STP and then some

(a gorgeous day out on Lake Washington)

Since I've already forgotten the details of the Death Valley trip, I may as well skip straight to vacation and then maybe some day I'll post about Death Valley (aka you may never hear about death valley....). So, a couple of Mondays ago (and despite some last minute travel complexities regarding the end of the mountie's clutch - ouch!) Calla and Pete and I made it to Seattle in a day without too much trouble and managed not to lose the bikes. Spent 4 nice days with the family; caught up on some sleep, racked the far recesses of my brain trying to remember the names of My Little Ponies,

(um, firebolt? Morning glory? Maybe we should just put them in costumes...)

caught up with Grandmama,

(grandmama is now officially on the interweb!)

(da fam)

and even managed to get out sailing.

(who was the crazy monkey who let me steer?)(crazy monkey)

Bright and early Saturday morning, Calla, her family, her friend Kylan and I joined ~10,000 other people on a bike ride to Portland. We had beautiful weather all day Saturday, and arrived in Centralia happy, a little tired and wicked hungry.

(Calla, her family and their two tag-alongs)

As an aside, of the the various endurance sports and outdoor pursuits I've participated in, cycling wins the prize for making me want (need?) to eat the most (followed closely by skiing). One rootbeer float, plate of spaghetti, polish sausage and bag of cheetos later, the food coma set in and we all crashed by 9:00. Sunday found us with not such nice weather, but we learned how to dodge the rooster tails created by the rider in front of us. (Kylan and Calla wait with the masses to cross the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Oregon)

(the after photo)

Anyway, a rewarding experience and I feel especially lucky to have shares it with Calla's family. Also entertained and impressed by the HUGE variety of folks out for the ride, and the unicyclist who made it (apparently with the original goal of doing it in a day!). Don't worry, Christie, it wasn't Dubin.

Mom and Dad patiently waited in the rain for us at the finish, and then we headed to Manzanita Beach out on the coast, to join Dan and Helene and Audrey for a couple of nights. More relaxing, though I read an issue of Vanity Fair from cover to cover, that had some great pieces about Palin, AIG, and the implosion of Harvard's endowment and found some of that mildly distressing. If a school like Harvard can find itself with a budget deficit of $220 million, what will happen to the already cashed strapped institutions like the UC system? Well, we're quickly finding out... Playing on the beach and drawing with sidewalk chalk helped, though, as well as a nice trip to the Tillamook cheese factory (mmmm, fresh cheese curds!).

(conquering crabs)

(I only remember agreeing to have my feet buried. Big brothers ALWAYS escalate....)