OREGON ROAD TRIP!  Get ready – more than 100 pix in this post – take your time.

On July 16th (right after Mom’s 88th birthday), we started a 12-day road trip to Oregon. We arrived that late afternoon in Ashland, at our friends Bruno & Kelly’s new house there (after retiring from careers & Los Angeles). During our three nights there we saw “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (Oregon Shakespeare Festival – Elizabethan Theater), the late, great Prince’s back-up band “The Revolution” (Britt Festival – Jacksonville outdoor theater), frolicked at the “Lake of the Woods” (bikes & ‘yaks), enjoyed Bruno’s marinara pasta, and gorged gorgeous breakfasts at the “Morning Glory.” The following pix depict some of all that…

On July 19th, we motored up to Oregon City (near Portland) for three nights with our friends the Crocketts: Josh & Adrienne (our former LHPUSD colleagues), their 3-year old Sophie, and 3-month old Isaac. In addition to enjoying their new house, we explored Portland (walking the Tilikum Crossing, sampling the famous food trucks, kayaking at the confluence of the Willamette & Clackamas Rivers, visiting Powell’s Books & Voodoo Donuts, and having a lovely BBQ with former Pescadero colleague John Dugan, wife Katie, new baby Roxanne, and traveling friends from Australia – Fiona & Sean). Here’s the family home fun…

…and here are some pix out & about in Portland (including views from Tilikum Crossing, the Kennedy School, OMSI, Josh’s bro’s house, etc.)…

On July 22nd, we popped up to Astoria to see Carol (grammy’s lifelong friend, wife of the late, great Charlie Ray – father of our friend Allison in Kent) for just two nights. Her condo is out on the Columbia River with an amazing view of the bridge that crosses to Washington. Carol still volunteers at the Maritime Museum and treated us to a visit and a 3-D presentation about Hurricanes. We did the river walk several times to some nice restaurants, and I did it much further in both directions on my bike. Included here are pix of Carol & Charlie’s old house up on the hill, the Flavel Houses (famous & infamous), a house we once considered buying, an old passenger train car, the Maritime Museum, and some logs…

On July 24th, we left Carol’s and took a different route back to the 5 and down to a lil’ camp site south of Eugene – Schwarz Park Campground. Great spot right next to the Row River (below the dam of Dorena Lake). We enjoyed the floating trampoline and play structure at the Baker Bay Resort, we toured four of the area’s famous covered bridges, and while the rest of the family frolicked, I kayaked the lake and road part of the 36-mile bike trail that ran along the north shore. After two night camping, we drove down to Arcata for one night at the Hotel Arcata and dinner at Tomo’s Japanese restaurant.

After 11 nights of vacation, the horses were headed back to the barn in La Honda. Beautiful drives, and we probably listened to the Hamilton soundtrack at least four times. It was great to visit some good friends, but it’s also good to be home!