Here and There

Friday evening Karen, Erin and Jamie came over for a visit.  Scott and his daughters, Maya and Anna, were here visiting from Scotland, so we had an apartment full of people. We all got acquainted, shared some pictures and videos and had a great time.  They've been here for the month and it's sad times but they have to return on Monday.

Saturday the rest went out on Lake Hagg for a day of boating, tubing and fishing.  Yvonne, Jacob and I went down to Eugene (2 hours south of Portland) for a tournament Jacob wanted to participate in.  We dropped him off then headed for Starbuck's to decide what to do.  We had some coffee and started walking around, finding the Eugene Farmer's Market Days festival.  It appears to be held every weekend from July to late fall. Those familiar with the St. James Art Fair in Louisville or Woodland Park Art Festival in Lexington will understand.  There were about 3 blocks of artists booths with all manner of paintings, frames, ceramics and other items.  There was also a farmer's market and lots of great food booths. We discovered a cheesecake booth with some delicious choices. We each bought one and shared.

There was live entertainment, the name of the duo was 'Truck Stop Honeymoon'.  They sounded pretty good so we purchased one of their CDs and donated a few bucks to their music case. 

We continued our walk around the displays and found a ceramics display.  There was a bowl with a frog painted in the bottom we got for Jacob, since he loves frogs so much.













We stopped in a cafe and had a bite to eat.  The fair had some good food but we had walked around quite a bit and wanted to sit for a while. All the seats at the fair were full so we found this quiet place just behind the fair and had some nice ham & cheese panini sandwiches.

We were going to locate a lake down there and have a look around but stopped off in Radio Shack to pick up a CD player cleaner.  That was $15 down the drain and we cannot play the CD we just bought.  I guess that's another retirement project for me.  Since we were at the mall we went to the Regal Cinema and saw Red 2.  We both enjoyed it very much, a very good movie and the first time I've been in the theater since Pirates of the Caribbean I.

Jacob gave me a call, saying he was wrapping it up.  He came in first place in the Nintendo Brawl competition, losing only one game.  The pot wasn't very large so he didn't make much on this venture but still had a good time.  We left the mall and went back to the gaming room to get him then went back to Beaverton (outside Portland).  The GPS took us a different way this time, once we got off the Interstate it was all back roads.  We got back to David's place and he arrived shortly after. We rode with him to take the boat back to the barn where he stores it.

This morning, Sunday, Yvonne and I went for a run, 6 miles, and not a fly or gnat anywhere.  There is a complete lack of flies or mosquitoes here.  The temperature was about 54 and there were low clouds so it was a really great morning for a run. Afterward, all of us had a big sausage and pancake breakfast; yum.

Nothing planned for today except David is heading out this afternoon to a Rush concert.  We are still thinking about what to do but it's so pleasant that just being here is relaxing.  Yvonne and Jacob both want to move out here but nice as it is, it's very expensive.