March 13-20, 2007

Unfortunately, our camera went kaput this week and has to be sent to the service center for repair. I guess it couldn't take in all the beauty it was experiencing! So there will be no original pictures for a while, just some I download from the web.


We got a sense of the power of water last week when we took a hike along the Sandy River. Heavy rains and flooding late last year completely re-directed the river flow washing out a bridge abutment and eliminating access to the trail we intended to hike. There was an incredible amount of silt and debris (dead trees and stumps) in the river bed and on the land adjacent to the river.


Friday through Sunday brought sunny weather and temps as high as the mid-70s. We drove down the Willamette Valley went to the annual Daffodil Festival in Junction City and then through the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, home of the NCAA Sweet 16 Ducks!

Seeing the daffodils reminds us of a poem Susan's mom recited to her children every spring and now she sends it by mail with a new picture of daffodils to celebrate spring's arrival. Here it is:

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
by William Wordworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

On Sunday, we came into Portland to join Jay and Toni for a Patty Griffin (www.pattygriffin.com) concert at the Aladdin. It's a very small hall and we had second row seats. Patty has a beautiful, strong voice and she and her band gave a powerful concert.

On Monday night, Jay and Toni invited us to join them for the annual fundraiser for Portland State University at the convention center. Earvin (Magic) Johnson was the keynoter and, typical of our Oregon experience to date, we sat at the most front and center table and Sue and I had the closest seats to the stage! We kind of feel like "Forrest Gump" inserted into all these prominent situations. It was a great opportunity to meet some new people and prove to ourselves that we could actually wear dressy clothing again- if you ask me, we looked pretty damn good!

We continue to savor this gift we have been given!