Our trip to Oregon started out just as planned - lots of visiting, fun, a trip to the gorgeous Oregon coast with our daughter Anna and son-in-law Craig, eating NW favorite foods, etc...

...and then on August 3 Roberta's 85-year old Dad, who is already severely debilitated from Parkinson's, fell and broke his hip. Since the rest of the family works, she was a natural for hospital and rehab duty. It was actually some great one-on-one time with him. We had a couple of scares and trips back to the hospital, but now he is back at his assisted living facility with her Mom.

During the month, Michael enjoyed BBQing at R's brother's house, and we did manage a couple of nice bike rides, and a hike on Mt Hood one weekend with our Anna and Craig. We also had fun connecting in our mutual "left coast" home port with college and cruising friends Dave and Helen on Jammin'.

Then, with Dad stable, we escaped up to Washington State, where we stayed in Port Townsend at our all-time favorite B&B, The Quimper, enjoyed the Wooden Boat Festival with old friends and Celilo crewmen Gerry and Tom, and had dinner with former Forest Service colleagues (one of whom is now the featured artist in a downtown gallery!). We took the ferry over to Vancouver Island, BC and drove up to Campbell River to see Roger and Jane from Sereno 55, friends we met cruising in the Bahamas about six years ago (when we were guests on Osprey), and to visit Bruce - high school buddy of Michael's and another crew member for Celilo. After that we spent a few days back down in Washington at a friend's cabin Roberta has been visiting since she was a teenager.

Then we hit Bend again and had a great visit with Michael's cousins. Stopped at Mt Hood on the way to see a passel of longtime friends Bruce had rounded up. Some fun! Back in Portland, Roberta sewed new fender covers for us and kitchen cushions for Anna, went to a play and the ballet, and we got to see Steve Martin and his band - great show. We didn't get to Alaska, the Steens or Malheur Lake, and didn't do as much hiking and biking as planned, but it was still a wonderful summer. And hard to leave Oregon, our home State. This summer was the longest we had been there in 15 years!

M went back to the boat to get started on projects with a stop on the way to visit dear friends, while R stayed in Oregon. The plan was to have the boat in the water and projects put away by the time R got there. Didn't happen - island time, you know! But we are making progress on doing the reverse of all the work we did in July plus some, and hope to splash Celilo next week. In the meantime, we are taking time for fun - Halloween party, Duwali - the Hindu lights festival tonight, and Taste of Trini Tour next week. Season Three begins!

And thanks to Wendy Clarke for giving me the theme for this year from the A.A. Milne's poem "Spring Morning":
If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You'd say to the wind when it took you away:
"That's where I wanted to go today!"