Parent's day and more...

So Saturday night was parent's day for the Northwest Youth Corps. Originally the G-man had broken the news to me in his oh-so-subtle way that he didn't really want me to come to it. "It's gonna be too hard for you Mom" I believe was his excuse. Turns out the big guy had a big case of the homesick blues, and he was hungry and had run out of cash, but that is besides the point :) I arrived early and had to wait just a bit for all the buses to arrive from the Saturday rec trip. As soon as my boy saw me he gave me a huge hug and I think we both had a little tear in our eyes! I had brought him a watermelon, a loaf of banana bread, a giant bag of Lays BBQ chips (his personal request), a dozen cupcakes, glow stick bracelets for his crew, a couple of books (Stranger in a Strange Land, John Cheever's short stories and something else I can't remember), a ball with a tail, cash and some lollipops.

I saw his tent and immediately started hyperventilating!! (Think 14 year old boy mess times 5). We spent a couple of hours just holding hands and walking around the area. He told me all about his experience so far. The work hadn't been nearly as hard as he thought it was going to be. He mostly gets along with everyone. He spent a good deal of his money on toilet paper and paper towels. (If you know my son you will believe it!) He had been more homesick than he thought he was going to be.

Garrett had earned several nicknames already...Tex was the one I heard a lot of his friends call him. He also was stylin' a pretty fancy Mo Hawk that his crew leader Brentley called Garrett's Curly Hawk! The story goes that Garrett bet his crew they couldn't do the dishes one night in less than 10 minutes! They finished in 9 minutes 45 seconds....Brentley gave him his curly hawk with his leatherman!!!

A couple of crew members made dinner for the group, asking Garrett several times to help because he has earned everyone's respect as a bad ass chef! We all had dinner together, than were treated to a talent show followed by a group circle where the kids took turns telling everyone what they thought were traits of good leaders. It was an excellent night and I was thrilled I got to partake.

The following day I had made a reservation on a shuttle to do the Mckenzie River Trail, one of those epic mountain bike rides you are supposed to do before you die. The ride was incredible! It had all the things you want on a trail...single and double track, small ups and lot's of downs, lava fields, pine forests, a view of the river almost the whole ride, waterfalls, crazy blue lakes and more. The ride was about 30 miles and took me quite a while. After, I made my way to Terwilliger Hot Springs to soak my neck which was talkin' after carrying a pack on a bike all day. The springs were beautiful and apparently a 'clothing optional' area :) though I can tell you that there were no cute naked girls but an over abundance of fat naked men...go figure!!

I camped along the river last night. Made a cozy fire, drank an amazing IPA from Eugene, had fresh organic baby tomatoes with crusty bread and hard salami. Fell asleep in my tent without the rain fly watching the stars. It honestly was a perfect day!

I am in Bend today doing a few errands. The G-man wanted a hacky sack and since the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I am on the hunt for a leather, not woven, sand or dirt filled, not bean filled hacky sack! I also think I am going to do a run along the Deschutes today...just feel like it! Tonight is ladies night at 10 Barrel Brewery and that looks like fun also. I will start heading back towards home tomorrow and any fun along the way!

City of Lost Angels

We made it to L.A. Tuesday eve around dinner time. Dave and Jan had supper ready and of course some local Cali brew for yours truly! We took a nice long walk after wards to a park that strangely enough had a gazillion people there but no restrooms open?

Wednesday morn we hopped on the subway and headed downtown to the Grammy museum! We stopped off first at The Pantry for brunch and Dave showed me the joys of Four Square on my smart phone. The museum was AWESOME and I could have spent the rest of the day plus some perusing all the very cool interactive exhibits. After, we headed over to the ESPN building and loitered around the ESPY awards for awhile, then had a very surreal experience at the arcade with a group of hassidic young women and ended up at Trader Vics for some drinks with naked tribal men that were on fire in them...he he


We headed back on the subway after a short shopping spree at Macy's (the gman busted his flip flops and was limping around like a deranged vagrant person). A short TA at the Sloan residence and we were off to see Emma in "Neverland".

Dave was kind enough after the show to take the kids to In and Out and Jan and I headed to Umamis. Now I would like to take a short moment here to try and share what kind of experience I had at Umamis. First off, I cried when I bit into my burger. That's right, real tears! I was instantly transported back 30 years to my childhood and I was in my Mother's kitchen eating a burger she had lovingly prepared for me. This burger at Umami tasted like real meat. Yeah I know, what do I call the meat I eat right now? I am not sure what I call it aftre this burger! The Umami burger is ground steak that is hand formed and cooked medium. It was as close to perfect as any food I have ever had. That's all I can say about it without starting to tear up again :)
In my quest for the Clunker badge on four square Jan took me to several more stops that night and I earned my new badges.

The next morn we packed up and hit the Buttermilk Truck on our way out of town. L.A.'s newest food rage are all these mobile food trucks fashioned after the trucks that hit the construction sites. We had crazy good red velvet pancakes, french toast sticks and chicken and waffles. We said goodbye to our bestest westest coastest friends and took off for northern California. We stayed at a KOA near Mount Shasta last night and had a yummy breakfast this morn at a BBQ joint. A not too terribly long drive got us to Eugene by 1 today. We did laundry, took showers and had a yummy birthday dinner for the Gman at a local hangout followed by an even yummier desert stop. Now we are going to watch a movie and hit the hay. The Gman starts his 4 week program tomorrow with the Northwest Youth Corps and I head out for my own adventure.

until later gater, rob