Summer R&R

You wouldn't guess from the way we've been relaxing, visiting friends and enjoying this beautiful weather that were in the process of selling a home, planning a world trip and selling and packing up all of our belongings. Ah well, that seems to be our style - doing it all at the last minute and not getting too worked up about it. It makes for stressful days sometimes, but things seem to have a way of working out.

At any rate, early in the month we finally got to go spend a part of a weekend on the Umpqua with one of Keith's best friends and his family (including baby on the way!). Their family owns a cabin on probably one of the best stretches of the river. It's a great swimming hole, with rocks to climb around on and tunnels to swim through. The water was the perfect temperature. The dogs loved it as well. What? A golden and a lab loving the water? Couldn't be. Here is a picture of them all tuckered out, although doesn't it look like it's missing captions where Gracie is pleading with Ashley to be her friend and pay her some attention?...either that or she just looks plain scared - Ash can get a little protective of her toys, as Gracie has been told a time or two.


The mornings brought this erie fog, soon to be followed by 90 degree scorchers.


After that, Keith being "retired", had time to go out to the coast for a couple days to help a good friend paint their family cabin. It was a male bonding type of thing, so I stayed home and worked on the deck (what else?). I also made the first concrete step of our trip and forked over a large sum of cash that will get us our first three major flights of our trip - Seattle to Auckland, Christchurch to Bali (via Sydney), then Jakarta to Singapore. We're committed now!

In return, I then deserted Keith to spend three days up in the mayhem of the greater (and it is gettting greater - as in so unbelievably crowded at all times of the day) Seattle area to visit a bunch of my friends. I spent my first day hanging out with old and dear high school friends. Then spent the next day hiking up Mt Si (East of Seattle) with dearly missed college friends, one of which happened to be in visiting from New York. The timing was perfect. And we had a beautiful hike. And a scrumptious BBQ at the Gibson's afterwards. It was great to see you all!! Thank you everyone for your hospitality!
Here are my favorite pics from the hike:




This one shows the scramble at the end. A little hair-raising at times, but we all made it. Our shorts on the backside might be a little thinner now, but lack of broken limbs is well worth a little worn fabric.