and that she also had a heart aneurysm. She went into surgery to have the valve repaired and have the aneurysm removed. Thankfully, the surgery was successful. The recovery time from such a surgery however is a few months which meant that Raquels mom would have to rest as much as possible and would not be able to watch Maya at all in the summer. In fact we feared that she might not be able to watch Maya for the rest of the year. Luckily, her recovery has been much better than expected and we are hopefull that she will be able to take care of Maya by the end of August when I am in school and when Raquel is working.

Towards the end of June, I made a trip out to Colorado to attend my brother Robby's wedding. On the day that I arrived, Robby had set up a game of golf at a really nice course. I had played golf only a couple of times before and that was many years ago. I was terrible. But I did improve quite a bit by the end of the 18 holes. It was a lot of fun, maybe I will start playing at some point. Unfortunately, this was the same day that Michael Jackson died. I was really shocked by the news. On Saturday the wedding took place. It was wonderful, could not have been better.

As far as fishing goes, I really didnt get to fish much, only three times all summer. I am used to fishing at least three days a week during the summer. With Raquel's mom recovering from surgery, taking care of Maya was my full time responsibility this summer. I miss fishing a great deal but Maya and I had a great time together.

In July, my Dad got married on the 4th in Lake Tahoe on the Tahoe Queen ship. It was also a really nice wedding and we did get to view the great fireworks show from the ship after the ceremony.

Also in July, Robby, Oriana, Mom and Mike came to California to go on an Alaskan cruise from San Francisco. We were supposed to be on that cruise with them, along with Jamie and Shannon but the girls got themselves pregnant which canceled the plans. However, we were able to take our annual trip up to the Oregon coast to Lincoln city. We had a great time once again. I wish that I could live on the Oregon coast.

Photos from Oregon.

Robby's Wedding

Dad's Wedding

The few fishing photos of the summer

Truckee river 5-26

2009-05-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Headed up to the Truckee river right after school yesterday. Started fishing at about 5:15 with Tanner. Caught several nice fish.

Another Tucker!!!!!

2009-03-26T23:14:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's right! We have another Tucker on the way. The due date is 11-4-2009.

Fishing the Little Truckee again

2008-12-08T12:23:00.001-08:00

Tanner and I hit the Little Truckee river again. We began the morning with the temperature in the mid 20's and ended it in the mid 20's. It was so cold that our nets and shoe laces froze solid. Fishing was tough! That river is going to make fly fishing experts out of Tanner and I because you have to do just about everything right to catch fish their. It is definitely not a river for a beginner, or even an intermediate level fly fisher. That's why I like to call it the Little Truckee University. Fishing on that river is the grad school of fly fishing.

The day started off great for me. I hooked a fat wild rainbow, about 20 inches in the first minute. I fought him for about three minutes but he shook the hook before I could net him. About two minutes later, I hooked and landed a smaller 15 inch wild rainbow. After that, nothing the rest of the day. Tanner also had a rough day, nothing for the first five hours until he caught the beautiful 18 inch brown pictured above. Tanner hooked another 10 minutes later but lost it. Although it was a really tough day, we had a great time and hopefully we learned a little more in the process.

The Little Truckee produces again!

2008-12-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

Well I headed up to the Little Truckee with Foxy a few days ago. Tanner could't make it so it was just Foxy and I. Started fishing at about 10:00 AM. Nothing, not even a bite for the fisrt two and a half hours. I tried many different small mayflies and midges, but I could not even get a bite. At about 12:30, out of frustration, I put on a small brown San Juan worm. First cast, fish on! For the next hour and a half the fishing was red hot. I ended up with five fish landed with two lost during the retrieve. Four rainbows and one brown. The biggest being about 21 inches and three pounds. They were all really beautiful wild fish. By 2:00, the bite had stopped and not even another hit for the rest of the day.
Most years I only fish from June to August. This year, I made it a goal to fish at least once a month all year long. So far my goal is still intact. These were the first fish that I have ever caught fly fishing in December. This was the first time that I have fly fished in December.

The Little Tanner River

2008-12-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

Well, they are now going to have to re-name the Little Truckee river to the Little Tanner river after Tanner catching this big Brown. My Dad and I met up with Tanner and uncle Dennis over the Thanksgiving holiday up at the Truckee and Little Truckee rivers. The four of us started off on the main Truckee. My Dad and I did really well, both of us catching about 15. My Dad might have caught a few more than that. But Tanner was struggling quite a bit with around 5 to 7 fish. However, Tanner's luck changed once we hit the Little Truckee. He immediately caught this really nice Brown and then went on to have four or five more hook-ups. The rest of us could not even manage to get a bite. This was the best that I have ever seen Tanner fish. Man, was he on! I was really happy for him because he has been talking for months about catching a monster brown and he finally did it. Great job Tanner!

Been doing a lot of fishing and a lot of hiking lately

2008-10-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since my last post. Not much has changed. Ive been hiking about once a week and fishing about once a week. The fishing has been good. Tanner and I are still catching lots of fish, nothing huge for a while though. The water on the Truckee river is getting low and we may have made our last trip of the year up their. The hiking has been great. About three weeks ago, we hiked up Thunder Mountain. The hike is located near Kirkwood and it is literally up a mountain. The view was awesome. Here are a few photos of the hike.

Tanner nearly falls off the mountain.

Enjoying lunch at the summit.

Maya loves to drink from the hydration pack.

Big trout on the Truckee

2008-09-26T21:11:00.001-07:00

In the last week I have had really bad luck on the Truckee and really good luck. Tanner and I went fishing a few days ago and not five minutes after reaching the river, my fly rod broke. I was really disapointed. I have had that rod for about 10 years and I was really attached to it. Luckily I kept a back-up rod in the car, however, after just two hours and two small fish, Raquel called me and said that she was really sick. Tanner and I rushed home to make sure that she was ok. She took a couple of days off and is feeling good again.
Anxious to erase that horrible day from my memory, I headed up to the Truckee by myself. For the first three hours, it could not have been better. I caught several nice fish. Then, at about 11:30, I detected a very subtle hit, not sure if it was a fish or just a slight bump on a rock. I set the hook just to make sure, and then it started pulling. It was a heavy fish. I knew that it was big from the way that it was fighting, but would have never guessed that it was as big as it was. After about a 10 minute battle I landed the biggest trout of the season, somewhere between 22 and 24 inches. However, bad luck also was with me today. Right after the camera took the photo of me and the fish from the self-timer, a gust of wind came along and pushed my camera into the river, which ruined the camera. I can't complain though, I had an incredible time!

Video of Tanner catching a trout on the Truckee

2008-09-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2BwL9n2Gkg

The fishing just gets better for Tanner and I

2008-09-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

We had yet another great day on the Truckee river. Tanner broke out of a tough slump, and just slayed them. The last three or four times that we had been fishing, Tanner had a hard time catching any fish. All that changed last weekend when Tanner caught 20-30 fish. Together, we caught about 60 quality wild trout. We even had two double hook-ups which is pretty rare.

Tanner with the first nice fish on his new fly rod.

A double hook-up! My fish is on the left and Tanner's is on the right.

Dad and I score big on the Truckee

2008-09-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it continues to be an awesome 2008 fishing season. I took my Dad to the Truckee last weekend to try to get some wild trout. What a day! We ripped'em real good. We caught so many big beautiful rainbow trout that we decided to call it a day after just 3 1/2 hours. My Dad did especially well, just about everytime I looked at him, he had a fish on. The hot fly today for my Dad was a Prince nymph, and for me, a San Juan worm and a black WD-40 midge.

Dad with a really fat 16 inch wild rainbow.

Check out the San Juan worm hanging out of its mouth.

Is there a more beautiful fish than a wild rainbow trout?

Can someone please get me a bigger net!?

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

We had a great Labor Day weekend. It started friday night with a Rivercats game with Jamie and Shannon. Then on Saturday we took Maya to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then took a drive down the coast to sight see and hike. We found a great spot just south of Big Sur with a nice beach and a waterfall. On Monday, I went fishing with my Dad but I will talk about that in my next post.

Maya enjoying the ball game with her uncle Jamie and aunt Shannon.

Maya at the aquarium.

Foxy enjoying the view from a point along highway 1.

Tanner and I hit the Truckee again!

2008-08-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Tanner and I fished the Truckee river once again. Being that this is so late in the summer, I was afraid that the water level would be really low but it was actually perfect. We fished from about 9:00 AM until about 1:00 PM and we had a great time. The fishing was good. We did'nt get huge numbers of fish, but we did get quality fish ranging from 16 to 20 inches. Most of the fish were caught on WD-40 midges and Pheasant Tail nymphs.

Jamie's first fish while flyfishing!

2008-08-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago, I probably made my last trip to the Walker of the summer fishing season. It was a great weekend of fishing. My Mom, Mike, Jamie, Shannon, and Aidan made the the trip with us. On the last day, Jamie decided that he wanted to leave the bait in the car and try fly fishing. It was another proud moment for me as Jamie's brother!
I took Jamie to a shallow run of riffles to target the Walker trout. At first Jamie had trouble casting, but within a few minutes, he was able to make a decent upstream cast. Now Jamie has a really logical mind where he tends to see things in a mathematical way. What I mean by that is, he looks at a problem, analyzes it, then does the correct thing and expects success. It is that part of his personality along with his incredible work ethic that has made him such a success in the business world. However, when it comes to fishing, it's not always perfectly logical. In fishing there is as much art as there is logic. In this sense, this is where Jamie struggled for a time. In fly fishing, it is so complex that you not only have to think your way through it by using correct technique, you have to feel your way through it. It's very hard to explain, but it is a huge part of fly fishing. Jamie was frustrated because even though we were fishing the same fly in the same area, I was catching many fish while he was not catching any.
I explained to Jamie that you can not simply rely on technique, you need to use all of your senses and "feel" the fish. It's kind of like the "force" in Star Wars, your instincts need to be able to anticipate what the river and the fish are going to do. I think that Jamie started to understand. First he got a couple of hits, and then he hooked and landed his first Trout on a fly. On the way home, we stopped at the Carson where Jamie eagerly grabbed my fly rod and then proceeded to pull out at least three trout within fifteen minutes.

More photos of Oregon

2008-08-28T16:28:00.001-07:00

Maya holding her first starfish

Maya did great hiking, she loved all of the flowers.

Maya on the beach with her best friend.

Maya excited about another hike.

Taking a rest with my two beautiful daughters.

Oregon August 2008

2008-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

We did it again! It seems as though the Tucker family may have started an annual tradition, an August trip to Oregon. We have gone up there the last three out of four years. We started off by spending a day driving up to Lincoln city, half way up the Oregon coast. We discovered Lincoln city last year and let me tell you, it is one heck of a beautiful place. It's cool, everything is green, and there is so much hiking available. We spent three nights at the motel 6 in Lincoln city. It has to be the nicest motel 6 in the world, it must have been so other hotel before. We then spent the next few days exploring the area, going on hikes, and eating as much great seafood as possible.

2008-08-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

Another great day on the Walker!

2008-07-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Tanner and I took off to the Walker again yesterday, and once again, we killed'em. The fishing was so good! I landed between 50 and 70 fish including two big ones. It was so great, I was able to anticipate hits before the fish even took the fly. Here are a few of the photos from our trip.

Tanner with a beautiful wild brown.

Bigfoot print?

2008-07-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Tanner and I fished Caples creek today and came across this very interesting footprint. At first I thought that it was from a large hiking boot but then I noticed faint toe prints. If you look closely to the left of the print, you may be able to see a couple of impressions that, to me, look like toes. The print was in an area where the ground was slightly softer than the surrounding soil. My guess is that the area had a lasting patch of snow that was slowly melting over the last couple of months which made the ground wet. The area of the print where it shows the sole of the foot was slightly lower than the area of the toes. The toe area was drier while it was obvious that muddy water had settled in the sole area and then dried. The print measured 15.5 in length and 5 inches wide. I know that it's really hard to make out the toe prints from the photo but up close in person, it was much more clear. I'm thinking of going back to make a plaster cast of the print. It's a remote place and very rugged though, i'm not looking forward to the hike back in. About an hour after seeing the print, Tanner heard some loud wood knocking near by which is is a way that some primates communicate with each other. Unfortunately, I did not hear what Tanner heard as I was a few dozen yards away playing with Foxy.
As for the fishing, it was tough. They are emptying Caples lake which meant that the creek was raging high and fast. I did manage to catch four wild Rainbow trout while Tanner landed a wild Brown trout.

One of the photos of the print.

Tanner on top of the mountain on the hike back to the car.
I found the print down in that first canyon right behind Tanner.

Me and Foxy.

Burney falls

2008-07-21T14:30:00.001-07:00

Some photos of the last year

2008-07-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

While going through my photos, I realized that there were some that I had forgotten about that really should have been posted. The first two photos are from an afternoon that we spent at the American river, the last two are from Maya's first Halloween.

Fishing with Tanner

2008-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again, fishing season. For those of you who even casually know me, you know that I am a complete fishing addict. And, of all the different times of year to fish, my favorite is summer fishing for trout in the Eastern Sierra's. The Sierra trout are not the biggest fish, but there is something so special about being on a cool mountain stream and fly casting for beautiful trout.

This year, I have picked up a new fishing partner, my cousin Tanner. We have gone fishing on Truckee river for beautiful wild trout as well as the East Carson and West Walker rivers. We just came back from a two day trip on the West Walker. The fishing was AMAZING! We had hundreds of hook-ups and many dozen fish each. Here are a few of the photos taken over the last couple of days.

Tanner on the East Carson.

This is a photo of one of the bigger fish that I caught on the
West Walker, a 16 inch rainbow trout.

Tanner with a nice fish.

We had several double hook-ups!

Tanner with a real nice fish.

Sorry it's been so long!

2008-07-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Several fans of the blog have been emailing me with complaints about updating the blog. Im sorry but I have been so busy the last two or three months. I am now the the department chair for the Social Science department. That little development towards the end of the school year added quite a bit of work for me as the semester came to an end. I have also been fishing my tail off ever since the end of school. Raquel, Maya, Foxy, and I have all been busy on our usual adventures since the last posting. I will try to get into each one of them when I can. For now, here are some photos from the last couple of months.

Maya's first Easter egg hunt

Maya and Dad on a hike.

Maya and Mom in the rose garden in Golden Gate park.

Maya getting ready for her first swim.

Maya's first time in a pool.

More Photos from Niagara Falls

2008-04-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

Niagara Falls

2008-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Raquel, Maya, and myself went to Niagara falls for spring break. I know that it's kind of an odd place for spring break given the fact that the falls area is freezing in March but it's the time of the year that we had free time to travel and it has always been a dream of Raquel's to visit Niagara falls. We had a good time visiting the falls, Canada, and Toronto. All together, we spent five days there.

On day one (friday), we spent five of the longest hours of the year flying to Washington D.C. Maya screamed and cried at the top of her lungs about half of the time. I think that there were a few couples on that flight who changed their minds about having kids. Once we landed in D.C., we tracked down the gate of our connecting flight to Buffalo, NY. After we located the gate, we had a really over-due diaper change to do. The layover was about an hour and a half. On the first half of the flight to Buffalo, Maya was great. She was happy and smiling at everyone. The second half of the flight was a different story though, she turned into a monster once again. We were really relieved to land in Buffalo and put flying behind us for five days. After gathering our luggage, we made our way to the Alamo car rental company and picked up a compact car even though I reserved a mid-size. After about a 30 minute drive, we ended up lost in Canada. Our hotel was on the American side! The Canadian border agent was really nice (a whole lot nicer than the American ones!) and directed us to the right location. Finally, after 12 hours of traveling, we were at our hotel. What a dump! Travelocity really needs to update the photo that they had on their website.

Day 2, Saturday. We were excited about seeing the falls which was supposed to be two blocks away, not true, more like four to five. We also experienced the cold weather. The type of cold on the east coast is different than here in California. It is so much colder over their. It's a whole new level of coldness. I will never again think that it is cold in California. I carried Maya as we walked to the American falls and to the visitor center. The falls were impressive but the cold was so over-powering that it was hard to really enjoy the view for very long. Later in the day, we drove to Canada to view horseshoe falls. The Canadian falls are much better and it really was breath taking.

Day 3, Sunday. On this day, we decided to take the drive to Toronto. After crossing over into Canada, I spotted a highway sign that said "Toronto 140" I knew that Canada used Kilometers instead of miles but I didnt tell Raquel that. It was funny because she thought that we had to go 140 miles, she was happy when I told her that it was really about 80 miles. I was really surprised at how big Toronto is, it's a really big city. Across from Lake Ontario, you can see the city for 40-50 miles. Many huge skyscrapers all over the downtown area. We found a public parking garage and decided to walk to the CN tower which is a huge tower of a building, kind of like the Stratusphere in Las Vegas, only much bigger. The tower was great, we had lunch up top and walked on a glass floor with Maya 1100 feet above the ground.

Day 4, Monday. On this day, we spent the whole time on the Canadian side which is so much nicer. If any of you plan on visiting the falls in the future, stay on the Canadian side. There is so much more to do on the Canadian side and it is nice everywhere, at least all of the places that I saw. On the New York side, it's really run down and there is a lot of ghetto. We spent the day walking down Clifton hill (the major tourist area), walking to the falls and going up another tower building. The tower at Niagara falls is much smaller than the one in Toronto but the view is amazing. We had lunch up top in a restaurant the rotated once an hour. By far, this was the best view of the falls. We also spent much of the day walking to the falls from all of the attractions on Clifton hill.

Day 5, Tuesday. We spent our last day in Niagara falls by casually visiting the American falls once again, and then the Canadian falls. The three of us took a ride on a gondola ride overlooking the falls. After that, we parked the car on a look-out over the falls and enjoyed our last view of the Niagara falls.

Day 6, Wednesday. We woke up at 4:00 AM to begin our 12 hour journey back home. Neither Raquel or myself were looking forward to the plane rides back with Maya. Amazingly however, Maya did great the whole time. She did'nt shed even one tear the whole time. When we landed back in Sacramento, it really felt like we were coming home to paradise because the weather is so much nicer here.

Thanks to Malcolm for taking us out to the airport and for picking us up!

Malcolm dropping us off at the Sacramento airport early friday morning.

Next to Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side on Saturday.

The CN tower in Toronto, Canada.

The glass floor 1100 feet above the ground. Maya was'nt afraid at all.

Maya and Mommy enjoying lunch at the CN tower.

View from atop the tower at the Niagara tower restaurant.

Maya fell asleep from all the walking around Clifton Hill.

Maya walking again. Click the play button to view video.

2008-02-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Maya is walking!!!!!!!!

2008-02-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Click the play button to watch a video of Maya walking.

Pickleball

2008-02-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

I have a new love in my life. It's called Pickleball. It is a great game that is really a combination of tennis and ping pong. The court is about 1/4 the size of a tennis court. Instead of a raquet, you use a paddle that is about half the size of a raquetball raquet. The ball is kind of like a whiffleball, only much harder.
I first started playing in October when I was up in Meadow vista playing tennis with an old friend that I used to teach with at Grant. While playing tennis, I noticed that there were lines painted for a much smaller court. I thought that the lines may have been for paddle tennis which is another game that I really enjoy. After a while a guy showed up with a couple of portable nets and I asked him if he were playing paddle tennis. He said no, he was going to set up for some game called pickleball. My friend and I decided to let him have the court so that he could set up, and we went to the other tennis court that was not marked for pickleball.
While playing tennis, my friend and I had a conversation between points. He asked me if my brother was still coaching at Boise State University. I told him no, that my brother was now at the University of Colorado. At that point, an older, shorter, and somewhat chunky guy interupted our conversation by saying that his nephew coached at Colorado and that they had just upset Oklahoma. He kept talking about it, and then I realized that the guy was my uncle Dennis. I was kind of surprised to see him there because Meadow vista is just past Auburn, while Dennis lives in Placerville. Dennis did'nt recognize me and continued to talk about his nephew at Colorado. I decided to continue the conversation with Dennis without telling him who I was. I told him that my brother coached at Colorado and he repeated that his nephew also did. So I asked him what his Nephews name was. He said, "Robert Tucker". I then replied, "I'm Craig Tucker, Robby's my brother". For a couple of seconds he looked real confused, then he said, "Craig!" "What are you doing here? You live in Sacramento!" And I said, "what are you doing here? You live in Placerville!"
Dennis told me that I should try Pickleball because it was a lot funner than tennis. I did'nt believe him, but I decided that I would give it a try the next time that I came up. When I did try it, I was instantly hooked. It is such a fun game. The game is very fast and requires a lot of skill. Time flies when you are playing. Before you know it, three hours have gone bye and it seems like you just started playing. I did well right away, probably because of my tennis background. I almost never miss a game. I drive up there every wednesday after school and on saturday mornings.
I introduced Jamie to the sport in December and he has already bought four raquets and a portable net. Last night, he called me up at 11:00 PM to tell me that he talked to a guy from the Sacramento department Parks and Recreation about the sport and the possibility of the city installing permanent Pickleball courts someday.
Yesterday, we headed up to Meadow vista with my Dad and Viet. We had a lot of really competitive games with Dennis and Bill. The following photographs are from yeserday.

Jamie showing the championship form that has quickly made him the second best Meadow vista Pickleball player.

Viet reaching down to score a point.

Who says old guys can't jump? Dennis showing off his two-inch vertical leap.

Dad chasing down a Jamie kill-shot.

Dennis showing the form that has made him one of the elite Meadow vista players.

The champions!

The thrill of victory!

The agony of defeat.

Maya's heart looks good

2008-02-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

Good news! Maya had her appointment with the Cardiologist this morning and it looks like her heart has fully recovered. It is now within the normal range for babies her age.
I was nervous about today because her heart has been the major area of concern. As a 2 1/2 month premie, Maya definitely had some obstacles to overcome. At about 4 weeks old while still in the NICU, one of Maya's doctors told us that Maya had a severely enlarged heart and that it was continuing to grow. It was a major problem because her chest cavity had no more room for it to grow and her other organs were in jeopardy of losing the space that they needed. The doctors did not know why her heart was growing like it was and did not know if they could do anything about it. They did not know if she would survive. The doctor's gave her medicine treatments and after a few days, the growth of her heart stabilized. The doctors did'nt know if the treatments helped her or if she just healed herself. It was a really scary time.
Today was the first time that real tests were done by the cardiologist on Maya since she left the NICU last March. Raquel and I were both really nervous about today. The news from the tests could not have been better. The doctor feels so good about Maya's heart, that the next appointment to check it again won't be for two years.
Everything with Maya is going great right now. She is now eating solid foods and is completely off her premie formula. Which is great because that special formula is really expensive. We were spending over $300 a month on just the formula. She is now feeding on milk, baby food, and tiny pieces of our food. Maya has become an excellent crawler, she goes anywhere she can reach. She even has a 4th gear for when she sees me coming to grab her. Maya is also very close to walking. I actually saw her take five or six steps on her own, walking to her momma before she fell. As far as language goes, she says "momma" and "dada" a lot, as well as a lot of babble that I can't understand.

My trip to Chicago

2008-02-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

Last weekend (Feb.1-Feb.3), the school district sent me to Chicago to attend an educational conference. I was pretty excited to go since I had never been to the city and also because I have a friend who lives their. The conference was a complete waste of time and money, maybe I will write a post later about the conference. However, I did have a great time meeting up with my old friend Greg and his family as well as seeing a little bit of Chicago.
I met Greg more than 21 years ago while I was a sophmore at Highlands high school. We were taking a first year Spanish class together. Over the next few years, Greg and I became good friends even though I alternated time in high school between Sacramento and Hawaii. We grew up together in a sense. I can't say how many times Greg's mom gave me a ride home in her old blue pick-up truck or how many times the family had me over for dinner. Greg's dad and I spent hundreds of hours together talking and watching boxing, we even went to a boxing match together at ARCO arena many years ago. Greg and his family were always great to me so it was really nice to see all of them after not seeing them for 14 years.
On my way to Chicago, I was afraid that after 14 years, Greg and his family as well as myself, might have all changed and that maybe we wouldnt really have anything to say to each other. It was just the opposite, everything and everyone was just as I remembered them. It was as if the last 14 years never happened. There I was, in Greg's parents house eating his mom's Tamales and talking boxing with his dad. It could have been high school all over again. Also at the house were Victor, Mauricio (skippy), Greg's wife Christina, Carmen (counselor from Grant), Greg's two kids, and Melissa (who was a baby when I last saw her).
It seems like Greg has made a nice life for himself in Chicago. He is married with two kids. His wife Christina is very nice and it is obvious that she loves Greg very much. His two kids are really well behaved and pleasant. Greg has a job at a college and is also working towards his degree. It's kind strange when I think about that 14 year old kid sitting next to me in class now in his mid-thirties with a grown up job, a wife, and two kids.
On our last night in Chicago, Greg, Mauricio, and Victor took Carmen and I out to downtown. The sky scrappers were impressive. Michigan avenue reminded me of New York. They took us up to the top of the Hancock building (96 stories high, I think) for great views of the city. After that, we went to a pizza restaurant and had authentic Chicago style pizza. WOW!!! It was great pizza!!!!! Too bad we don't have that kind of pizza out here in California.

Greg and I on top of the Hancock building

View from atop the Hancock building

Greg and I on Michigan avenue

Raquel and Maya welcoming me home

Press the play button to see the new video of Maya in the snow.

2008-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Maya's first snow trip

2008-01-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we went up to Meadow Vista to play Pickleball. After Pickleball, We headed up to the snow. It was Maya's first time in the snow. Raquel had just bought her a snow outfit and Maya really enjoyed the whole experience. It was really cute to watch Maya crawl on the snow. Raquel even threw snowballs at Maya. Mean Mommy!!!

Video of Maya in the snow. Click on the play button to watch video.

2008-01-26T18:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Daddy and Maya

2008-01-23T18:57:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know already, Maya and I share the same birthday, January 11. Maya was supposed to be born in late March but decided to give her daddy an early Birthday present in 2007.
We celebrated on the 11th with several family members. My mom and step-dad Mike were able to come for our birthday's which of course made us all very happy. Jamie, Shannon, and her Mom and Grandma made it to the party. Raquel's family also made it to the party. Our very good friend Malcolm attended the party as well.
The party started at Chuck E Cheese. We had a great time eating pizza and playing the video and skeeball games. After about three hours, we headed to our house for cake and ice cream. We had a great time! Except for the fact that Maya received about four times as many gifts as me!

Christmas 2007

2008-01-17T19:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2007 was great! We actually celebrated Christmas five separate times. The celebration started with dinner Christmas eve at Raquel's parents house and then we went to midnight mass at their church. The next morning we celebrated Christmas with my Dad. Mid-morning we headed to Grandma Tucker's and celebrated with her. Late afternoon, we headed to Jamie and Shannons. Two days after Christmas, we went to Las Vegas to celebrate with Mom, Mike, and Grandma.

Maya had a great first Christmas. By far, she received more gifts than anyone. She also had two Christmas outfits. Even though she cute in anything, she looked especially cute in her Santa outfit. Maya also showed her generosity in her first Christmas by giving her Mom a diaper, thats all she could afford given the fact that she is just a baby with no job. However, as soon as Raquel pulled out the diaper from the gift bag, Maya crawled over and took it away from her.

2008-01-11T11:16:00.001-08:00

Family Christmas photo from Glacier Point.

2008-01-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

Maya at Halloween

Long time, no posts

2008-01-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last posting. Raquel and I have been so busy with Maya. It's hard to describe how much work, time, and attention go into having a baby. It's seems like it was just yesterday that I started the blog but it was actually months ago. This whole year has just gone bye in a blur. Hopefully I will be able to keep the blog more up to date in the future. I will be posting photos of our adventures the last few months very soon.

2007-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Oregon trip 2007.

We scheduled one final trip of the summer before school started and we chose to go and tour around Oregon. We had a great time! On day 1, we drove up to Redwoods National Park in Northern California and then headed up to Medford OR to spend the night. On day 2, we went to Crater Lake National Park. We had a great time both days even though I was exhausted from driving over 800 miles in two days. We passed by the Rogue and Umpqua rivers along the way which looked like great rivers. I was able to stop for a few minutes and fish but did not have any luck except for a steelhead that I hooked but lost on retrieve. We ended day 2 at Salem. On day three, we did some hiking near Salem to some really nice waterfalls. We then decided to drive to the coast and spend the night in Lincoln city. The coast was beautiful, so green. On day four, we headed north up the coast and stopped in Tillamook and visited an air museum and the Tillamook cheese factory. We were able to watch them make cheese and sample their ice cream and cheeses. After the factory, we continued north into Astoria and then to Troutdale which is just on the outside of Portland. On day 5, we drove to Multnomah falls and hiked up to the top. The hike was only 1 mile each way but was very steep. I carried the backpack and camera and Raquel carried Maya. After hiking the falls, we continued on to Bonneville dam and visited the fish ladders to watch the Salmon and Steelhead head up the Columbia river. We ended the day by going into downtown Portland and eating at a very good Greek restaurant and then on to the motel in Salem. We headed back to Sacramento on day six but not before having lunch at my favorite fast food restaurant, Skippers.

2007 Fishing

2007-08-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

2007 fishing season has been fair so far this year. I have not had the top notch fishing that I have enjoyed in previous years but I have caught some nice fish. My time is a lot more limited now that I have a baby daughter. I would say that the highlight of this years fishing would have to be the guided fishing trip that I took my dad on. We took a drift boat trip for steelhead down the Feather river near Oroville and we had a great time. The second posted photo is from that trip. We each caught several Steelhead along with a lot of suckerfish. The third photo is of Raquel catching her first fish on a fly rod, a nice wild brown trout from the middle fork of the San Juaquin river.

Fishing was also good this year on the Walker river. . I caught three big fish in the 3lb range. The biggest was 3.4lb which was good enough for 35th place in the Walker river fishing derby. My dad got the biggest fish this year at 4.2 lb.

Unfortunately, I was not able to do any out of state fishing except for a few minutes on the Rogue and Umpqua rivers in Oregon. Last year I had a great time fishing Utah and Colorado.

2007-08-06T09:45:00.000-07:00