Days Off & Tulips

I actually took two days off and did nothing but relax. Last Thursday Mike's niece, Jen and her sons Nick and Zach, met us at Mike's house in the early afternoon. Our "excuse" for this time was to have a photo safari. Jen does very beautiful photography and I'm always game for that. The day was perfect: warm, sunny and no wind. We trekked down to where Mike & Jeremy were working 1/2 block from the beach. Jeremy's dogs, Tater and Canoe, joined us on the beach and took over our game of catch. What a glorious day-the best of the year so far! After our beach time and pizza the guys set off a remarkable bonfire up on Capper Mountain. I'm not sure who took the most photos, but there were cameras and phones snapping pictures of this HUGE fire all evening. Jeremy threw a Mirror Pond beer bottle in to melt........and melt it did. Zach showed me a free-form beer bottle the next morning. He thought that was way cool. The photo is of Nick with his mom's camera. Certainly a budding pro if ever I saw one!

On Saturday, after we attended the "Easter Saturday" celebration in Silverton, we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn. What a beautiful sight we found! There are concessions, food booths, children's rides, a gift shop and even a cow-train to ride, but we chose to pass all that and park in the field area. It only rained on us a little and we walked all over the rows of tulips. All the varieties are labeled with their names. Of course, the one I wanted the most, a lavender specimen with white tips, isn't available this year! But I was able to purchase another one that is very, very similar as well as a fancy fringed red one called Starfire. If I had the money and the space I could have chosen at least 10 different ones that were just wonderful. If we had been 1 1/2 hours earlier we would have met up with Lynette and Karina (my co-workers), as they went also. Lynette bought the Starfire tulip too. What a great adventure. I strongly recommend it. I wish the sun had been out to lend more warmth, but we still enjoyed the tulips and the day.

I can hardly wait for our next adventure! It's so much fun to just do unplanned stuff. We've seen such great places without planning ahead. Not knowing what's next on a day off is great, especially when my work life tends to be so structured and time driven. I really should take more time off. Hmmmmm. I think I will!