Weekend Happenings

What a busy weekend! I think T and I could be defined by our enthusiasm to get in the car for outrageous amounts of time to visit good friends. Or go to music festivals. Really, any reason for us to be in the car for over 8 hours.. we are down for.

T had his fancy dancy wine tasting bike tour of Healsberg Friday, but luckily I had half the day off and spent it furiously cleaning and doing laundry. He got home around 7 and by 8 we were showered and clean and enjoying the plethora of snacks I prepared for the trip. T drove the first half hour, and then all the sun and wine kicked in and I took over. He konked out and I impressed myself by driving all the way to the Medford, OR. Good tunes, vegi's to snack on, and T looking absolutely adorable passed out were my main sources of motivation to keep going till 2am. Finally I couldn't take it any more and T woke up. We traded but only made it to Eugene before needing to pull over and just sleep for a bit. I guess we aren't as young as we used to be.. T woke up early and got us into Newport, no prob.

We met up with Lobo, Lesley and America at Agate Beach where Lobo was showing us his newly acquired surfing talents. I found tons of starfish to pet, anenomes to poke, and kelp to admire. We all headed back to Lobo's house, just a few blocks from the beach that is generously being provided to him by the UC Davis. We then headed out to the Newport Clam Bake. Such a small town affair, it was marvelous. I had a big helping of clam steamers and we walked around the cute downtown. Finally home, mojitos were in order and we all lay out on the tiny deck behind the house, the only shelter from the wind. T slept the majority of the day, he had a long week and deserved the rest. It was lovely just napping and reading and snacking all day! We all went to the grocery store and bought tons of stuff to bbq and made a delish dinner. Then we all went down to the beach for a bonfire, which was great, but a bit windy and cold. We shivered back up and went to bed.

Sunday, everyone was absoute sleepyheads, so I snuck out for a walk on the beach and cup of coffee from the shop (A very Williams thing to do, no?). My desperate attempt to find a newspaper was foiled so I returned home. We lounged about for a bit before heading to the touristy end of Newport. T's highschool friend Jessie drove down from Portland to hang out with us. The town was very Morro Bay-esque. We had a nice lunch and saw lots and lots of fishing boats and crab pots. We came back home and T, Jessie, and I went on a long walk on the very windy beach before she had to get back home. Dear friend and old college roomie Haley came over for a big old spaghetti dinner. She is in Newport taking some summer classes at OSU that will hopefully turn into a full time Masters program. Quite a change from being in Hawaii for the past year. We watched the Pink Panther and everyone went to bed. I took the time to catch up on the Tour which we had been faithfully watching EVERYDAY. OH man, it is a good one!! So much more drama this year with Lance out, and then all the big names being disqualified the day before. It really is anyone's race!! Anyways, I digress...

Monday we explored Lobo and Haley's campus, getting a tour of his lab and fish tanks, and exploring the vistor's center. T and I went to a talk on "Deep Sea Geology" where T decided to change careers.. mostly because of the cool gear, I think. We got to see a huge Pacific octopus have his crab lunch before heading out to the docks to pick up some crabs for dinner. Fresh off the boat, we opted for the cooked ones though.. A quick stop to the beach for Lobo and Trent to surf some chilllly waves before heading home to make up some corn, salads, and crack and clean the crab. Haley joined us for the crustacean delight. Amazingly good. We cleaned up and packed up and said some tearful goodbyes (honestly, this move is starting to kill me!) before hitting the road. Off to Salem!

We arrived a hour later at awesome amiga Cheleana's new house. She and hubby Ryan are doing awesomely, taking care of 5 year old Shane who is an amazing little artist, and keeping very busy. We stayed up WAY too late catching up and gossiping. Finally got to bed and up late and headed to a leisurely lunch at her mom's restaurant. Everyone was doing well, it was great to see old friends! We hung out till around 1 when we finally, reluctantly, got in the car and started the trek home. A few bits of traffic and a couple scary accidents (not to us, just ones we saw) and we made it home fine. We stopped in Vacaville to get gas and watch a quite impressive fireworks display. It was lovely to get back to our (very clean!) house and back into our own bed.

Quite an adventure, but totally worth it to see old friends. Remember the adage.. "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." And I like my bling!! Thanks to T for putting up with my sudden need to teach him the glories of Bob Dylan, making him listen to Delilah, and laughing at my off key lounge singing. You are my favorite road warrior!