Visiting Cousins and Playing Games

 On Thursday morning my cousin Kindra (aka Michelle) and daughter, Aria (aka Melody) drove to Marj’s house to take Jaime and me to breakfast.  We ended up at a waffle house near the high school.  Afterwards Aria had wanted to get something at Fashion Place and so Jaime and I returned to the mall for a second time. After we were through browsing at the mall, Kindra drove us downtown and dropped us off. 

          We were specifically looking for a penny press machine and thought there might be one at the planetarium, but there was not.  

 

Jaime received a text message from Richard while we were downtown.  He had made arrangements for us to check in at a hotel as he was planning on driving in to collect us.  I was adamant about NOT returning on Greyhound.  I had wanted Richard to go with us in the first place specifically for the 18^th and 19^th – my soul reason for even being in Utah. 

                  UTA offered free fare to all passengers riding bus or train on Thursday and Friday and so we did not have to pay on the return.  

We took the train all the way to Sandy and met Natalee who then drove us to Marj’s to collect our luggage and took us back to the hotel.  She offered to take us back to her house and feed us.  But we decided to just rest up.  Jaime and I unpacked and went to the pool. 

Later Keith called to ask if we wanted to play games.  He came and got us and took us back to his house.  We were playing games when Steven (aka Corey) arrived.  Natalee took some really great pictures of Jaime and me playing cards with my brothers. What great memories in the making.

Tony’s Family Vacation part 1

         All three of the boys have said they would come visit – though only two have made it.  Randy brought his family over Memorial weekend last year. This year Tony said he would leave Salt Lake after Jaime’s graduation.  He left on the forth. They came by way of California so that they could see the Redwoods.  We did not realize that we lived so close. We had suggested to them that they could stop at the Vortex on the way here – but by the time they got there, it was almost time to close.  And then the GPS led them some funky way.  For they were only forty minutes out but took to hours to get to us.

        They chose not to stay with us as their middle child is allergic to dogs.  Though we did put Bonnie in the kennel on Monday morning, Liz still has allergies.  She remembered having been there before and was quite excited about her stay.  Jaime was not excited.  They do tend to miss one another when they’re apart.

                We played games for a few hours the first day they were with us.  They left after seven to check into the hotel in Roseburg 22 minutes away. Yesterday morning we took a squirrely way to get to Bandon.  Rochelle, my grandkids and I walked around old town Bandon while Tony, Richard and Jaime went fishing.  I led the other four around the pier.  The youngest two climbed on statues while the other two took pictures and after a while Liz whipped out her little camera and she started taking pictures. 

 

I was hoping that the trolley would be running, but currently is not because of budget cuts.  After we looked at a fish made of garbage we went back near where we had started and crossed the street over to the Washed Ashore museum and looked at more sculptures.  They enjoyed it.  And then we had lunch.

Richard had reserved three places on a charter.  Evidently there had been a lot of turbulence and both Richard and Tony got sick and threw up. But Richard did manage to catch one fish. Jaime, who hates seafood and fish, caught ten.

Four of the adults were tired.  Neither the 18 year old (Jaime) nor those belonging to Rochelle and Tony understand what tired it.  Tony, who had initially looked to be in worse shape than Richard, regained his color and ate some food.  Richard had some tea and ate a while after that.  He felt awful.  At least that’s the impression he gave.  It was too cold for the beach.  Don’t imagine those that had ridden the boat even cared.  I think the children had forgotten my mention of it.

We had parted ways and Tony and Rochelle took the kids back to Roseburg. It is so weird coming home and not having Bonnie at the door to greet us. I think all three of us went to bed earlier than usual.  Our agenda for to today is to just take things easy – play games while Tony and Rochelle take care of their laundry.

Lodging for One Night

Bandon is a few hundred less in population than is Myrtle Creek.  Unlike Myrtle Creek, Bandon draws crowds of people and tourism.  Thus Bandon offers a variety of lodging including hotels and beach houses to rent.  Denny Dyke and his team create these amazing labyrinth pathways called Circle in the Sand.  My friend had gone and told me that I should go because “it is so cool” (see here and  here).

          The last two days on schedule for this year were September 1 and 2, but nothing offered August 31 which is when Labor Day weekend started.  Because we hadn’t gone anywhere during the time that Roland had off, he felt gypped out of having stayed elsewhere over night.  Because there was no room in Bandon, we had found lodging in Coos Bay.

          After checking in to the hotel, we all went swimming.

          Roland decided he wanted German food for dinner and we went to the Blue Heron

          On the way back to the hotel, we went to Safeway.  Jenna had asked me to take this picture of her.

my girl LOVES Halloween