Running Around

On the cabin deck…Larry, Ali, Bernat, Rayman and Beau.

Fuzzy picture.  Sorry.

The week started off on the 4th.  July 4th…the night of fireworks and the day at the cabin at the base of Mt. Hood.  It was so fun with family and doggies.  And music and impromptu dancing and we didn’t get lost and we walked along the Sandy River.  Good, good.

The rest of the week involved golf, meeting new kiddos and hiking to the Columbia River on the WA side.  

The devils are in the details.  

The weather was cool as we teed off at Camas Meadows country club…they let the plebs play and so we did.  It was a golf course set amongst huge trees, wide meadows, lots of sand traps, plenty of water and we had a great time. 

Met Ryan in Vancouver après golf and had lunch and a beer.  The beers are of great variety and extremely interesting.  Everything went according to Hoyle.  

 Thursday we drove to Vancouver again to meet Tam’s foster kids.  Here is a picture. 

Rayman, moi, Alonzo, Tamara, and Eyo.

It was Alonzo’s 13th birthday and we bought him some artist supplies.  He loves to draw!!  We were thrilled when he opened them up and started using them immediately and in front of us.  It doesn’t get much better than that!!   The kids live with their mother but Tam took them in 6 years ago when trouble was the name of the game.  Her steady guidance and help continue to this day when she coordinates with their mother for visits.  

Today, we agreed to meet Tamara and her kiddos in Vancouver at the Marine Park.  We met at the parking lot and that’s when things turned interesting.  We had towels, food, chairs, blow up water toys.  Water, soda, snacks.  Tamara texted us and told us the parking lot was about 1/4 mile to the river.  Okay, fine.  

The kids sprinted ahead and disappeared into the bushes.  Tamara followed.  We followed Tamara like cattle to the slaughter.  A path about the width of, say, an ironing board was before us.  It was framed with berry bushes that jutted into the path.  It was treed and with those trees came tree roots that popped up everywhere which made the downhill path treacherous.  There were also big rocks about the size of footballs placed strategically by nature so that the danger level rose like the red line on a candy thermometer.  And it was here on that path that Eyo slipped as he walked down a particularly steep portion of the trail,  Alonzo made it down.  I slipped but managed to stay upright because I had appropriate footwear on.  Rayman.  He stumbled down tripping as he came toward me.  So, at that point, we decided this trail was too hard for our skill level.  So we headed back up the trail from whence we came.  Well, Rayman on his way up lost his footing and slid down the face of the trail like he was on skis doing a downhill run and in doing so, found himself headed for berry bushes and a huge tree.  Luckily, he stuck his arms out in front of himself and he crashed into the tree and then fell like a stone somehow avoiding the berry bushes.  Stunned, bruised, bleeding, he popped up and tried to put on a happy face.  I was a bit mortified because he hit me on his way down like a skier of slaloms.  

Click on this to get an idea of the flat area…Rocks and trees

Where is the path for older people, I wondered?  Were all the paths like this?  Good grief, what have we gotten ourselves into?  Tamara assured us that there were easier trails.  So we soldiered on and found one.  We took it and arrived on the bank of the Columbia River.  The view was grand.  

Tamara, in the meantime, was mortified.  The kids barely noticed as kids are wont to do.  I got off with only a bruise or two.  Rayman on the other hand was a mess.  He was still bleeding here and there and had bruises galore caused by taking aspirin, 82 mg every day.  Oh, I almost forgot, I picked up a big stick and gave it to him in hopes it would make walking easier.  It did and it used it the rest of the afternoon.  It really came in handy when we decided to depart earlier than the kids reassuring Tamara we knew the way out.  Of course, we got lost in the thicket.  And after 10 minutes of walking thru head high bushes on a trail, we arrived back were we started.  This, of course, was not the least bit surprising because over the years we have developed a wonderful skill of getting lost.   

So, what did I do?  I took at my phone and screamed, “Siri, find my car!”  That did not work.  Siri told me to sign into Google first.  Screw that.  So we traced ourself back where we had come from but turned left at some point because it was going uphill.  Eventually, we emerged from the jungle like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, I think it was, in Romancing the Stone.  And we were about as far away as we could possibly from our car.  

And that has been our week….so far.

P.S.  On the way home we delighted ourselves by discussing the possibility of hiring a chauffeur that could take us everywhere while we sat in the back seat of the big comfortable car sipping champagne.  Really, I think that is what we need now.




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