Anne and I have some old friends in Portland that we miss dearly and would love to see more, so we knew that they were definitely going to be a part of our trip. Our first stop was to see a few more of my old Northwest Service Academy/AmeriCorps crew, Nat and Chop. After a hail-mary backing in of our camper into their skinny driveway (sun shines on every dog’s ass once in a while, as they say), we escaped the mid-90’s heatwave into their heavenly central air-conditioned house. The kids were ensconced in a cool basement room with a huge comfy couch, a big-screen TV, soda and popcorn, and free reign of the Netflix account. We didn’t see them for hours.
While a walk or short hike was offered, we quickly realized just sitting and talking and snacking would suit us just fine on that blazing hot day. So that’s what we did. It was awesome. The hours drifted away, and soon it was time to devour a couple trays of enchiladas for dinner. Dessert, more relaxing, and of course, some Rainier beers, so we could relive the old days of hiding twelve packs in a snowbank back in the woods to enjoy after a long day of service. Such great memories, and so much to catch up on.
The next day we headed to the other side of Portland to see Sumi and Wayne. Sumi is one of Anne’s pals from her college days at Mount Holyoke (not to mention one of the few faithful readers of this blog, thank you very much, Sumi), and while we have seen her periodically over the years, it had definitely been much too long. We didn’t even consider trying to back the camper up their steep driveway, but luckily their road had a generous shoulder and lots of thorny bushes to provide a natural theft deterrent. Once inside, our day followed a very similar pattern to the previous one: kids disappeared into the basement with for TV (and video games, too), while we just hung out upstairs and caught up. We were spoiled again, with good beer, pour-over coffee, a space-age toilet (I should have taken a pic of this thing, very cool), and delicious food. Plus, we were introduced to Zombie Dice, which Everett won, much to his delight and everyone else’s chagrin. Ask him about it, he’ll give you every detail.
All in all, a treasured weekend with old friends, comfy beds, great food, showers, air conditioning, and laughter. Lots of laughter (especially Wayne—Olive still talks about his frequent and booming laugh). A perfect respite, and one that made us sad that we had no more people to visit on our trip. We didn’t know how much we needed a weekend like this until it was over. Until next time, left coast homies. Thanks for being part of our journey.
 |
| Oh, we will. We will. |
Comments
Post a Comment