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.

Back in GP

The journey back from Tahoe to Oregon was fairly uneventful and we got here before the wagon train from SoCal arrived, which allowed Jo and I to nip out and get the groceries for dinner.

The original plan for Monday was to go to the coast (Crescent City) and pick up Scott's Dad's truck which would allow us to take the boat to the lake some time this week, but not many people fancied spending another 3 hours in a vehicle after Sunday's treks, so it was decided to have a down day in GP. The upside was that this allowed Scott to go truck shopping on Monday, having reached a settlement with his insurance company.

Early morning, Gary and Lucy took Cade to his football training and went for a short run, whilst I did likewise on the bike. Lucy came home with cinnamon buns making for a lovely late breakfast. We ran off some of the extra pounds gained at the local park:

Before long, Scott appeared with his brand new toy:

In the afternoon, Gary decided to take a trip to the cinema to see Inside Out, Pixar's latest. Braeden, Luca and Jo joined him - and I did too, a little reluctantly. They all thought it was great. I fell asleep twice.

Now that Scott has his new truck, there's no need to drive over to the coast, so this morning (Tuesday) we're heading to the lake with the boat. Gary and I have to be back by 5 pm as we're going to a concert in Jacksonville.

Saturday at North Lake Tahoe

This was our quiet day of rest prior to completing the second half of our return road trip back to Grants Pass. First stop was the Visitors Center where we learned about local walking and biking trails, the first of which was down to the beach to relax and read our books:

We walked back up to our apartment and then took the short drive down to Tunnel Creek Cafe for lunch. Adjacent to it was a bike hire shop who provided transport out to various trail heads allowing customers to cycle back to the shop. I was envious.

We wanted a little bit of gentle exercise and spotted a short walk round Lake Spooner so headed there where we circumvented the lake, taking lots of photos:

We then drove to the other side of the lake, crossing the California/Nevada border a couple of times to go on the even shorter Stateline Lookout Trail - or so we thought. What we didn't realise was that, to get there, we had to climb over half a mile straight up the hill. Much heavy breathing, but worth it for the spectacular views of the lake:

Lots of paragliders out enjoying the conditions:

Dinner was at a local BBQ restaurant, a short walk from our apartment. It was a 21,000 steps day.

It's now Sunday morning and we're having breakfast before packing and heading out on the road.