When we woke up at Kalaloch, we knew that we had to get to Portland fairly early in the afternoon. Still, we could not resist the very last walk on the beach.
The very last chance to chase seagulls.
The very last chance to retrieve the ball from the surf.
The trip to Oregon was pretty uneventful. I was struck again by how bleak and backwards Washington State is once your are outside of Seattle and its suburbs. We ran into really bad traffic entering Portland. It seems like just about every road and bridge in this city are being repaired. For the people working on these projects, that’s a good thing. For the residents of the city, that’s a good thing – at least in the long term. For the summer visitor, it was a nightmare. Still, we made it to Ellen and Mike’s house. About a half hour later, our friends Sherry and Giles joined us. They will also be with us for the Ashland leg of this trip.
Everybody had a chance to meet everybody else.
Ellen and Mike showed us our accommodation. Sherry and Giles have the proper guest bedroom; John and I will be using the attic. One day, this is going to be a very cool master suite. Right now, it’s still very much under construction. But that’s part of the fun.
Mike demonstrated our very comfortable inflatable mattress.
Eli had a chance to play with the water while Ellen watered her fabulous garden. It has not rained here for a month, and it is incredibly brown in Portland compared to the way it looked when we were here for our workshop in June.
We had a fun dinner at two different restaurants – one for the appetizers, the other for the main course. John took Sherry to his favorite Portland novelty store, Dollar Scholar.
The two drama teachers were silly as usual.
Tomorrow, John will be introducing Sherry and Giles to this wonderland on the Willamette.
