A Break

I have been away for a few days. A sort of recharge of the batteries as one would say. So, nothing earth shattering has been happening. We went to Lincoln City for what has become our yearly beach trip which actually started way back when Jake's Diner started up in 1987. I had worked so hard at getting the diner off of the ground that Jake rewarded me with letting me use his condo just north of Newport. The next year, I figured out that coordinating a trip along with the Sysco spring food show allowed the family a pretty nice get away. I remember looking for a place to stay and finding a small motel called the "Beach Front Inn" that was very affordable. The day before the trip, one of the kids asked if they had a TV. I knew that the add said that they had an ocean view and I figured that was probably standing on the toilet seat and looking out of the window or something. I called and asked the owner if they had a TV in the unit. He laughed and said, "Yes, and we have running water also". The unit we discovered was very nice and we stayed there for a few years running. The owner lived in the main unit and rented out four others. Since then a family in Washington has purchased that motel and a few other locations in Lincoln City and I am still renting from them. The latest was an unbelievable house called the 'The Beach House". You can look at it at this site but must navigate through the listings to find it. It is on the second page of the listings. I believe it belonged to a doctor who retired there.

A few of the walks with the kids were like reminiscing walks. Casey, Jay, and I walked down to rocks that Trinity had fallen into the waves as a small four or five year old. Carrie, Jay, the dogs, and I the next morning walked to different rocks that had been the destination of so many walks with the kids over the years. It all brought back so many great memories of walks and talks with them. I remember wondering if their memories were as precious as mine.

On the only full day that had all of the family there, we drove to Seaside where Casey had spent a summer working in Cannon Beach. It was cold and we stopped for a bite at Subway and wondered around the area before heading up to Astoria to show Jay the Goonies house and the Kindergarden Cops school. Years ago, when visiting there as the kids were growing up, we were informed that Cher had just pulled out as we sat there watching the kids by a man who was watering his yard. As we talked he informed me of the area and gave me stories of the two movies. He stated that Cher owned the bed and breakfast across the street from him and often entertained guests there. I admit that I kind of put him off as I listened. But when I pulled out, I noticed a limo in the driveway of the B&B and later when I watched Kindergarden cop and came to the part where Arnold runs out to confront a father, there in the background, watering his yard, is that same man. Anyway, the day turned out to be one long drive with Jay keeping himself occupied in the back seat writing down places along the way that he wanted to go fishing at. "Hey, Papa, what is the name of this river?".

Carrie recorded her part of the get away in pictures on her facebook. We arrived back on Thursday afternoon just in time to go over to the Senior center with Jim to prepare for the big cater job tomorrow evening for the Police and Fire Chaplaincy. This has become our largest cater job of the year serving well over 200 in an event to help the chaplaincy generate funds to help them provide the services that they do to the Police and Fire Department. With the help of some of our family members, we can keep the costs down.

Coming up, we have a spaghetti feed on May 23rd for the Hwy 97 World War memorial fund and later the next week, on May 26th our first big cruise in BBQ of the year that we have called 'Race Night" where we help promote both of the two Madras tracks events of the year.

Lots of things coming along so I better get some rest and hit the ground running in the morning.