Oregon 6-10 June 2007

Westward ho, we set our sights toward Central Oregon. After spending a weary evening a hotel just West of Boise, Idaho, we piled in the car for the remaining 5 hours of journey time to La Pine, Oregon.

I should also note that we always had a certain pink silk sunflower with us during our journey across the Western US. My niece Sam gave it to us the morning we left Dallas, to make sure that we wouldn't forget her (choke, sob). To show her that we didn't forget her, we kept the flower always within sight, and it spent most of the trip sunning itself on our dashboard. Thank you, Sam!

We managed to stay awake long enough to meet my aunt Diane (aka Aunt DeeDee) at her work to pick up her house key, drive back to the house, and promptly collapse with exhaustion after the last week of constant driving and rushing. But nothing a nice afternoon's nap did not fix.

My aunt and uncle (Uncle Rick) live in a beautiful blue house set back into a small forest of pines.

And what house would be complete without a cat to guard it? This one's name is Molly, half as big as a minute and in no doubt of her sovereignty. Her favorite game was to sit outside the front window and meow, then run away when someone opened the door to let her in. Typical cat!

My aunt and uncle keep two, count them, two, lovely gardens and a small greenhouse. It was the beginning of the growing season when we arrived, so we tried to earn our keep by helping clean out the greenhouse and get it ready for planting. And Jessica rediscovered how much she loves to play in the dirt.

The weather was beautiful during the day, blue skies and 20C. What better way to celebrate family reunion, Friday afternoon and beautiful weather than with pizza and beer on the deck?? My uncle Rick joined us shortly after we settled down in the sun, adding humor to our conversation in a way that only he can.

My cousin Bonnie then appeared with her two girls, Nicole and Ashleigh.

Nicole is the oldest, and drowned when she was a little over a year old. Miracle that is her life, she survived, although she is now severely handicapped. It's been long years with hard therapy, but it's paid off in excess and she is doing so amazingly well. I could hardly recognize her since the last time I visited about 5 years ago. She talks a little, communicates, scoots herself around and just generally has a good time. I fully expect to see her walking and talking next time we visit, she's got so much gusto in her!

Our visit had to be kept shorter than we would have liked, however, as we had plans to spend a day or two with Jessica's friend Magriet in Portland. So we said goodbye, as is always unpleasant after such a long distance and pleasant visit, and made our way northward.

Magriet welcomed us into her lovely Portland home on a day when it was dumping buckets. Our visit was greeted with some dismay by her two cats, Twisty and Mimi, of whom Twisty was the larger (appetite ha ha).

After a few hours our presence was forgiven, and we enjoyed lots of good food and lively discussion with our hostess. The following day the weather blessedly cleared up and we went for a short hike along the wetlands preserve by the hospital.

The recent rain and bright sunshine gave everything a deliciously fresh look and our hike turned into more of an interval training exercise as we were constantly stopping to take pictures.

As Jessica had resigned as Travel Leader, there was no longer any need to rush :-) We even ran into a rather modest squirrel that appeared to be covering itself (who knows?).

On Sunday the good weather continued, and Magriet and Jessica took a small walk up to the top of the local park in Magriet's neighborhood. Portland is a heavily forested city, and vistas at elevation are more or less of endless treetops.

But the rain does the city well because it was a thousand different shades of green, and the flowers were magnificent.

Many thanks to Magriet for opening up her home and donating her weekend to us. We had a wonderful time and look forward to visiting again!