To Ashland

 George, Nathan, and I decided to go to Ashland for the weekend to see a couple of plays. We signed up for 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde and 'Into The Woods'.  Nathan drove so that we could leave my car with Rebecca.  Nathan and George picked me up at 1 pm when my shift at the Viva Village office was over.  I was surprised at how heavy the traffic was getting out of Portland in the middle of the day.  I had a zoom meeting with Viva Village which I was able to listen in on.  We made a couple of rest stops. 

Mt McLaughlin

Table Rock

It was a gorgeous day with beautiful scenery. We got to the Relax Inn at 6:05 pm.  We got checked in.

The little blue car is Nathan's.  We are parked right in front of our rooms (11 and 12). George and I got room 11.  We just dropped off our stuff and then drove into Ashland proper. The challenge was to find a parking spot.  Friday night was a very busy night in Ashland. We did find a parking spot a few blocks away from the Angus Bowmer Theatre.  The first stop was to find a restaurant which would be quick. It was nearly 6:45 pm.  The play did not start until 8 pm.  

Walking through Lithia Park

We found Myrtolli's, hand-tossed pizza by the slice. Perfect.

There were a lot of familiar faces in this mural: Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Hendrix, ... Nathan recognized more of the singers than I did.

We sat under the big hand.

We each had a slice of vegetarian pizza with a salad.  We each chose a different salad. It was delicious and hit the spot.  I was hungry.

We then went to the theater.

  

They were setting up the stage in front for some act on the green stage but we couldn't stay to watch it, or maybe we missed it.

Once we got into the theater Nathan and I ordered some wine.  I had mine in a reusable sippy cup (which I had to purchase) so that I could take it in with me.  We saw that a lot of people brought their own sippy cups to reuse them.  I can use mine again tomorrow. 

We were in the very back row of the theater but luckily it was not a huge theater.  We saw 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

Wow!! What a fabulous performance.  It was an extremely well done hilarious 'comedy of manners'.  They had 2 intermissions, so that they could do the scene changes.  As we were leaving the theater we heard a couple say that they were going to see the same play the following weekend at the Portland Center Stage.  It was after 11 pm by the time that we got back to the motel. 

Kirkland to Beaverton

It was nice that we could all be at Madeline and Roman's place.  They usually are in a smaller apartment, but this house is large.  They will have to move in June.  It was only a 1-year rental.  I think that they will miss this place.  George, Dorothy, Ed, Madeline, and Ivan left the house a little after 9 am to catch the bus. We had a 10 am reservation at Portage Bay Restaurant for brunch.  Roman was back at work.  Nathan and I packed up the car and left around 9:30 am to drive to the restaurant.

My Bacon and Blue frittata.  Very yummy.

Ed's veggie bowl

Nathan's oatmeal crisp French toast before going to the toppings bar

After adding a bunch of toppings.

Ivan at the toppings bar

Goodbyes all around.  We headed south, and the rest of the group continued with the bus experience.  I think that they were going back to the game store. 

Rainy ride home.  Maybe next time we will take the train.

We got home safely around 2:30 pm.  Nathan dropped us off and went back to his place.  

It's All About Buses

 After much discussion of all of the options we decided on the buses we would take into town. Ivan was the most knowledgeable about the buses we would need. 

Figuring out the buses

Bus 255 was close.  That took us to the University of Washington.  We walked through the campus to see the cherry blossoms.

Madeline and Nathan

Next was the train

Then bus 4

George got a glimpse of the space needle through the bus window.

By this time it was time for lunch.

I had a delicious Havana Libre Bowl (Adobo-seasoned sweet potato and grilled red onion prepared in Latin-style sofrito, atop brown rice, red beans, and a spinach and arugula mix dressed in citrus cashew cream and topped with cilantro and smashed avocado.)

Then we went across the street to the Blue Highway Games Store.  It was a place that we could play games from their selection.  It was a nice way to try new games. 

We had been lucky with the weather because once we got to the Blue Highway Games it started raining in earnest. We played a variety of games for several hours.  It was still raining when we were ready to leave.  We had to reverse the bus process for going back to Madeline & Roman's. 

We had left the house about 9:30 am and we got home about 4:30 pm.  

The first thing Ivan wanted to do was play bus again. Ivan is taking George and Dorothy around on the bus route.

We voted to go to a close place for dinner instead of taking the bus again.  Ivan was disappointed. 

This was the kids meal. The food was all very good.  I did not take any pictures.  We were too busy eating.

We went back to the house for more games.  I had bought a Mass Transit game for Ivan.  We tried it but it was a little too complicated.  It might have been different if we had already known how to play.  Uno is still the popular game for Ivan.