Report

Okay. Four weeks of summer down.

Duchess did outdoor camp, overnight LARPing-in-the-woods camp, and expensive choose-your-own-adventure camp. Skipper did outdoor camp, and two weeks of Japanese camp. (Culminating in a performance in which Skipper was the Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese.)

We've also been on two weekend trips, and have just returned from a five-day trip to Central Oregon. All this has been very fun and very exhausting. We have been scrambling in our spare time to catch up on things like cleaning and grocery shopping and whatnot, but it seems worth it. We kind of front-loaded our summer, and we'll have a brief break after this next trip.

With no further ado, here are the photos. You should bear in mind as you look at these photos that it has been spectacularly hot here for weeks, and it was spectacularly hot in Central Oregon as well. My children are not at their best in spectacularly hot weather. Well, nobody is, but some of us at least try to smile for photographs. Also, take note of Duchess's outfits. She forgot to pack any shirts at all, and ended up poaching some of my shirts. And my flipflops (which, to be fair, I originally stole from one of my fabulous cousins). On the last day, she took an ancient shirt of mine that once belonged to my grandmother, and wore it awesomely buttoned to the neck. Oh, and note Cook's Vacation Hat, which has survived a few vacations and may be on its last summer.


Day One & Two: Lots of driving. Then Bend, featuring the home of Auntie and Uncle Tae Kwon Do (though they were not in residence, so we just got to enjoy their lovely home in their absence), downtown Bend, and the High Desert Museum. It was very, very hot. SO HOT. Skipper was pissy.

Day Three & Four: Lots of driving. Then camping at Walton Lake. The lake was beautiful but, sadly, was infested with whatever causes swimmer's itch. It was very, very hot. (Though it rained briefly on the second evening.) Lots of driving, to the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument, then to Fossil. We ate an enormous amount of dinner in Fossil (in the only restaurant in Fossil). Skipper waddled out of the diner, post-rootbeer-float, looking like a boa constrictor after a meal.

Day Five: Horseback riding! I have no photos of that, but it was pretty great. The trail guides for the ride were cowboys who apparently learned to talk at the School of Talking Like a Cowboy, and who offered virtually no instruction, just plonked us on the horses. They then led us over hill and dale, unlike the plodding trail rides I've been on before. It required us all to step up, including Skipper, who had never been even within twenty feet of a horse before, and was plonked on a horse like the rest of us, handed the reins, and instructed to "Go over to the left side of the road." She was a champ. Cook's horse was an asshole and bit other horses, and my horse tried to rub me off on a juniper tree, and Duchess's horse tried to eat everything in sight, and the cowboys said "Don't let him do that." (Skipper's horse ignored everything, including being bitten on the butt by Cook's asshole horse, and just carried Skipper. Good horse.) While this may not sound fun, it was exciting, and really very fun, once we caught on to the fact that our horses were actually pretty low-key and responsive, and we probably weren't going to die (and, importantly for me and Cook, Skipper probably wasn't going to die). Cook even had a good time, in spite of the stress of attempting to manage his asshole horse.

Then lots of driving, with a brief stop for a very hot visit to the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. I really cannot emphasize enough how hot it was. I took a lot of pictures. Then we went home. It's still hot.