It Didn't Stop Woodstock

It's been a busy week! Between work, writing, and hanging out with Scott and Esther, I haven't had a lot of down time. But it's been fun, so I'm not complaining.

Last night we went to Esther Short Park for the Six to Sunset concert featuring Johnny Limbo & The Lugnuts. It was my first concert in the park there, and the first time I got to see this 50s/60s cover band that I have a weird connection to (I used to work with Chris, "Gator" the saxophonist's son). I got there about 4:30, found a place to park, and met up with mom, dad, Scott and Esther a little later. We found a spot on the grass and spread out our lawn chairs. About this time the sky became ominously dark. Still, dad said it had never rained during any of these concerts for as long as Vancouver has had them. We grabbed dinner from a vendor (I had a kalua pork combination plate from Tommy O's) and settled down to wait for the show. The mayor came onstage, promised it wouldn't rain, and introduced the band. Johnny Limbo & The Lugnuts came out, and it started raining right on cue. Not just raining, of course. It decided to pour. About 1/3 of the audience packed up and left, Scott and Esther and mom included. "It didn't stop Woodstock!" Johnny Limbo announced into the microphone, referring to the drenching rain. I stayed put for the whole concert, and enjoyed it. Walked around for a bit, went up to the front of the stage, then wandered around behind. They put on a good performance. Played songs from Grease, Roy Orbison, Simon &

Garfunkel, The Mama's And The Papa's, Elton John, Elvis, The Supremes, some surf music, etc. I wouldn't mind seeing them again sometime. Afterwards, I drove dad home, since the others had taken their car back.

This morning, I grabbed a sausage McMuffin (WITH egg!) from McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then drove over to mom and dad's house to pick up Scott and Esther. I had promised them a hike, and wanted to take them somewhere impressive, so we went to Fall's Creek Falls. Before leaving the house, I loaded the coordinates to a geocache hidden near the viewpoint, because I've always wanted to try that out. The weather was overcast and cool, and we encountered some sprinkles along the way, which I'm sure had Scott and Esther thinking "oh, shit - here we go again." But it turned out to be perfect hiking weather. I went there with the kids just a few weeks ago, and like every other hike I've done this summer, it had been sunny and hot. The clouds and cool temperatures made the experience much more pleasant.

The views this time around were every bit as impressive. Scott and Esther were pretty much blown away by the hike, exactly the reaction I'd hoped for. To a couple used to hiking in desert-like settings with cactus and lizards, I can only imagine how lush and green the whole experience must have seemed to them.

Best of all, we found the geocache! Although this can mostly be attributed to luck, as I failed to save the coordinates into the GPS unit and when Scott switched Jill off, everything was lost. Oops. But the clues given had been good - I knew the cache was hidden in a crevice by a moss-covered boulder on top of another boulder, to the left of the falls. OK, well, there were a bunch of mossy boulders in that area, but Scott and I were looking around in a likely spot and another man there saw us and came over.

"Are you geocaching?" he asked. When we said yes, he laughed and said he'd just found the geocache himself, but would be happy to hide it again and let us find it. He also pretty much pointed out where we should look. We were close, and might have found it on our own anyway. So we ate lunch overlooking the falls - bologna sandwiches, chips, and cherries - and then Scott and I scrambled up the hill to a makeshift (read: NOT OFFICIAL!) trail that brought us out to the base of the upper falls. A really impressive lookout, though the short detour there was pretty treacherous and involved some climbing, and at one point crawling beneath a fallen tree that was too large to scale. Worth it, but I probably wouldn't do it again. We came back, found the geocache - score! I took a gold coin and left behind a Hotwheels car. It's safe to say I'm addicted to geocaching now and can't wait to try it again. Of course, there is the not so small matter of buying a GPS unit first.

We drove back home, and I dropped them off about 3:20. Tonight is our ghost hunting tour in Portland - I'm really excited about this! We'll head out about 9:00. I'm not expecting to get back home until after 1:00 AM.

In the meantime, I'm cooking chili and enjoying a Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Today's adventure-filled Friday sure beats the typical one.