Hello from Portland,Oregon!
No, we haven't been abducted by aliens-but I think the sabbitical mentality has taken over and we seem to have trouble motivating ourselves to accomplish much. We'll probably end up living out of our car on a beach before this is over with. Anyway,for those of you still living in reality-land, here is a brief update.
We continued our travels and arrived at the Thompson family cabin in Sandpoint, Idaho (no more scenic bypasses taken) Thursday afternoon where Dick's long time friend, Tom Collins and his wife, Kirsten Thompson were waiting for us. After a brief tour of the area,and a stop at a local winery for a little tasting, we met up with some of Kirsten's family for dinner at a local restaurant. They are very welcoming people and we quickly felt right at home. Kirsten is the youngest of seven and her three brothers still live in Sandpoint. Her mother, who raised the kids alone after Kirsten's dad died when she was two, is 93 and an amazing woman. She learned to ski when she was 60!
The next morning we were up early and ready to ski at Schweitzer! It was the most awesome day of skiing ever. Kirsten skied a lot at a child and is very good, but she and Tom patiently waited for us and took us on lots of intermediate slopes--and there were dozens of them! Kirsten's brother, Chris is a former ski instructor and gave us a few pointers that really helped a lot. Dick took a tumble shortly before we stopped for lunch, but seemed to recover. He seemed sore but fine until later when we noticed he had a couple of bruises on his left side the size of Texas, in various shades of purple, blue, red and black.
On Saturday, we had planned another day of skiing, but Dick was still not moving well, so we just had a relaxing day taking in the sites of Sandpoint, doing a little shopping and going out to Kirsten's brother, Jim's place to see his mules and John Deere tractor collection. We capped off the day by having everyone at the cabin for pizza with ice cream and local huckleberries for dessert.
Sunday morning, we packed up and caravaned back to Portland. Part way there, we shifted so Tom and Dick drove together and Kirsten and I drove together. They had a good time catching up and we enjoyed getting to know each other better. The weather wasn't the best, so we didn't get to see much of the Columbia Gorge. I guess we'll just have to come back sometime! Tom and Kirsten whipped up a great stirfry dinner when we got to their house in Portland.
Monday, Tom and Kirsten had to go to work (work-what's that?)Dick is still feeling pretty tender and his bruise continues to get bigger and more colorful, but he says he's moving a little better. We went to see AVATAR at a near-by 3-D, I-Max Theater. It was incredible! I hope it cleans up at the Oscars. After, we did a little shopping(I found a hot deal on a vest_yea!), journeyed downtown to the famous Powells Bookstore and went out to eat with Tom and Kirsten for dinner at a Mexican restaurant-Esparza's. Highly recommend it if you are ever in Portland. We topped off the night watching the video, About Schmidt-a favorite of all of ours.
Tomorrow, we leave our friends and we're on the road again--- to Inverness, CA.