My trip to Oregon

Last week, I left the house at 4:30 a.m. on Monday to travel to Hood River, Oregon for a work conference.  I don't like being away from Glenn and the monsters for too long but I do enjoy seeing new places and let's face it, it's nice to eat dinner and not be responsible for making it, getting people to eat it and clean it up afterwards. I was in Oregon until 6:00 a.m. Thursday when I flew back and was greeted with affection by everyone, including Coco.  Glenn does a terrific job of holding down the fort when I'm gone but I know that everything tends to run more smoothly when both of us are home.  I had a work trips every week during the month of May and I'm sure glad to have this month almost behind us.  Between school projects, field trips, sports practices, dance and piano, our calendar is full and we are all ready for summer vacation.  

Here are some camera shots from my trip.  

My hotel was right along the Columbia River.  Oregon seems to be overrun with friendly dogs and I met quite a few as I walked and jogged this path every day.  

As part of the conference, we took a quick tour of agricultural operations in the area and saw lots of fruit orchards, vineyards and Mt Hood in the background.  

On my last night, I headed back up to Portland and walked all over downtown and then drove to an amazing rose garden.  It made me anxious to get home and plant our garden.  Look at all of those colors!  

This lovely rose probably couldn't survive our short growing season but I loved the two buds.  

So I was back home in time for the Memorial Day Weekend.  We had a quiet few days filled with lots of hanging out, yard work, house work, movie watching, gardening and other seasonally appropriate activities.  Will was battling a double ear infection (what is with this time of year?!) but it was a good excuse to relax and watch baseball.  The kids have 4 1/2 days of school left and we are ready to officially kick off Summer 2018.