Two days ago, Judy arrived for a weekend visit. Yesterday we had fun. Today we had more fun. Tomorrow she goes home.
We take our seats on a Hellgate Jetboat to begin a four-hour dinner excursion.
A Canadian goose crosses our path.
At the beginning of the tour, we approach the bridge that crosses the Rogue River at 6th Street in Grants Pass.
We passed a blue heron along the way.
We passed several ospreys nesting high atop leafless trees.
We passed a wedding taking place along the shore.
Judy did not intentionally flatten her hair on the side of her head. Rather, it was rustling in the wind as the jetboat raced along the surface of the river. Judy's rustling hair can be seen and heard in the 7-second video below:
Our pilot purposely carried out maneuvers designed to get us all drenched. Judy, sitting on the edge of the bench closest to the water, got more drenched than some of us.
An osprey nest rested on top of one of the many bridges we passed along the way.
Mud swallows nests lined a section of the same bridge.
Another jetboat accompanied ours through the canyon, splashing our boat and being splashed by our boat.
Leaving Hellsgate canyon just before docking for dinner at the OK Corral.
A deer passed by the dining structure as we hiked the hill to the OK Corral.
Dinner included salad, cornbread, biscuits, spare ribs, chicken and blueberry cobbler.
Judy and I pause in front of the OK Corral as we return down the hill to the jetboat for the ride home.
The three of us return to our seats.
For some reason we decided to take a close-up photo of each of us before our pilot took us back to Grants Pass.
Yesterday, to announce her weekend visit, I had posted on facebook a 60-year-old photo of Judy and me playing baseball together. In a comment on my facebook posting, Tracy challenged me to recreate that same pose after Judy arrived.
So, after consuming Debra's amazing breakfast this morning, Judy and I headed out to the back patio with my camera and tripod and tried to reproduced our 1954 pose. We ran into some technical difficulties along the way but eventually got them resolved.
Then we headed to the field across the street for some video recording of the two of us playing baseball.
With both the photo project and the video project behind us, Debra headed for a meeting in Medford and Judy and I headed for Ashland.
We got home later in the afternoon, ate at our local Chinese restaurant, then saw a play.
Judy and me in 1954.
My facebook posting yesterday announced Judy's visit. Notice Tracy's comment at the end, suggesting an updated photo of the two of us playing baseball again. I take those kinds of challenges very seriously.
I set up my tripod, placed Judy in her original 1954 pose, set the camera for a 10-second time delay, then stepped into the photo to join Judy. It didn't work out very well, unless you like photos of decapitated baseball players. Realizing that the use of the tripod and the 10-second time delay might be problematic, we recruited Debra to take the pictures.
Debra's first two attempts were unsuccessful because a dog was not present in the original 60-year-old photo.
Eventually we succeeded.
The successful photo was then cropped, changed to black and white, and framed to resemble the antique picture.
Then we stepped across the street and recorded a one-minute baseball movie starring ourselves.
Judy and I spent a couple of hours at Lithia Park in Ashland, walking, talking, sitting and watching ducks and dragonflies.
We thought about playing tennis in the park, but then we didn't think about it anymore.
Returning from the park, the three of us dined together at Mei Sum Chinese Restaurant then we attended a play at the Camelot Theatre.
The Camelot Theatre is shown in the distance behind my two dates.
Les Miserables was the longest play I've ever attended, starting at 8:00 p.m. and ending at 11:20 p.m., but the acting and singing were exceptional and the cast received a rare standing ovation.
The yellow PT Cruiser pulled into our driveway about 3:30 p.m. with Judy at the wheel. She arrived for a much anticipated three-day visit.
After she spent nearly seven hours behind the wheel, we didn't do much the rest of the day. We traded stories, caught up on news and went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Then we returned home and watched TV while consuming a couple of flavors of ice cream. We were all tired so, like a bunch of old people, we went to bed fairly early.
After initially greeting Judy with a ferocious bark, Koda soon discovered that he had yet another lap to occupy.
The June birthday format changed a bit this year. Usually, a birthday party is thrown for both Silas and Devon. But this year Silas opted out of the big birthday party idea and preferred, instead, a smaller sleepover party later in the month. Devon, however, still liked the idea of a birthday party in the park.
So this year we celebrated Devon's birthday with a party at Burlingham Park in Woodburn. Guests included family members and some friends from his school.
The partiers included Silas (left, blue shirt), Devon (front, orange shirt), Naomi (directly behind Devon), Isaac (behind Naomi), Tyler (with Devon's arm around him), John (behind Tyler) and Jenna (behind John).
When Debra and I arrived at the park, Tim, Bethany and Silas were already playing basketball.
Debra spent some time pushing Tyler and Naomi on the swings.
Debra pushed only Naomi on the swing once Tyler found something more interesting to do.
Placing bark in a discarded Gatorade bottle is more interesting than swinging.
Devon swings while John also swings, Naomi climbs a swing, and Jenna climbs the structure.
Tim cooks and serves hot dogs while Bethany chats with Isaac's mom, Cynthia.
Tim eats, Naomi goes back for seconds, and Debra laughs hysterically about something.
Devon, John, Isaac, Jenna and Naomi work their way through the food line.
Devon wanted something different this year instead of birthday cake. He chose an assortment of birthday candy.
The kids wrote their names on their own Ziploc bags and filled them with candy.
Silas eats his birthday candy.
Silas helps Tyler eat his birthday candy.
The others eat their birthday candy.
Devon opens his gifts.
Silas and I burn some calories on the basketball court.
