A Weekend of Leisure

On Friday we packed up three bikes, one cooler full of marinating steaks, one kid (guess which one...  Anna was heading off to WSU for orientation instead of going with us) one dog and headed to the Gorge.

Our dear friend, Mike, (whom Dave met in college and has remained friends with ever since) has a place in Lyle, Washington.  And it is there, over the past fifteen years or so that we have traveled to hike, mountain bike, wind surf and just relax.  Not this weekend though, despite the fun contents inside and on top of the van, this weekend was ALL ABOUT WORK.  You see, Mike bought a new place in Lyle.  "The Villa," he's calling it and it is BEAUTIFUL.  It sits high above the Columbia River, on five spacious acres.  It has a garage the size of a small house, which is mucho importante to people like Mike and Dave.  It has horses next door, which is important to people like Nora Jane.  And it has plenty of garden space to people like me who love to grow things.  AND, it has a sweet spot to pluck some grape plants into the ground, which is pretty cool to people like Mike.

So, since we have pretty much been able to come and go at Mike's Lyle house for the past fifteen years--WHENEVER WE WANTED, we went down to help Mike paint the old house in preparation for it's sale. Okay, Dave went down to help paint.  I got talked into coming down, with Nora Jane, to soak up the sunshine.  And oh did I soak!  It was in the 90s!

So while the boys and Mike's friend Tara, who is lovely, slaved away,  Nora Jane and I were the total Ladies of Leisure.  We went into White Salmon and played in their pool.  We played tourists in Hood River shopping for books at one of my favorite book stores, ate lunch, and got ice cream from Mike's Ice Cream--not our Mike--which we then ate outside at the restaurant next door called Nora's Table.  Again, though, not our Nora....but cool names huh?  When it simply got too hot for us Pacific Northwesters, we traveled across the street, to the bench, under the very big tree.

We ended each day with a soak in the Klickitat River.  Mike and Dave were more than ready to hit the water after spending their days on rooftops and ladders where, I'm sure the heat felt like it was above boiling.  However, it took Nora Jane and I a while to fully enjoy the benefits of this freezing cold glacial river.  But once Nora finally took her "swim" between the shore and the spit, she didn't want to come out.  She sat by the edge and built mounds of mud castles, while her dad built rafts appropriately decked out with Pacifico bottles.

When the river became shaded and the water seemed even cooler than when we arrived, we packed up the cooler, the towels, and the dogs (one of which will remain nameless because he rolled in something so foul and stunk up the entire beach and required a bath with my Pantene Shampoo once we got back to Mike's so he could sleep in our room that night) and we drove back to the house where we had lovely barbecue dinners and sat on the deck looking for bats and enjoying all the stars that we never see back at home.

Now Mike's old house isn't completely painted.  The walls are done, though, and that's a big deal if you've ever seen his house.  It's TALL!  And it's built into the side of a hill!  But, now he can putt around and paint the trim and decks at his leisure before he packs up for the final time and says goodbye to a place that has housed friends for barbecues, birthdays, half marathons, ski weekends, mountain bike treks, and man-fest hunting weekends.  

When we got home last night, Dave gave me a hug and said, "I'm so glad you decided to come down."  And I thought, WHAT?  I didn't do anything.  I didn't help.  I pretty much just played and tried to stay out of the way.  "But you were there each day when we were all done," he said, with a smile.

Ya, I'm pretty glad I went too.

Thanks for inviting me too Mike.

xoxo--