We had some wide mood swings this week. The ups were welcoming our sixth grandchild and reuniting with loved ones. We were in the dumps with an August snowstorm, sitting in traffic, and a pricey piece of vandalism.

First, the best news! After a rocky pregnancy, being overdue, and a very long labor, Alex and Hanna welcomed son Arthur to their little family of boys. Hanna was an absolute rock star for sticking it out and we couldn’t be happier for them! We will be back to their place in less than a week and we are super excited to meet our new grandson, Archie.

We were in Santa Cruz until Thursday and enjoying all that a stay with Ron and Martha includes: good company, good food, and beautiful California weather and scenery. Nathan and Ron did a couple of great bike rides along the coast and into the hills. We went on a lovely kayak trip in the Elkhorn Slough Marine Area. We saw harbor seals, sea otters, pelicans and other sea birds, and even a jelly! It was so fun to spend time with Ron and Martha, as usual.

We had a nice drive through Northern California and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery around Mt. Shasta. We spent the night in Medford, Oregon so that we could get up on Friday and detour to Crater Lake on our way to Portland. Well, Friday did not have a great start. We expect to have rain and clouds in the Pacific Northwest…that’s just part of its charm. However, by the time we got to the visitor center at Crater Lake, we were in an August blizzard! We did drive part of the rim road and the storm and clouds cleared enough for us to get a small glimpse of the lake. 

Due to the park having road closures due to construction and wildfires, we took the scenic route to return to I-5 and continue north. Well, we got stuck in the canyon behind an accident that had our lane of traffic at a complete stand-still for about an hour. We expected to be in the car for about six hours, but that turned into more like eight or nine hours. It was a bummer, but not the worst. However, the end of the day was great because we got to see our youngest, El, and their partner, Adia, for the first time in over a year! They moved to Portland this spring and it was so fun to see their new home and spend some time catching up.

Saturday started off great with breakfast at Fuller’s Coffee Shop and a nice walk around the Pearl district, the Saturday Market, and Powell’s Bookstore. We met up with El and Adia and went to grab the car to drive to the science museum only to find out that someone had slashed one of our tires. Nathan threw on the spare, dropped the three of us off at the museum, and went to find somewhere to replace the tire. He really had to work for it, since he had to find the exact match to the other three tires, but after great effort and some great luck, he was able to find a dealership that had just one of that very tire. Vandalism sucks!

Meanwhile, we toured the very fun Oregon Museum of Science and Industry for a couple hours without Nathan. They had a fun exhibit about Tyrannosaurus Rex and we loved trying to solve the puzzles in the Turbine Hall. After Nathan was able to rejoin us, we watched Laser Beatles at the Planetarium and then played with light and color. We ended the evening with dinner at an Iraqi restaurant.

I hope you all have a great week and we will report next week after our return to Missouri!