Friday night. I had to go to my office because I forgot my phone charger. On the way out of the block I see Anna and Jeff walking their dogs and carrying bags of poop. Hop in, I say, we'll throw poop at people. We laugh about it.
I get into D.C. and park near my office then decide to walk a few blocks to the Borders that is going out of business. It's so fucking hot that I stop at a bar for a beer on the way. Service is slow so I leave. I get to the Borders just as it closed. No big deal, I turn around. Lots of pretty women are out walking. Back to the office and the guard says about the spots on my shirt from my shoulders to my belly, "Oh, is it raining?"
No, I say, that's sweat. We laugh about it.
On the way out of D.C. that Eddie Money song comes on. It's a good one I haven't heard since a long time. Moving like a sea of madness, yeah!
With the windows open I get a whiff of Maine Avenue; the marina and seafood market. Lots of people would balk but I revel in it. Bring it all the way down the GW Parkway past the Marina where the Belisana, our friends' sailboat was once docked. It's that kind of night.
Maya and Jonah are happy at Wolf Lake. Rebecca is happy in Santa Monica. I'm going to meet her in San Diego on Sunday but right now I'm going home and all my chores are done. The song that comes on the radio as I pull in front of our home; Joe Walsh, Life's Been Good.
Travelogue - Camping in Oregon, Summer 2010
We recently spent some time in Southwestern Oregon. Our first stop was at Rebecca's cousin Nettie's property outside of Grants Pass for the Eichler family bi-annual reunion. This event draws aunts and uncles, cousins and kids from all over the west - LA, Washington, Utah - and us Easterners - together for three or four days of camping, games, storytelling, drinking, and bear-hunting.
This year, Maya and Jonah got to meet some cousins that they hadn't ever met. In particular, they palled around with two girls, Jasmine and Kaylie, who belong to Rebecca's cousin Jason (who is Nettie's son). The four kids, and a dozen or so other Eichler offspring, roamed Nettie's property (which was about two acres - and fenced in, which was perfect) unsupervised for most of each day - playing on the rented moonbounce/water-slide, in the rented dunk-tank, with the goats, chickens, dogs, gathering wood for the fire, rolling around in the dirt, eating occasionally, and generally going feral. At night, Uncle Ernst would hide his bears around the property and the kids would go on a flashlight bear hunt. It was a grand time as it always is.
Since I have been going to these reunions with Rebecca, they have taken place at Lake Quinnalt in Washington; Moab, Utah; Jalama Beach in Santa Barbara, CA; Bear Lake in Idaho, and now in Oregon. These are not like I would imagine it would be to go to Rebecca's high school reunion - where I would feel like an outsider. Without exception, the family is warm, friendly, inclusive, and just fun to be around. One of the cousins even offered to let me handle her bikini bottoms (after she took them off). Hospitality, I tell you.
After the reunion ended we buddied up with Rebecca's cousin Thea and her husband Matt and drove out to the coast for a night. The most direct route to the coast from Grants Pass is through the Siskiyou National Forest on a windy road up and down mountains where the top speed is 20 MPH. We learned that Jonah gets car sick. Fortunately there was a bucket that we had brought along for tide-pooling right in front of him and some of the berries we had eaten from Nettie's strawberry patch that morning ended up in there. Others ended up on Jonah's shirt and car seat. And the sweet smell hung in the air. But it was the damndest thing - he'd be moaning and crying while we were driving and then we'd stop and he'd be tearing up and down the side of the road like nothing in the world was bothering him. His car sickness must be the equivalent to the sea sicknees I felt in 1992 on a ferry from Ireland to Le Havre, France on a rolling sea. My mind felt like I was on acid - no way out - and my stomach wanted to jettison all the Guinness I had drunk that day. Nothing to do but lay down on the floor of the ferry (like dozens of other passengers) and try to sleep. Of course, telling Jonah to close his eyes and try to sleep is useless - he won't do it. So, our 78 mile trip from Grants Pass to Gold Beach took about 4 hours.
We finally got to the campground we had chosen the night before with Thea, and in advance of Matt and Thea who were still breaking down their tent when we left Nettie's that morning. Matt is this giant of a man with such an easygoing and bright-side nature that you can't help but want to hang out with him. Add irrepressible Thea to the mix and it is one fun couple. Matt and Thea were driving back to LA and the plan was that we would camp with them the one night in Gold Beach and then go our separate ways. At least that was the plan, but Matt and Thea ended up renting a "cabin" at the campground (after we had pitched our tent in a fierce windstorm) and Maya and Jonah ended up in their hot tub. I adjusted the heat down because my kids were doing a slow-boil and ended up messing up the setting so that when Matt and Thea tried to get in the tub later that night, the temp was about 70 degrees. Maybe that's why nobody likes me.
After we left Matt and Thea on Wednesday morning, we headed a few miles further south on U.S. 101 to the town of Brookings, where we stayed at Harris Beach State Park. The plan was to stay there one night to do some tide-pooling but the campground was so nice and the beach so beautiful that we scrapped our plan to camp the last night in the Redwood forest in CA and spent a second night at Harris Beach. We did pass through the Redwood forest on Friday on our way back to Nettie's where we spent our last night before flying out on Saturday morning, so got to see some big tree specimens. I had never seen a redwood and have to say they were pretty impressive. Rebecca remembered a photo from her youth in which she and Chris and parents are standing next to a Redwood and look like dwarfs. She wanted to re-create that for Maya and Jonah so we tried to take some pictures.
We also did a detour on the way to Gold Beach to see the world's tallest pine tree. Maya was asleep in the car so she is going to have to visit it again someday. It's too bad because Maya is actually a big fan of trees. I remember being in Shenandoah National Park when she was our only child teaching her how to hug a tree. Her school lunch bag has a tree on it. I have a picture she drew for school of her flag design - which is a flag with a tree on it. We should have made her middle name Oak. Anyway, the world's tallest pine tree is in the Pine Campground in Siskiyou National Forest. It's pretty old too.
Both Maya and Jonah are such good campers. Many of our friends say we are so brave for going camping with them (that's city folk for you) but they are so easy and I think they really enjoy it. Of course, they may also like it because we don't pester them to wear clean clothes and bathe themselves! About the only real life rule that applies when camping is that you still have to brush your teeth.
Jonah is really into helping set up and break down camp. They both love to gather wood and help start the fire. Our second day we had to move from one site to another and Maya was so helpful in gathering our things and following the camping rules by not walking through other peoples campsites (even though it was a shortcut). I've noticed that Maya is very good at being respectful of other people's rights/things/privacy. She is really a very mature person for only seven years old!
The highlights of our Harris Beach state park time were the fish dinners we had each night (at a restaurant); tide-pooling where we got to see some cool aquatic things (mostly anemones, star fish, mussels, but also some crabs), build rock cairns (there are some cool looking rocks in Oregon), and listen to me tell stories about my childhood summers at Belmar on the Jersey Shore (I may have enjoyed that part more than the others).
I guess I could go on and on . . . and maybe sometime I will add to this post. But right now it is getting late and I'm going to wrap it up. I'll post some pictures shortly.
This year, Maya and Jonah got to meet some cousins that they hadn't ever met. In particular, they palled around with two girls, Jasmine and Kaylie, who belong to Rebecca's cousin Jason (who is Nettie's son). The four kids, and a dozen or so other Eichler offspring, roamed Nettie's property (which was about two acres - and fenced in, which was perfect) unsupervised for most of each day - playing on the rented moonbounce/water-slide, in the rented dunk-tank, with the goats, chickens, dogs, gathering wood for the fire, rolling around in the dirt, eating occasionally, and generally going feral. At night, Uncle Ernst would hide his bears around the property and the kids would go on a flashlight bear hunt. It was a grand time as it always is.
Since I have been going to these reunions with Rebecca, they have taken place at Lake Quinnalt in Washington; Moab, Utah; Jalama Beach in Santa Barbara, CA; Bear Lake in Idaho, and now in Oregon. These are not like I would imagine it would be to go to Rebecca's high school reunion - where I would feel like an outsider. Without exception, the family is warm, friendly, inclusive, and just fun to be around. One of the cousins even offered to let me handle her bikini bottoms (after she took them off). Hospitality, I tell you.
After the reunion ended we buddied up with Rebecca's cousin Thea and her husband Matt and drove out to the coast for a night. The most direct route to the coast from Grants Pass is through the Siskiyou National Forest on a windy road up and down mountains where the top speed is 20 MPH. We learned that Jonah gets car sick. Fortunately there was a bucket that we had brought along for tide-pooling right in front of him and some of the berries we had eaten from Nettie's strawberry patch that morning ended up in there. Others ended up on Jonah's shirt and car seat. And the sweet smell hung in the air. But it was the damndest thing - he'd be moaning and crying while we were driving and then we'd stop and he'd be tearing up and down the side of the road like nothing in the world was bothering him. His car sickness must be the equivalent to the sea sicknees I felt in 1992 on a ferry from Ireland to Le Havre, France on a rolling sea. My mind felt like I was on acid - no way out - and my stomach wanted to jettison all the Guinness I had drunk that day. Nothing to do but lay down on the floor of the ferry (like dozens of other passengers) and try to sleep. Of course, telling Jonah to close his eyes and try to sleep is useless - he won't do it. So, our 78 mile trip from Grants Pass to Gold Beach took about 4 hours.
We finally got to the campground we had chosen the night before with Thea, and in advance of Matt and Thea who were still breaking down their tent when we left Nettie's that morning. Matt is this giant of a man with such an easygoing and bright-side nature that you can't help but want to hang out with him. Add irrepressible Thea to the mix and it is one fun couple. Matt and Thea were driving back to LA and the plan was that we would camp with them the one night in Gold Beach and then go our separate ways. At least that was the plan, but Matt and Thea ended up renting a "cabin" at the campground (after we had pitched our tent in a fierce windstorm) and Maya and Jonah ended up in their hot tub. I adjusted the heat down because my kids were doing a slow-boil and ended up messing up the setting so that when Matt and Thea tried to get in the tub later that night, the temp was about 70 degrees. Maybe that's why nobody likes me.
After we left Matt and Thea on Wednesday morning, we headed a few miles further south on U.S. 101 to the town of Brookings, where we stayed at Harris Beach State Park. The plan was to stay there one night to do some tide-pooling but the campground was so nice and the beach so beautiful that we scrapped our plan to camp the last night in the Redwood forest in CA and spent a second night at Harris Beach. We did pass through the Redwood forest on Friday on our way back to Nettie's where we spent our last night before flying out on Saturday morning, so got to see some big tree specimens. I had never seen a redwood and have to say they were pretty impressive. Rebecca remembered a photo from her youth in which she and Chris and parents are standing next to a Redwood and look like dwarfs. She wanted to re-create that for Maya and Jonah so we tried to take some pictures.
We also did a detour on the way to Gold Beach to see the world's tallest pine tree. Maya was asleep in the car so she is going to have to visit it again someday. It's too bad because Maya is actually a big fan of trees. I remember being in Shenandoah National Park when she was our only child teaching her how to hug a tree. Her school lunch bag has a tree on it. I have a picture she drew for school of her flag design - which is a flag with a tree on it. We should have made her middle name Oak. Anyway, the world's tallest pine tree is in the Pine Campground in Siskiyou National Forest. It's pretty old too.
Both Maya and Jonah are such good campers. Many of our friends say we are so brave for going camping with them (that's city folk for you) but they are so easy and I think they really enjoy it. Of course, they may also like it because we don't pester them to wear clean clothes and bathe themselves! About the only real life rule that applies when camping is that you still have to brush your teeth.
Jonah is really into helping set up and break down camp. They both love to gather wood and help start the fire. Our second day we had to move from one site to another and Maya was so helpful in gathering our things and following the camping rules by not walking through other peoples campsites (even though it was a shortcut). I've noticed that Maya is very good at being respectful of other people's rights/things/privacy. She is really a very mature person for only seven years old!
The highlights of our Harris Beach state park time were the fish dinners we had each night (at a restaurant); tide-pooling where we got to see some cool aquatic things (mostly anemones, star fish, mussels, but also some crabs), build rock cairns (there are some cool looking rocks in Oregon), and listen to me tell stories about my childhood summers at Belmar on the Jersey Shore (I may have enjoyed that part more than the others).
I guess I could go on and on . . . and maybe sometime I will add to this post. But right now it is getting late and I'm going to wrap it up. I'll post some pictures shortly.
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