Our trip to Oregon

Tom and I boarded the airplane and sat down in our seats.  We were bound for Oregon to spend 4th of July with Helen and Matt at Darcey and Kent's house in Eugene. I fastened the seatbelt and stowed my crap under the seat. At some point, it became evident that the young woman seated on my right was singing softly. Some kind of Christian uptempo number. Then she started talking to herself, mostly narrating the entire process of downloading the United App, remembering her frequent flyer number and signing up for inflight wifi. 

The quiet talking and occasional musical interlude continued the entire flight. Later on, when we mentioned this to Kent, he said, “She’s probably from Eugene.”

Speaking of the travel portion of our vacation, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention how I had been pulled aside by a TSA agent at the security checkpoint. It was because of a ziplock full of lentils. The agent hoisted the lentils into the light and peered at them intently. Then he turned to me, handed back the lentils and said, “We have to scan food now.” He grunted and waved me out. 

I don't like airplane food
so I come prepared.

That was pretty much it, so no further travel drama to report except I had a flashback of the time I carried on Orrefors lead glass votives and TSA thought they were grenades and almost had the entire area evacuated. Claudia told me about a similar experience she had with a silver globe knick-knack in her carry-on. She had padded the globe with all her panties. So when the TSA guy yanked it out of her bag, he did so with a magic rainbow explosion of under garments. 

I have nothing to complain about, is my main point. At no time have any of my TSA experiences been commemorated with flying panties.

We were extremely busy in Eugene. A highlight was of course the 4th of July celebration at the Eugene Yacht Club. When I say Yacht Club, I mean the sailing club situated next to the Jet Ski club. The club is situated on a beautiful lake surrounded by trees and pick-up trucks and recreational vehicles featuring awnings strung up with the latest in LED lighting. There was a lot to enjoy about this Yacht Club including our sail out to the middle of the lake and the fireworks, but I was all about the parade.

Parade at the Yacht Club

It kicked off with Uncle Sam and a baton-twirling sailor throwing beads to spectators along the gravel driveway slash parade route. Beads? Yes. Apparently "4th of July" is somewhat limited as far as thematic creativity is concerned, and so requires a second sub-theme. This year, the parade committee had gone with "Mardi Gras.” 

And so, a bunch of past Yacht Club Commodores marched past, most of them in patriotic t-shirts and, obviously, Mardi-Gras masks. They were followed by a spit-shined vintage convertible and then a little group tossing candy. The parade was over in fairly short order since it was probably 50 feet long in total. When I made to walk back to the Mini-Winni for a snack, Darcey said, “wait a sec, they’re gonna come around again.”

And so they did. The whole parade marched around in a big circle so we got to see it twice.