Spring Break Travels

My mother kindly flew to Oregon from Salt Lake City to stay with us for the week. It's been nearly two years since she and pa fled Western Eden for the hills and desert of Zion, although it doesn't seem that that much time has passed. So Meg and I took advantage and took a short roadtrip to Southern Oregon.



Wednesday
We left my mom with the boys in the morning; they knew and understood that we were leaving for a few days, but they didn't seem to mind. Our destination for the day was Ashland, with stops in Grants Pass for lunch (and where Meg discovered that she had left her wallet--and thus driver's license and temple recommend--at home) and Medford to kill time until we could check in at our hotel. Big flakes of snow were falling in the mountain passes, but fortunately they didn't interfere with our driving.

We stayed in a room on the seventh floor at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel in the heart of Ashland. It's by far the tallest building in the city, and it was a gorgeous place to spend our day, as well as its proximity to everything we had come to see. After checking in and lounging around the hotel, we ate an early dinner in the hotel's restaurant, Lark's. I thoroughly enjoyed my organic fettuccine covered in prawns, steelhead, and dungeness crab--and I actually filled my belly, which doesn't often happen at fancy restaraunts, while Meg deferred to the waitress (her current strategy for pretty much any place we eat out) for her recommendation of the pot roast.

We then headed two buildings down to the Varsity Theatre to watch The Other Boleyn Girl. It proved to be better than I expected, and Meg enjoyed it (although the writers appeared to take great liberties when trying to re-tell the past). Evening had settled in, so we retreated to our room for the evening.

Thursday
We awoke to a beautiful--but frosty--morning; all the clouds and rain had blown somewhere else, so we were able to devote much of our time outside without the need to carry an umbrella. After complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we walked around the city, with me reliving some of my past memories of being in Ashland--well, really one memory. I recall visiting Ashland once in my youth--probably 20-25 years ago--for my Dad to go to a spinning store. But I spent the time playing with my siblings and cousins in nearby Lithia Park, which I spent 15 minutes walking around, trying to recall more specific memories of the visit, but failing nonetheless.

We had an early lunch at quaint Italian restaurant called Pasta Piatti. My pizza filled me up before I was done, and I had to humble myself to ask for a box to take my shame home with me. Our play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Fences, started at 1:30, so we walked over and were the first ones into the theatre. Our seats were in the third row but off to the side (the cheapest in the house), but the angle didn't affect our appreciation of the production. I really enjoyed the play, while Meg noted that there wasn't much singing and dancing, nor did she care for the main character yelling and berating his son, but she still thought it was okay.

After walking back to our car, we drove to Central Point for our second--but substantially cheaper--night of lodging. We played in the pool and jacuzzi (I ran in place in the pool while Meg tried to come on to me from the hot tub) before heading to a movie theatre in Medford to watch Vantage Point. We both enjoyed the film and its non-traditional approach, but we had too many questions about the large number of flaws in the film.

Friday
We awoke Friday to do more of the same in the indoor pool, filled up on the free motel breakfast, then drove a few miles to visit my grandparents. Their place looks exactly like I remember it from the countless visits as a kid, but there weren't home and I felt bad for not trying to call ahead and make arrangements for a formal visit. It was snowing in the valley by this time, so we decided it best to drive home before the mountain passes could accumulate any snow. It was snowing like crazy through the passes, but we made it thorough just fine. We stopped at a small Mexican restaurant in Roseburg for lunch, and of course in Rice Hill for a "small" Umpqua ice cream cone.

The boys were excited to see us (as was probably my mom), but I think they had a good time with their grandma and didn't fret too much about us being gone for nearly three days.