Raspberries

When we picked strawberries a month ago, I made up the rule that Susanna had to put one berry in her bucket for every one that she ate. She didn't quite make it, but at least she garnered a net gain in strawberries. It quickly became apparent that today all I could hope for was that I could retain enough of the berries that I picked to make it home with a pile that would justify the trip, and I'm happy to report that after an hour of weakly enforcing the new rule that she couldn't eat raspberries from my box, we managed to gather a respectable load, and happy, dusty, and pink-cheeked we headed home. Hopefully Susanna won't get sick from all the hard white raspberries she ate.

Sun Valley and More

Many thanks to my wonderful mom and sister who flew up to Seattle to watch Susanna while Scott and I rode our bikes to Portland. My poor mom had to head straight home but Sarah stayed to play and then helped us drive to Sun Valley. She did an excellent job describing our time together on her blog, here's an excerpt:

"After the ride, Amy and I had plenty of fun in the city. Pike Place was yet again, a highlight. New discoveries at the market this year?? Chocolate linguine, Raspberry Red Pepper Jam, and Gouda that seemed to have been aged for centuries. We spent an afternoon at the Woodland Zoo and were able to catch an intimate glimpse of a Gorilla and her sweet baby. Scott joined us for a visit to the Locks and the fish ladder. Watching the salmon struggle to get back to the ocean was both exciting and inspiring. That evening was spent at the Puget Sound where Scott did his best in teaching me to skip rocks and as we walked away, Susanna waved goodbye to the beach and the sun set behind us. aaaah. The beauties of Seattle. Just when we were running out of Jane Austen films to watch, the time came for us to pack up the diapers and crayons and head out on our 10 hour drive to Sun Valley to meet the rest of the family. The drive was fun; we listened to Harry Potter and a few of Susanna's favorites....baby beluga and joshua giraffe. I enjoyed chatting with Susanna, topics ranged from kitty to the Congo."

Sun Valley was warm and dry and poor Susanna felt like she was on another planet. Every time we went outside she'd cover her yes with her hands yelling "sun!" as if she'd never seen it before (maybe she hadn't...). Every activity was accompanied with ice cream, though, and I think that more than compensated, as did the huge attention from grandparents, uncles, and aunts. Scott hasn't been fishing much lately, so I think it was heavenly for him to get to go at least twice a day. And everyone benefited from his expertise and patience: almost all of his outings were teaching ones. Thanks to the Andersons for a great trip; we had a wonderful time!

Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic

We did the STP and it was very, very fun. We started about 5:00 am; 16 hours-- and three gallons of Gatorade as well as several bananas, sandwiches, and nectarines (each)-- we arrived in Portland. The whole package-- starting with the 50 mile training ride that killed us in February and including several tons of spaghetti, several pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and many, many Gatorade stops at Shell stations across the greater Seattle area-- was wonderful. Here's a photograph we bought from the race organizers; we're so jolly because we're about to end our ride on the world's roughest road (you can see the seam in the asphalt right in front of Scott's wheel).

Thank you so very much to the family and friends who watched Susanna for us both on the weekend of the event and on the many rides that led up to it. And thanks to Scott without whom I would probably not have done it.

The Oregon Coast

Last week we went camping on the Oregon coast with some family. We started at Silver Falls near Salem and moved south, finishing at Sunset Bay and had a splendid time. We went to the beach a few times spending a total of about fifteen minutes building sand castles, keeping the kids from getting swept out to sea in the powerful waves, and trying to avoid getting sand blown in our eyes. We biked on the beautiful oregon coast bikeway-- beautiful even though Scott and I missed the bikeway signs that led to the best part. We spend time with our fun and funny family. Susanna's cousin Ben won her (and me) over by riding by on his new training-wheel-free bicycle every twenty minutes that we were in camp, just to say hi to her; and probably Susanna's favorite part of the trip was listening to her cousins indulge her by singing her favorite song-- Raffi's "Baby Beluga"-- while Scott and I fished through some nearby thornbushes with a piece of Brad and Sue's tent trailer, hoping to find a piece of our tent Scott somehow inadvertantly flung there (I think we gave up and used a stick for the night but found the real piece the next morning-- did I mention the original search was performed by headlamp?). And I can't skip over the tidepools: a beautiful surf, starfish and anenome everywhere, and lots of space to run and splash.