Our Summer Vacation

It's a little hard to tell when you're vacationing after retirement. But this week we knew for sure because we hopped in the camper van and took off. We spent 2 nights at Waldo Lake, 2 nights at Crater Lake, and 2 nights at Neil and Pam's. The weather was really hot at Waldo, cool and rainy at Crater, and just right at Neil and Pam's.

We were joined at Waldo by the Dodges and the Andrei. The kids enjoyed playing on the beach and on the floating dock.

Jonathan brought their canoe and Eldon enjoyed going out in that.

Neil came late to run the next day in the 100K (62 miles) Where's Waldo race. We saw him briefly at the halfway point where he was about 4th.

He changed one shoe, his hat and his shirt. Mike and Brenda were his pit crew.

We went to the finish line when he thought he'd come in but missed him coming in by two minutes! What a disappointment. We went back to the awards ceremony. He got $1500 in prize money, but what a hard way to earn money! The guy who came in second (but who had led most of the race) came up and complimented him for an excellent race, especially since he was "employed with children." We were sure proud of him--national champion. He crushed the course record by 42 minutes!

We went to church at the Chiloquin Branch which was very friendly. Plus it was right on the way to Crater Lake. We set up camp and relaxed. On Monday we drove clear around the lake stopping at many viewpoints. There was Wizard Island.

There was the phantom ship.

There was the trail along a gorge where we saw the pinnacles.

Our favorite was a trail through a meadow just loaded with wildflowers. This is the monkey flower.

On the way down to Medford we stopped a couple of places and hiked along the river. This is Pearsoney Falls.

The kids and I went over to Neil's office to pick him up. We drove down to Ashland to a running store where Neil got interviewed by a reporter and Emily bought some new running shoes. We went over to the park and I watched Erik play which the rest went for a run. Talk about multi-tasking, on the way back while Neil was driving he phoned the hospital to get out a chart he needed to sign, changed his shoes and shirt and put on a tie, and called Pam to bring his temple clothes and meet him at the temple. We dropped him off tucking his shirt in as he hurried off.

We hiked up Lower Table Rock while Emily ran up and down it twice and then waited patiently for us. I was glad to make it to the top!

Then we got tacos and went to find apple boxes for Emily to use for her move to Corvallis. Eldon took Pam's Scout group on a hike to identify trees while the others went on a temple trip (such a long trip). Gideon and I went to the park and got caught in a brief shower.

Neil has a good relationship with each of his kids. When he gets home from work Gideon leaps into his arms for a hug. I observed his special farewell hug for Emily. They will miss each other. It made me think of saying goodbye to my Dad. Even though I knew it was for the best and it was temporary, still it tugged on my heartstrings. So a literal-minded physician might say, "Where are your heartstrings?" I say, you won't know until they get tugged. I'm sure Neil knows where they are. We'll do our best to keep her safe from harm while she's with us.