Photos of vacation in California's empty quarter because coming home is hard to do

Okay, I know it is not precisely academic and intellectual and all that, but frankly coming home from California, both Palo Alto and the Eastern Sierra has been depressing beyond belief. Washington DC is a horrible, horrible climate - there's no other way to put it - and I've decided I never want to go outside again. And since the painters - all excellent Polish craftsmen, but barely a word of English between them - managed not to finish painting the downstairs of our house, and the plantation shutter people managed not to put on the shutters around the house, and the refrigerator seems to be on its last legs - well, all is not for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

So despite the fact that there are so many fascinating things to blog about, I am going to skip the international law stuff for a bit and post a couple of pictures from vacation. Off topic, but presumably Glenn Reynolds would be impressed to know that my twelve year old daughter, Renee, learned to shoot a gun for the first time - her idea, too, to my surprise (she hates loud noises). We hiked and biked, and Renee went rock climbing up an intermediate route with an expert guide, Chris, from Sierra Mountain Center, Bishop, California, up something called Premier Buttress, out of Whitney Portal.

Plus, classes begin a week from today, and although I actually love my students and my faculty at Washington College of Law, and although I further know it is a good idea to finish the semester by early December, starting classes in mid-August seems, well, perverse.