Spring Break

Now that we've got the good news out of the way, here's a recap of our spring break trip to Klamath Falls last week.

1. It's an awful lot of driving through an awful lot of nothing. We drove the full 11 hours on Monday. Saw maybe two dozen other cars in the 3 hours between Winnemucca, Nevada and Lakeview, Oregon. Not to be rude, but I'm so glad I don't live in Northern Nevada.

2. Our condo at the Running Y Ranch was very nice and a great deal. We enjoyed the indoor pool, the video game room, the playground, and the fitness room. Chris and I had dinner the last night at the restaurant overlooking the Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. Sirloin with bleu cheese peppercorn sauce and tuxedo mousse for dessert . . . man, I wish I was eating that tonight instead of a hospital cafeteria salad.

3. Had the strangest grocery store experience ever. We went to a little Safeway near the condo on Monday night to get breakfast things. While we were in the checkout line, a guy from the next line over was staring at Jacob. He walked over, staring at Jake all the time, and asked, "Are you the kid in the paper?"

Jake just looked at me, at a loss. It's not like I knew what to say. I discarded my first thought ("Why, do you want to give us money?") and settled for a simple "No."

To which the man said, again to Jake, "But you have cancer, right?"

There didn't seem any point in denying it. When we nodded, the guy continued, "But did you read about the kid in the paper?"

We allowed as that we were from out of state and had just arrived and finally got away and into the parking lot where we all had a fit of the giggles.

Now we just burst out at random moments: "So, are you the kid in the paper?"

4. Beautiful weather. Okay, not the first day, but Wednesday and Thursday were stunning. We returned to the Lava Beds and clambered through the caves, and finally made it to Crater Lake. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and there was something like 25 feet of snow on the ground. We took the most beautiful photos and now we've crossed something off our list--seeing the deepest lake in the United States.

5. New family. I got to meet, Jeanne, my grandfather's widow. I think we flustered her a little (Spencer will have that effect on anyone) but she was very kind and welcoming and showed us all sorts of things around the house. He was an award-winning photographer, writer, pilot, Marine and too many other things to name. Meeting Jeanne was pure pleasure.

6. Coming home is sweet. Especially after spending a night in Elko, Nevada. That's all I'm going to say, because I'm working on being nicer.