Sunday morning post

Lucy's off for a run with the dogs and Jo and I will be going for a walk soon. Today is Family Day - we're not here for Cade's 15th birthday next week, so everyone is coming over this afternoon - 15 of us in all, I think.

The remainder of Friday was fairly quiet. We went out and met Scott for lunch at Goodness Gracious - nice place. Croque Monsieur for me and Lucy and Broccoli soup for Jo:

Lucy made fajitas with the leftover steak for dinner.

On Saturday morning, I felt a bit more energetic than I had done the last couple of days and so, partly inspired by watching Chris Froome tie up the Tour de France, I went out out for my longest bike run of the holiday - 49 kms round over Robertson Bridge and back. I had forgotten how long it was - I had done it last year. I checked my times for some of the stretches and they're definitely better this year - that's encouraging. The fire season is in full swing on the west coast but, thankfully, nothing round Grants Pass yet, although the danger levels are still high:

We went to the park downtown afterwards to look over the Classic Cars on show for the Back to the 50's weekend. Lucy had some shopping to do, so Jo and I were then dropped off at Griess Family Brews.

Shopping done, it was time for an early dinner, as Cade was again taking part in the Classic Cars parade through the town in the evening. We went for a Thai meal - and very nice it was too - and then it was over to Cade's friend's house where he - and Braeden - were dropped off.

We went back downtown later on to watch the parade, looking out for the boys in the black and white car:

Braeden looks happy - and you can just see Cade sitting beside him.

Time for my shower.

Thursday action

Cade's football training was so short yesterday (Thursday) that I barely had time to get back to Delsie Drive before he texted to say that it was over. Just as well I hadn't gone for a cycle.

As usual, we popped in to Haggen's after training to buy Lunchables for Cade and Braeden. The Fedex delivery duly arrived so we hot-footed the latest insurance check over to Scott at the hospital. Fingers crossed all's well this time.

Next stop was Fish Hatchery Park's Nature Trail - a fairly short loop of about 3 kms during which we picked some berries. Cade ran part of the trail to make up for the lack of exercise at training earlier on. Jo acquired a new walking stick which she clung to as she threw stones in to Applegate River:

We moved on to Applegate River Golf Club where we hit some balls on the range and bought some drinks. The boys turned down the offer of Polish Dogs for lunch - instead we stopped at a little Thai drive-through hut for Thai Teas and Pot Stickers.

Scott must have been happy that he finally got his insurance check sorted out - he stopped off at Cartwright's on the way home from work and picked up three dozen huge oysters for the BBQ:

- and that was only starters! Mountainous steaks followed. What a feast.

I finished the book Gary left with me, so that's 5 down now:

Perhaps not as many as I thought I might read on an extended holiday. Still, I was tempted when we were bookstore browsing in Ashland last week on the very day Harper Lee's latest novel - her first for 50 years - was released, to buy it. The shop owner said the book was flying off the shelves, so I took the bait - not only for the new release, but I thought I should catch up with the original To Kill a Mockingbird, which, although I know the famous film, I've never read the book:

So that's my next two reads sorted, but I've still got the following after that - if I can get them in my suitcase, that is:

Friday today - feeling tired. Lucy's out for a run with the dogs and I thought I was due a cycle, so I got ready but then just sat down again and did this blog instead. Going to be a lazy one, I think.

Jackson County Fair

So, as I said earlier, we travelled down from GP (Josephine County) to Central Point (Jackson County), just north of Medford, for the first day of the Jackson County Fair on Wednesday. The similarities between this and the agricultural shows in NE Scotland were obvious.

Sure, there were rides and food stalls - lots of them - but the focus that day was on cattle and pigs. We watched some Junior pig "herders" (that can't be the right word, can it?) - swineherds is probably the correct term - in competition. If there's such a thing as a beautiful pig, then it was present here. They were manicured and presented like Miss World. Here's a view of the action:

Drinks had to be had - Shave Ice was favoured by the boys:

There were other exotics there to view as well:

Not many ventured close.

We had watched the morning TV, which told us about a butterfly show, where you could interact and feed them, so we went along:

Me photographing Jo phographing me feeding a butterfly

Interesting - and fun. We popped in to Harry and David's afterwards and then grabbed some food at Panda Express for the boys before heading home. Pizza for dinner at night.

Thursday morning update

We're getting ready to head out to Fish Hatchery Park to walk the nature trail - and hopefully pick up some berries on our way. Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I put Lucy's bike in the back of the Mazda when I took Cade to football practice and cycled from there out to Tom Pearce Park and back along the trail there:

The wild berries at the side of the trail were ripe so I picked a few and took them back in my water bottle and Jo and I had them for breakfast.

I kept the cycle short as I needed to be back in good time, in case Cade's training was cut short, but, sod's law, it was an extra long session, including an extended session up and down the bleachers at the stadium:

Cade was bathed in sweat and exhausted when they finished, but he recovered pretty quickly and joined us on our trip down to Medford for the first day of the Jackson County Fair - but more of that later.

On Tuesday we had lunch out on the decking overlooking the Rogue river at Tap Rock:

Jackson County report to follow - have to dash now as we're doing a mercy delivery of Scott's check, which again arrived today by Fedex - don't ask.

Tuesday morning despatch from GP

Late Sunday afternoon, we suddenly took the decision to visit the local Crow & Bear winery (http://crowandbear.com/), which is on one of my cycling routes. It's very young - their vines won't produce sufficient quality and quantity of grapes until next year, so, for now, they are taking in wines - and beers - from their son's place in California, amongst others.

The tasting room was nice and we tried most of their stuff. Lucy liked the Chardonnay and ended up taking a growler full home, whilst we bought a bottle of the Primitivo. We decided to fill my growler with their Saison ale, but it ran out, so we ended up with just half a growler - but it was free.

We posed outside:

Monday morning was back to work for Scott and Lucy - and back to football training for Cade. I drove him there and picked him up afterwards, and we then went along to the DMV (like our DVLC) and picked up some leaflets for Cade to study prior to sitting his driving test soon after his 15th birthday in a couple of weeks. We'll miss his birthday this year, but there's going to be a family party this coming Sunday, just before we leave.

I had booked a round of golf at Grants Pass GC yesterday afternoon at 1:15 pm - their twilight time. I played the first 3 holes with Doug, a local member who was heading for the range for some practice before his buddies arrived. He seemed a nice guy. We swapped grandparent stories - amazingly, he had 15 and I'm sure he wasn't any older than me!

After Doug left for the range, I was all alone on the course and could scoot round at my own pace. I started off playing two balls off the tee, but I soon discovered why none of the locals play at this time of day. We were back in triple digits again and it was exhausting work. My golf suffered - I had lost what I thought I had learned on the range the other day. The blisters on my fingers that I gained  at the range didn't really help either. My hands have got soft from not playing for the last 6 weeks - I'm going to have to try to get some kind of game back for our return to Scotland next week.

The golf club had obviously heard I was coming and had put out the balloons for me:

We had our first hamburger of the holiday last night. We still can't believe Gary, who wanted to experience everything American when he was here, didn't fancy this iconic US meal.

Today (Tuesday) looks like being a real lazy one. Scott's been waiting for his large check settlement from his insurance company - he even came home at lunchtime yesterday to collect it - or so he thought. Several phone calls later, he was promised that it would be Fedex'd to him today, so we were on our alert this morning. Sure enough, the doorbell rang mid-morning and everyone - Jo, Cade and Braeden - all immediately sprung up to answer it, but by the time they got there, the Fedex guy had gone, leaving the check on the doorstep!

Not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day now.

Penultimate weekend in GP

Gary and Luca are back home now - and probably exhausted after their marathon journey. We were all up before 4 am on Saturday morning to say farewell. Lucy drove them down to Medford and she then went for a long run before heading in to Costco when it opened at 10 am.

Scott went over to the coast to help his Dad pour some cement, whilst Jo and I decided to go back to bed, but neither of us could get to sleep again so we just got up. It would have been an ideal chance for me to watch the Open from St. Andrews, given the 8 hour time difference, but, sod's law, the weather there scuppered that plan.

I suggested to Jo that we go for a walk so we drove up to Cathedral Hills and walked the Outlook Loop trail there. It was classed as a "more difficult" trail - not the most difficult, but not the easiest. It was up and down and Jo had to occasionally stop for breath:

We've both put so much weight on that we badly need as much exercise as we can get. Map My Walk app failed me, but we were on this trail for about an hour and a half, so it was probably between 4 and 5 miles long. There was a bench at the high point, overlooking Grants Pass, so we stopped there:

We were still home before 8 am. Cade and Braeden were still sound asleep.

I went out in the afternoon in the car - initially just to get the potatoes that Lucy forgot, but, once out, other things came to mind. Anti-histamine pills for the bite on the my arm, then off the liquor store to get some G & T, followed by a visit to GP golf club, where I booked a time for tomorrow (Monday) and hit 100+ balls on their range. It had been a while since I'd played and, sure enough, this session produced 3 blisters, which, in turn, meant the next trip was to the pharmacy. I chose Wal-mart and I thought I'd take the chance to look at their frames for glasses. I got a new prescription for my driving glasses last year, but hadn't done anything about it yet. I didn't see anything there, so I popped in to adjacent Fred Meyer, but they didn't have an optician department, although I did spot a cheap pair of trousers, tried them on and bought them - a snip at $20.

Last stop was Wild River Brewery to fill up one of my growlers. The afternoon had gone. We had Costco ham for dinner, then all went off to bed to catch up on lost sleep earlier this morning.

Today (Sunday), Jo and Lucy went to mass and I headed off for a long-ish cycle. I made it to Fish Hatchery County Park, which had some lovely trails - a nature trail for walkers only and a general one for horse riders, cyclists etc. I missed a turn and ended up on the walkers only trail - it was a bit tricky in parts for the bike, but it was worth it:

Scott and Lucy are back at work tomorrow and that thought, along with the heat, which today is threatening triple digits again, meant none of us were very enthusiastic about doing anything this afternoon, so we're all just hanging, as they say here.

Gary may be home, but the freezer still has evidence of his visit:

There's still a chunk of the giant bottle (a birthday present from Scott and Lucy) left. I wonder if it will still be there when and if Gary returns some day?

On our last evening of every holiday we've had in Grants Pass, I've always taken a family photograph, but this year I thought it would be appropriate to do it before Gary and Luca left:

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.