Eve of departure for Gary and Luca

It's now Friday lunchtime and Gary and Luca's holiday is almost over. So soon - the time has passed very quickly. It's a very early start for them tomorrow morning and they have a couple of layovers - firstly at San Francisco and then at LA - before catching the long flight to London, then another layover on Sunday morning before the flight up to Aberdeen,

Anyway, here's the story of the last few days:

Tuesday

Boating day - Lucy's already posted lots of photos on FB from our afternoon at Galesville Reservoir, but there's another couple of short videos on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=067TUlAAtEw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lRHfEkLth8.

Gary and I went to Jacksonville in the evening to attend one of the Britt Festival gigs - The Decemberists, with support from Calexico. We were slightly later than planned and had to fight for a space on the lawn, where others had laid out their groundsheets and tartan rugs - and then gone away. It was like the towels on the sun loungers in Europe. It was all very civilised however - one of the sponsors was Harry and David's and they came up with a nice wine glass holder:

Wednesday

Cade had 3 days of football training this week and Lucy and Gary would take him along first thing and then go for a run together before they picked Cade up again. Occasionally I would go for a bike ride - and this was one of those days. It was also the day that Scott decided it was time to sell his motor bike. The sale was to a guy up north and they agreed to meet roughly halfway on the I-5, so Scott loaded the truck up:

Gary wanted to enjoy the full American experience, so today it was churros at The Haul. It also gave me a chance to refill one of my growlers. I sampled some of the beers in the usual taster, shot-sized glasses and, seeing this, both Luca and Cade wanted one for their cokes:

Jo was first to clear her plate:

Back at Delsie Drive, I noticed for the first time, Lucy's usual chalkboard welcome:

Scott's BBQ tonight was ribs:

Thursday

The next US experience for Gary was pies for breakfast at the Powderhorn cafe - Almond Joy for me and Strawberry-Rhubarb for Gary. Luca posed for a photo outside:

Most of us then headed south to Emigrant Lake where Lucy, Braeden, Gary and Luca did the slides. Luca doesn't like water on his face - note look of trepidation:

Braeden has no such fears:

Nor does Lucy:

Meanwhile, Jo and I headed for the shade:

Once finished with the slides, the others headed for the lake:

Then it was time to head back to Ashland to meet up with Scott and Cade for lunch at the Standing Stone Brewery. Couldn't do our traditional walk through the stream in Lithia Park afterwards as high levels of e-coli were apparently present.

Chicken wings on the BBQ tonight.

Friday

Early morning trip to Wildlife Images:

Gary's more or less packed now and has checked in for his United flights - the AA ones will be done later.