Waiting, waiting, waiting

Well, here we are sitting in the lounge at LAX with several hours to kill before our flight back to London, so I thought, to help pass the time, that I would just do a quick blog update.

Yes, I'm still feeling pretty s..t - had to get up just after midnight to take some medicine and pick up the sick bucket and managed to waken Lucy in the process - she thought it was Cade having another sleepwalk!

We left GP about 5:15 and it was an easy ride down to Medford airport - although, with clear skies again, it had been a very cold night and there was frost on the windscreens of the cars that had been sitting at the airport overnight.

The flight down was fine and we walked round from the Alaska/Horizon leg to the International terminal. It's another gorgeous day here in Southern California - what a lovely year round climate - as long as you get away from LA itself.

The lounge we're in (reLAX) is very nice - smart, clean and new and with big windows with lots of daylight - Jo thinks it's the lack of daylight that makes airports such depressing places. Lots of free food and drink - not much use to me just now - plus magazines and TV and wireless internet. Unfortunately, the Masters coverage doesn't begin for a couple of hours yet - I'll see some before we leave here, but, just now, I'll have to make do with the scores on the Golf Channel and the internet.

Anyway, the team photo from last night:



Notice Jo demonstrating how cold it was? The temperature had plummeted by an amazing 22 degrees in 24 hours!

Cade then presented me with a Pop Warner top - same as his Dad's - that's the organisation that run Cade's (American) football - so I decided to model it when they were all out:



Here's Jo relaxing in the lounge as we wait for our connection:

Getting ready to come home again

Well, it's not been a great finish to the holiday for me - I picked up some kind of stomach bug and have been laid low for the last 2 days, unable to eat. I hope I'm going to be at least a bit better tomorrow for the long journey home.

Ironic really, because yesterday was the best day since we came up to Oregon - beautifully warm and sunny - but I couldn't enjoy it, I'm afraid. Today Scott had a day off work and we had planned to go and play another round of golf, but I had to let him down - I just didn't have the strength.

Tuesday, we had Braeden again and so we didn't really do much else - just hung around. In the evening, we went to Applebee's for dinner - Braeden got his face painted and Lucy had a cocktail:





Was that where I picked up the bug? Don't think so - it doesn't feel like food poisoning.

We've had the traditional end of holiday team photo now and the rest of them are all away out to a small do at Braeden's school - and I'm sitting here typing this short blog to keep my mind off things. Oh well.

Incidentally, I now have a 5th blog going - www.iansaleadventures.blogspot.com - check it out.

Post Easter Sunday dinner

Dinner was great - but we over-indulged and felt the need to go for a longish walk. First of all, we had to roll the boys' eggs and thankfully, the sun came out just in time. Some of the neighbours, who were out walking, came along to see what was going on:



We all went for a short walk with the boys on their scooters, then Jo, Lucy and I headed off with Holly for a longer walk down to the dog pound at Schroder Park, down by the river. We sat in a corner taking in the rays, whilst Lucy ran Holly around:



Here's a bit of Lucy and Holly in action:


On Monday, Jo and I had a free day and spent it down in Medford. We spent about an hour and a half in Barnes and Noble, buying books - over $100 worth! Then we decided to do our Harry and David shopping and perhaps take in a couple of camera shops too. I thought I should be able to remember how to get to Harry and David's, but I was wrong. OK - no problem - use my Blackberry maps feature - all we need to do is get the address for Harry and David - Google it, I thought. Bad news, their web site wouldn't load. OK - let's try using the Maps Search feature - no problem - two addresses came up, so I keyed one of them in and we followed the instructions which took us right to the door of ...... we don't know what! It certainly wasn't the Harry and David's retail store that we wanted. There was one funny moment when I re-input the data just to check we were in the right place and received back the instruction to "drive one metre and you are at your destination" - Jo burst in to hysterics and suggested throwing the Blackberry out the window!

OK - wrong Harry and David - try the other address - and this time we were successful and completed our shopping. There was a camera store nearby and I managed to glean some more info on a likely camera to buy, so now it was time to head back NW to GP. I thought it might be nice to pop in to one of the local breweries that we had never been to - Walkabout - it was on the way back anyway. I'd just seen some of their beer in Harry and David's (and in Kaleidoscope last week), so I again Googled the address and punched it in to the Maps function.

The Blackberry took us to the exact address quoted on the web - the only problem was it was a residential home with no sign of a brewery nor brewpub! We thought about knocking on the door, but chickened out. We even checked the address - and again when we got home - and it was the right place OK - very strange!

No matter - we headed back to GP and decided to pop in to the Wild River brewpub - it was great. Not only did they have a super cask conditioned double hopped IPA on, but we also had our favourite snack - peel and eat shrimp, followed by shrimp salad. It was mid-afternoon and the place was lovely and quiet and we gained a new respect for this brewpub, which we'd both been iffy about previously. The only downside was that they didn't have any "Growlers" available to allow us to take some of the cask conditioned IPA back home.

Dinner was yesterday's leftovers - superb. Today we're babysitting Braeden again, so I'm planning to watch the Barcelona - Arsenal match. It's much nicer out now - and better weather is promised for tomorrow.

Easter preparations

I had a nice walk up town yesterday - Lucy dropped me at the camera shop (still looking) and I walked back - round the shops, with a brief stop for an Amoretto ice cream and a chapter from my book, sitting outside the Bridge St Market - then through All State Park, over the Rogue river and back past the BMX track and up Redwood Avenue and home again - about 3 hours in all.

When everyone got back from their various travels, we settled down to prepare for Easter. Lucy boiled the eggs (free range from Uncle Bobby) and the boys coloured and decorated them:



The next job was more tricky - devilled eggs - peel the eggs, then take out the yellows, mix them with mayonnaise and put the mixture back in the half eggs - laborious work, but tasty:



I finished Catcher in the Rye - what a strange book - a bit dated as well, but I'm glad I finally got round to reading it. Next up is the two rock biographies I have been saving up - Ginger Baker's and Jack Bruce's - two opposing views of their years together and apart - how they hated each other!

Scott barbequed steaks again last night - and delicious they were, with lovely jacket potatoes and trimmings. Unfortunately, I had been nibbling at the pistachios and cashews as I finished my book and this definitely took the edge off my appetite.

Today we're about to sit down to Easter lunch/dinner and tomorrow, it's back to work and school for the Lesinas, leaving Jo and I to do our own thing - probably a trip to Medford to look at cameras, visit Barnes & Noble plus Harry & David's.

Hope you're all well and having a good Easter.