My son Dylan and I just spent the waning five days of summer at
Don Kruger’s farm on Sauvie Island outside of Portland, Oregon
Chasing and catching frogs
Watching for shooting stars
Running (and hoping to be caught) by huge sprinklers ‘cause
it was so hot we needed to cool down
Swimming in the mighty Columbia River
Listening to cool music at his Thursday night concert series on the lawn.
Watching people get married under a beautiful oak tree
Getting glimpses of the bats that come out at dusk
Eating fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and a secret field
of late season blueberries right off the vine/plant
Eating ripe Heirloom tomatoes and hot spicy flavorful peppers
Indulging in ultra sweet green honeydew
Playing with Aleksi and Sylvia, Don’s two kids,
and Philip and Jacob, who joined us from L.A.
Getting lost in a corn maze and trying not to get caught
by Big Foot or the Corn Monster
Taking a long tractor hay ride around all 125 acres and
almost getting stuck because of some irrigation pipe
Having a huge yearly campout and picnic with other Portlanders
Telling scary stories of ancient old growth forests that surround Mt. Adams near
Taklakh Lake and the rumors of Big Foot being seen there
Walking, hiking, napping, staying cool under shade trees,
reading Spider-Man comics, playing puzzles
Getting dirtier then anyone can ever imagine
Getting scrapes and nicks and bruises and mosquito bites
Laughing as hard as possible
Getting full on waffles, fresh homemade ice cream (raspberry of course)
and whipped cream.
Eating freshly roasted SWEET Corn
Indulging ourselves with toys from Kruger’s Market.
Secretly getting free midget donuts from the donut guy and the sugared popcorn fella.
Running running running (barefoot and naked a lot of the time)
Trampolining
Shooting bows and arrows at Eric’s house
Eating great pizza at the Pizzicato and Envoy restaurants
(and surprisingly good Chinese there too)
Dylan falling asleep on my lap in front of the fire
Watching the Big Dipper set. Is that Saturn or Venus?
Forgetting to brush our teeth
And that was only the half of it…
