July 11, 2004

back from the Oregon desert and coast

I am home from the Oregon trip. (Rudder won't be until tomorrow, having stopped off on the way for a meetig in San Francisco. As usual, I don't have time or energy to write a detailed trip report, especially as I haven't finished my paper trip journal (the only paper journal I keep, exclusively on travel).

Freeform impressions are about all I want to manage now, especially as I'm still tentatively planning to row tomorrow. And so:

Gloriously cool, especially in Lakeview (Oregon high desert) and then again in Newport, on the coast .... lots of sleeping in, by our standards .... time with the grandparents, who are now in their eighties. Grandpa P. especially is a treasured local characters, who grew up on a homestead and now is the guru for all the local gunsmiths ... long, long views over the desert, green views over the mountains, and then even longer views over the ocean ... my first completed knitting project, a dishrag of the sort Grandma P. likes to make on car trips (she's so much faster that she counts the distance to one town and a discloth and a half, to others as two or three -- it took me the whole weekend to make one uneven one) .... incredible dancers in front of the Globe Theatre in Ashland, and an even better singer behind them .... followed by a rendition of Much Ado About Nothing that has me calling Rudder Benedick on occasion ... a total lack of questions about when we'll be producing great-grandkids, either because I'm in my late thirties and they've given up or because one of Rudder's cousins has a child so Grandma P. has someone to knit tiny sweaters for (Rudder's parents have never pressured us, having not enjoyed that sort of thing when they were on the receiving end) ... a wonderful table d'hote (is that the right term? We picked one of four entrees and were served a bunch of other things as well) at Tables of Content in the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Both hotel and restaurant ave a book theme, so that the dinner courses are called "chapters" ... joining the Rogue Nation over some excellent gumbo at the Brewery by the Bay ... wind tangling my hair on a jetboat riding through Hellgate Canyon ... seeing elk, deer, beaver, seals, sea anemones, starfish, osprey, and two bald eagles....

If I'm lucky the relaxation will last through tomorrow's row until I get to work. I don't see it holding much past that, and possibly not that long. While I was away the monsoon season started, so the humidity is up and tomorrow's lows are expected to b 87 degrees or so. This doesn't help the rowing experience - I'd take time off after next weekend's regatta, but I can't if I don't want to look too pitiful at Nationals.

Posted by dichroic at July 11, 2004 08:37 PM
Comments

I grew up watching plays at that Globe - glad you had a good trip and got to see some of the world's most beautiful areas!

Posted by: Keilyn at July 21, 2004 07:32 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?