Reed College / morning hot chocolate run

Aloha. Well, as previously suggested, Ida and Miki and I sometimes use our extra time in the morning, when Elsie and Theo are out of town, to swing through Reed College and raid the various candy jars and to drink some hot chocolate. Upon their cousins' return, the girls thought it wasn't fair that Elsie and Theo hadn't ever been on this particular run. There may have been some self-interest in their generosity, but still. On we went...

The pace picked up a little as we neared the m&ms.  Why Ida is wearing her dress backward, I don't know.

Inside, the coffee shop, the girls patiently waited.

A dream, realized.

Let it be noted, Elsie was the only girl who drank all of her (expensive) hot chocolate.  Thanks, Else.

And she celebrated by taking a meditative ride upon the Filet-o-Fish bouncer.

Next up:  visions of beauty you will struggle to believe.

The Furious, Serious Coast

There's so much going on this summer! Too much! And no one ever reads this blog anymore, but I still must relentlessly document our life. It's an obsession. It won't feel as if I'm living unless I leave this proof. So, get ready, three posts in the next three days. Lots of beauty and action. Last weekend we suddenly rented a place in scenic Netarts and leapt into action. Straight to the beach.

One of our first areas of attach was "Agate Beach." This is an agate. It's glassy.

Intrepid rock scrambling was necessary.

We were beckoned to the coast by a noted Advanced Dermatologist, ML:

This is her attractive man, LL, as captured by Ida:

And here are their children: ML

ML

and, finally, ML.

Yes, there was facial painting.

Miki was into it.

At some point everyone kind of passed out,

and Ida got out our brand new blue camera and took it for a walk down the beach (I'll spare you all thirty pictures she took, many of young nymphets in bikinis).

This is the last picture she took, at which point one of the friends she made wanted Ida to bury her in sand, and our camera got buried, too, and was wrecked, full of sand, and had to be sent back to the Canon company, with whom I have some history.

Anyway, we ate like seven meals at the Landers' place. Like breakfast the next day.

ML was strangely really interested in whether we'd be dining with them. It wasn't clear what his true feelings were, if he desired us to come or was hoping we wouldn't. To think this is a young man I taught to pee on a rock!

ANd then we had a real nice time splashing around the next cold morning.

Aww. Old friends.

Summer, it's rolling by

Guess who gets to go to REED COLLEGE home of many candy jars and hot chocolate before school when the Bradfords are on the eastern coast?

Recent Films of Note

Salishan!

Maggie has a lot of connections! She hooked us up through some lawyerly means to have a free room at Salishan! This place is hip. But first Ella made us pick a bunch of blueberries. We ate them with some elk jerky I bought from an old woman in a tiny shack.

We spent an inordinate amount of time at the pool, and making out in the hot tub, but most of the pictures here are from an excellent afternoon at the beach.  Players in every direction:

Weird shelters for dogs:

Homegirl:

Elsie on the block:

Everyone got buried by that wily Uncle Arthur!  (just nominated for an EMMY!  And will kick Martin Scorsese's over-rated old butt!)

Theo allegedly had some bad gas, and the Bradfords outslept us by four hours, but at least Maggie and Elsie rallied enough to visit this revered site just before the masses descended at 9 AM.  Thanks Maggie!

Whoot!  Pancake power!

The End of the Trip: Crater!

Oh. After that rough night at Paulina, some wondered if we should just rally on home and not worry about Crater Lake. Not!

I mean, bro, that's a clown question. After all, it's our only national park here in Oregon.

Also, there was a bunch of snow up there, which made everything look all the more intrepid.

Furthermore, the girls were really into the "bear box," and this really heightened the drama.  When would the bear arrive?  And what would he do with our s'mores?

The next morning we got up and went to the Crater Lake Lodge, the spot where Arthur and Maggie consummated their marriage. We had a delicious breakfast. (Recently I've watched Arthur and Maggie battle in a 50-free swimming race! More later! They're still married!!)

Ella defied all expectations and had trout for breakfast!

And we went on a hike that was as long as what our children would allow.  Didn't make it down to the actual lake.

Majestic!
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Some day I'll get an actual camera again, but in the meantime, check out the art I am making!

On the way home we went to a crazy fountain old time restaurant where they have us 30 oz. milkshakes that obviated the need for our meal.

And this beautiful lady--the main complaint from my Dad is "not enough Ella!"--did a lot of driving and planning just to make this whole trip possible.  Whoa.