Booren Family Reunion 2014

Every two years Meg's family gathers for a few days to reunite in force. Each reunion has grown in number, and even though a few people couldn't make it due to work or mission or school, we numbered about 40 souls. Two years ago we traveled to Virginia and sweat out 20 pounds. This year we got to stay home and also spent five days and five nights on the other side of the Cascades in Sunriver.

This visit marked my third trip of significance to Sunriver. My family traveled there in the summer of 1992 for a few days (thanks Grandma!); I recall playing indoor tennis; visiting lava lands, skeleton cave, and the lava river tube; and one of my sisters getting sick in the car. Meg and I spent a brief morning in Sunriver in 2010 where we spent the best ten bucks ever by learning that we should never ride on a tandem bicycle together. But this time was the big visit, the visit to end all visits. Our house, which we shared with Meg's parents (thus it was almost always super-quiet--hooray!), was located centrally in the resort and within walking distance of anything we were interested in.

Rain was falling heavily when we arrived, but our carport shielded us as we unloaded our bikes and luggage from the van. Our house was fairly big and had exciting amenities like a pool table and a hot tub. Because Meg and I were in charge of dinner that night, we had to resist the urge (and the constant plea of the children) to play and explore so we could finish our dinner preparations of kalua pork and rice.

Over a month has passed since our trip, so I fear I won't be able to share many more details. Highlights from the trip included:

• Long Walks with Meg: Most mornings we left the house early and walked amongst the trees and the brown houses. The paths throughout the resort were confusing at first, but we got the hang of them after a while. I only ran once during the trip--on the morning before we left--and I recall having trouble breathing at the relatively high altitude (over 4000 feet).
• Riding Bikes: Meg bought a 5-bike rack to attach to our van's hitch, so we took our bikes for the first time on a trip. We didn't ride as much as I would have liked, but Aaron and I woke up early one morning--in the rain, of course--and rode around the outskirts of the resort, which was nice because we escaped the ponderosa pine that saturate the landscape and obscure any kind of views. We also rode our bikes as a family to the park; however, Edward crashed at one of the intersections and refused to ride further. So he and I walked back to the house, parked our bikes, and walked the mile or two to the park.
• Central Oregon Attractions: We visited a few different natural attractions that abound in Central Oregon, including walking through the mile-long lava river tube; a short hike to Benham Falls; a visit to lava lands, where we also drove to the top of Lava Butte and enjoyed 360 degree panorama views of the mountains and devastation caused by the lava 10,000 years ago;
• Paulina Peak/Lake/Falls: On Sunday morning we stole away from some Asay-private-family time. We first drove to the trailhead for Paulina Falls and hiked a short time around to the various viewpoints of the twin falls. Waterfalls aren't that spectacular in the low-flowing summer months, but we all agreed that the falls were definitely worth the visit. After hiking to Paulina Lake, we returned to the car and drove to the top of Paulina Peak--the highest point you can drive to at Oregon, at roughly 8,000 feet above sea level. One we left the highway, the road was all gravel and was really only wide enough for one lane of traffic to drive comfortably. And by comfortably I mean that my heart was racing the entire drive up the peak. The route was steep, it followed the edge of the cliff (no shoulders or rails or anything to prevent you from going over the edge), and there was a fair amount of traffic driving fast down the mountain. But we arrived safely, and the view was amazing. We let two hikers hitch a ride back to the trailhead at the base of the peak, as they didn't feel like walking all the way back down. There were from Arizona (by way of New York) and, though they enjoyed their month-long visit to Oregon, they were happy to be leaving the cold and rain for the desert again (suckers!). They were a very nice couple, and Ed loved their dog.
• Swimming: Sunriver has at least two different swimming venues: an indoor place (which G&G took our kids while Meg and I had to complete some business, so we missed out--bummer), and an outdoor place called SHARC, which had waterslides/tubes and multiple pools and a lazy river. We went on a Saturday morning when the air was still a bit chilly (at least when coupled with the wind), but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to go down the slides again and again and again (Ian was too short to go by himself, so somebody had to accompany him). I left the place a bit underwhelmed (relative to the retail admission price) and didn't mind returning to our house early to relax before the next barrage of family activities.
• Leave-takings: Monday morning came quickly and found us re-packing the van and loading up our bikes again for the drive back to the other side of the Cascades. As I loading the van I broke the handle on the rear door, and there was no way to open it, so we had an extra fun time unloading the van back in Portland (fortunately, it was a pretty easy fix for Meg and I later that week and it only cost $20 for a new handle that is a higher quality part than the OEM version from Toyota). Meg's older sister Nicole and her husband and son followed us back to Portland and we shared burgers for lunch at Calamity Jane's in Sandy.