Heading to Alabaster Caverns

Waste no hummus!

#RoadTripLaw

Idaho: Gem of a State, part deux

Sorry to backtrack, but here was the view from our bed in the tent, at Lake Owyhee:

Oops, it's upside down. Please turn your head. (yes, that is my foot).

And here's a series I call "Love at the Lake: Selfies for 2"

1: Wallowa Lake

2: Lake Owyhee (same hats, different day--story of our lives)

OK, back to my post on Idaho. Famous for its potatoes, so we had to get some. Went to the farmers' market just down the road from our hotel. Got some potatoes, still have not eaten them. See future post for a report on how legit they are. As for Boise's Anaheim peppers, we know they are legit. This guy knows what's up:

Last dinner in Boise was at Bar Gernika, a Basque place with killer lamb grinders. I got mine spicy, Sarah played it safe. So delicious. Plus the Basque Block where the restaurant is has a lot of history, including a recreation of the tree graffiti the lonely Basque shepherds scratched into the bark:

We walked back to the hotel in time to catch the end of the Boise St. football game on TV. Glad we weren't still out and about when they fumbled the game away. Not that Boise strikes me as a rioting town, but you can never be too safe.

Saturday we hit the road and passed this sign, which says "Emmett Next Right," in case you don't have your glasses on. They even spelled it right. Later, when I showed him, his eyes lit up. Big smile.

We drove to Sun Valley to meet up with Larry and Linda and the boys. As we arrived, the Welcome Wagon came out:

(Your speakers are fine. It's just that I rolled up the window.)

We have enjoyed seeing Sun Valley live up to its name. Lots of walks, biking, some tennis (STILL got it!), football catch, and swimming at the awesome YMCA pool. The slide goes so fast and has like 3 wicked turns in a row. We had a blast.

But it's not all fun and games, there's also "school." But wait, why not encourage learning and fun at the same time? We had packed Story Cubes, but didn't get them out until yesterday. With a little prompting, here is what the boys did:

It's fun to see them combining their talents on a project. This year will make me a better teacher, if I pay attention to what works. If not, then it's gonna be Ken Burns all day every day! :)

So, today we roll out of town. The plan was to head north to Stanley, then Salmon. From there to Montana. But then, this forecast for Stanley:

NO THANKS.

So we are turning south, chasing the sun. Skipping Craters of the Moon (gotta save SOMEthing for later in life, right?) and heading to see our friends Chuck and Jen in Logan, Utah. After my (and the boys') first visit to Idaho, we all make our Utah debut. Feel free to add Utah-related advice in the comments below! 

PS Breaking news from Shanghai: Luke and Alyson had a baby! Welcome Pearl Abbey Macbride! You are in good hands, except for the whole Blue Jays thing.  

Hi all...before we leave the land of wifi, I wanted to do a big picture upload of our first week on the road.  For those of you who know about my low frustration tolerance and lack of computer savvy, please give me big ups for persevering.  

 When you wonder what we're doing, or where we are, here's the picture.  We try to limit this to about a 3 hour drive, every couple of days. And yes, as much as I can, I drive.  I have, what we call, control issues.











Our first stop was in Eugene, and Chris and Sally Bell took us in, even though they'd just moved in and were having their house painted.  Ever flexible friends!  Please note the steepness of their driveway, not accurately captured in this picture.  The neighbors enjoyed watching Gary and I navigate, so lovingly to each other, backwards up this driveway.  He did recommend that they grab a beer and pull out some lawn chairs, as it took a while.  And he did it!

We picnicked (how do you spell that?) on the U of Oregon campus with dear friend and Katie's college roommate, Kaarin Knudson, her hubs Patrick and lovely sprite Elizabeth, who at 3 1/2 liked to tell the boys exactly what they were doing right and wrong.  Luckily, the Pearlz boyz are used to bossy ladies.

Bobby Branch, this one's for you!

Next stop was the Willow-Witt Ranch, outside of Ashland.  Luckily, right before launching, I'd read of this place in the Portland Monthly magazine.  This picture is dark, but we tent camped here for three nights, and attended plays in the evening in Ashland at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival.

 Here's our campsite during the day.  Not bad.  The goat herding dogs of the Ranch took us in and guarded us by night, as they'd decided the boys were part of their pack.

Here's the drive to and from the plays.  

Luckily John P. broke Desi in to Midsummer Night's Dream last year at SAS, so that's what we saw at the open air Elizabethan Theatre, which was phenomenal.  This night, however, we saw Robin Hood, in which Marion was the heroine to beat all.

Here's the view of the stage

And, back to the ranch.  Why leave, when you have buddies like this to play with?

These puppies were born 5 weeks earlier, and were the sweetest puffballs you've ever seen.  Daily puppy trips for Emmett were a must.

We also loved the pigs!  Stefan Fisher, the bacon and pork chops were TO DIE FOR.  

Here's Emmy helping Jake out with the chores

.

Emmy and Gary are exhibiting how to use the goat milking apparatus.  

 Everyone should visit this farm.  Everyone, kids or no.  The owners and staff are so friendly, Des followed the farmhands around, peppering them with questions.  We ate from their frozen meat and veggies, which were fabulous.  We woke up each day excited to see what was happening on the farm.  Can't wait to come back in January and see how it looks in the snow!

Emm and the pack goats.  Gar and I were skiddish (they follow you around!), but Emmy jumped over the fence and made friends. 

Gary was proud of his pork chop and peaches on the griddle.  They were, as Emmett is keen to say, amazeballs.

 Next was Crater Lake, where Gar and I went for our honeymoon, 14 years ago.  Still a little bit pretty.  Emmy quotes: "I've seen a lot of things, but never anything quite like this," and "I didn't know you could say beautiful this many times a day!  My mouth is tired from saying beautiful."

We're waiting for our boat ride; Emm, as always, prepared. 

Devil's Backbone in Crater Lake

We took the kids on three hikes in one day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  This is the ranger-led sunset hike up the Watchman Trail. Get ready!

Wizard Island from Watchman's Tower

Still crazy after 14 years

Note the Watchmen: it says .7 miles, not 7 miles!

End of the sunset

Next stop, Bend.  We stayed with Susanna, Pat, Andrew and Reid Abrahamson.  Susanna and Gary used to teach together at Beaverton High, which has seemed to churn out a lot of amazing people.  Susanna has had the good fortune of befriending many Gervaisians, Steve Saalfeld from UPS and Heather Melcher from Bend days.  She gave us the full Bend experience!

We spent a couple of hours looking at frogs and playing in the water at Todd Lake.

1

Emm and the frogs.  So tiny!

We capped it off at 10 Barrel Brewing.  I would recommend the Sparkle Party!  Don't let the name fool you (or do....)

Up next this week, the Fossil Beds, Pendleton Roundup, and Wallowa Lake!

Though my jobs this week are food planning and shopping, the blogging boys are moving too slow for me.  It's Saturday morning and I'm watching Emmy try to engage in the watching of the Cardinals/Cincinnati game with Des and Gar.  Let's just say, he doesn't really get it.  He knows better than to call a run a point, but that's about it.  We're heading to the Farmer's Market in a bit, and gearing up for OMSI camp next week...Emm is learning Animation and Des is building rockets...yikes. 

It feels unsettling to read all of the returning to Shanghai posts and not be a part of it...there's even a wistful feeling thinking about United airlines delaying flights, crabby flight attendants, and whether or not the kids "did well" on the flight.  It's like a muscle memory when you've moved houses (which we've done many, many times this summer), turning the wrong way in the hallway on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It's not a bad feeling, just noticing the difference.

In our new life, which involves sleeping in, figuring out what we want to do each day, enjoying thinking about what we want to eat and how to do things on the cheap, I spend a lot of time thinking about making meaning.  Gary has always been great about making meaning from the little things...watching a game, riding scooters with the kids, sitting in a friend's backyard and laughing.  I get restless, wanting to feel a bigger connection and feel like my meaning is connected to a bigger something.  That's why one of my goals this year is learning to be mindful, happy living in the moment, aware of and appreciating what's around me (which is much).

Some of the ways we're making meaning right now are weekly community service outings.  Last week we went to Mt. Tabor park and pulled English Ivy and Clematis, also known as Old Man's Beard.  Emmy and Des loved being a part of the Weed Warriors Crew, and we got to learn about how invasive plants don't utilize rain water as efficiently as native plants, and they steal resources from the native plants, which are getting choked out.  Here are some pics of my ginger warriors:

This week we talked about doing Random Acts of Kindness for our community service. We came up with the idea of Random Acts of Weeding (RAOW), and we garden-bombed an unsuspecting relative for a couple hours of weeding.  Tee hee...it was fun.  We also spent much of our family meeting time deciding what to call ourselves while we were RAOW'ing, and we landed upon the Dandy Lions.  Pictures to follow, once the photoshopping is completed.  If you know of someone who would appreciate a RAOW, let us know...we're always on the prowl!  

Most evenings we go for a scoot...I think at least one of the kids have mentioned enjoying their scooters.  Imagine motorizing a scooter and sticking Desi on top...it's a thrilling, hilarious, terrifying, frustrating, heart-stopping experience.  Sidewalk or street?  What to do when he buzzes Emm, who is working on his braking and making sure he feels under control, or taking a risk and going a little faster than he's comfortable with?  Is it bad that I occasionally wish for a wipeout just to teach a lesson about the hotdog behavior?  Des is amazingly adept at avoiding the crash.  I am learning to stay behind and walk with Gar, enjoying this time of raising little boys who enjoy hanging with us and each other.  

Boys were told to look tough...how did they do?

 Time to get out of the jammies...it is nearly 10:30!  How's Pool 1 looking, SRC?  Are the bullfrogs keeping up with the mosquito population?  What's new on Jin Feng Lu?  Eventually, we'll have another set point.  Off to eat berries in 65 degree weather! Love to you all.

Hawaii is pronounced "Huh-vye-ee"

We came to grandma and grandpa’s condo

then we went to the beach for 4 days. The car was packed with stuff so the car was almost over flowing with stuff. We drove to the beach when we got to bellows air force station and there was no electricity because a tree fell on the only solar panel (the person there told us that at least).

We saw a bird that had A orange head.

We had s’more the bigger then Emmett’s fist and they melted so much we got them all over our faces. [Dad's note: We had s'mores twice, once at night and once during the day, to make the most efficient use of our lunch campfire. Also for research purposes. Turns out, Day S'Mores are really tasty.]

On the first night there were these people and they were very loud and one guy said “this is the best guitar solo ever” and we woke up at 11:00pm. It was so annoying. Almost every day I went boogie boarding. It was very fun. 

Dinner at Buzz's in Kailua:

Then last night my brother and I slept on the floor. 

[Dad's note: Off to Alaska tonight!]