Britta and family visit

My college friend Britta and her family - husband Sam, children Alden and Ilan - came through town for a day on their driving vacation from SF to Seattle. We hadn't seen them for 7 years, since we left the east coast, and the children had obviously grown a lot in that time. But it was wonderful to see Britta and Sam and to catch up on experiences and work and family and personal lives. It felt like very little time had passed in our friendship, which was very sweet, and we had a lovely day together.

They arrived on Saturday night in time for dinner at our home - farmer's market salmon and veggies and bread - and then we walked around the school and up the hill together. On Sunday we had a clean-out-the-fridge breakfast at our house and then drove to the Rose Garden to enjoy the flowers, views, and sunshine. The kids (their boys are 13 and 10) and our kids hit it off immediately, bonding over soccer and laser tag and football and Uno. That was an unexpected bonus. We took them to Salt and Straw for tasting and cones, to Wallace Park (Jasper got to play in the dog run), to Life of Pie for pizza, and around Washington Park.

I hope it isn't another 7 years until our next chance to catch up - but I feel confident that we four adults will be just as happy to see one another, and that conversation will flow just as freely, as it did this time.

 

 

city biking

We had a really fun city biking adventure on Wednesday, starting on the west bank of the Willamette and going across the Steel Bridge, down the Eastbank Esplanade, and back across the Tillikum Crossing bridge along the west waterfront. It would have been a perfect short ride if we stopped there, but Sebastian suggested biking to Salt and Straw on NW 23rd. So we did! I was amazed that Liesl made it the whole way, in good spirits and at a good pace. (Ice cream cones as a prize definitely helped sweeten the deal.) I calculated our route afterwards and it was probably 9-10 miles -- pretty good! Liesl hasn't been biking much this year and was a little tentative in the beginning, worried about other bikers getting too close, about cars and pedestrians and traffic, about being able to keep up, but she did great and was much more happy and comfortable by the end.

And in other news, Sebastian read the entire 7-book Harry Potter series in a mad, frenzied, nonstop dash over the last few weeks. Phew! I think he's glad to have read it, but also glad to be done for now.

Cannon Beach

There was beach baseball, flying the kite, throwing the football, running along the sand to Haystack Rock, fish and chips at Tom's and saltwater taffy from Bruce's, jumping the waves, running down the dunes, diving in the water, burying ourselves, and sand wrestling ... it was a pretty perfect Monday at Cannon Beach.

 

Burying a tennis ball for Jasper to dig and find.

I love Jasper's expression here - he looks like he's laughing with me.

Our trusty dragon kite, six years old and still flying strong.

Fish and chips and fish tacos at Tom's - our Cannon Beach tradition.

Jasper wanted so badly to get in on the wrestling matches, but he clearly knew that he wasn't allowed, and so he just sat really closely and leaned in. Such a good boy.

This game involved throwing the football down the dunes, racing down to grab it, and then wrestling it away from each other and tackling each other on the uphill sprint to get back to the top with the ball. It was pretty funny and sandy and stayed remarkably good-tempered.

Liesl gathered her brave powers and dove into this part river/part ocean channel at the end of the day.

Ice cream cones for the evening ride home.

berry picking

We kicked off the summer by going berry picking at Columbia Farms, our favorite place on Sauvie Island. We got strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackcap blackberries.

 Look at our haul!

On Saturday night Sebastian went to see a Hillsboro Hops baseball game for Sam's birthday celebration. They ate ballpark food, roamed the stadium, and Cason even got a home run ball.