Helene's visit and the American River

My beautiful friend Helene is visiting from Toronto where she is doing a PhD. I've known her for over 20 years from when we met in a cigarette cessation program. She's an extraordinary woman who I greatly admire. If she's up for it I want to take her to some galleries downtown (Solomon Dubnick, Axis, Museum of Contemporary Art) and then for a walk along the American River at my current favorite Sacramento park - Ancil Hoffman, before bringing her here to talk about dissertations and cultural studies. Ancil Park includes the Effie Yeaw Nature Center, which has an animal rescue program with animals that cannot be returned to the wild (I wish their cages were bigger, or better yet that they didn't have to be in cages) and lots of land with a multitude of animals. My favorites have been deer and wild turkeys. Here are some pics from the last time I was there with my friend Diane. If it's OK with Helene, I'll blog about some of her accomplishments in my next post.