Trip West

The last week of August and the first week of September I was priviledged to visit my two sons in Oregon, their wives and 5 grandsons. It was a great visit and except for a couple of nights out for dinner and a Saturday morning soccer game I did little but read volumens 4 and 5 of the Harry Potter series. The first dinner was with Paul and Louise at the McGrath Fish House in Beaverton, and the second dinner was with Will, Karyn, Caleb, Luke, and Zack at the Spaghetti House in Portland. I had eaten there several years ago at Brandon's high school graduation. The Soccer match included the twins, Lukas and Zackary. Their team won 3-2.

On Saturday before Labor Day Paul and Louise took me into Washington to view Mt. St. Helens. Larry went with us, and it was good to have a chance to catch up with his doings. I encourage him to start a blog about his studies and plans. The picture, of course, is of St. Helens with some evidence of steam as it continues to be active. My first experience of this volcano was years ago when it was first threatening to erupt. I was visiting a niece in Salem at the time. She was in Law School then. The eruption occured shortly after I got home and it left its trail of dust all over Billings, some 600 miles away.

Someone at Church yesterday asked me if I had driven to Portland. I assured her that I had not. Horizon Airlines flies non-stop between Billings and Portland and it was an uneventful flight both ways. On the way home it appeared that there had been fairly heavy snow in the mountains in Idaho. Saturday night it got to the low 40's in Billings and the furnace was running Sunday a.m. when I got up. It is supposed to warm up some later this week. It is good to be home.