Lorena and I flew up from Mexico and are in Washington, D.C. for Christmas for the second year in a row. Kelly has to work today and tomorrow, so Lorena and I are enjoying just hanging out in this crazy town. It amazes me that we enjoy it so much. There are so many things to do and see with history, art, food, and shopping opportunities everywhere one looks. The weather has been clear and crisp since we got where which is what one wants and expects for this time of year in D.C. Hopefully the Texas and/or Mexico houses will be completed by next year so the kids can come to see us over the holidays.
Lorena and I ran down to the McMenamin’s beside the Columbia River in Kalama on Saturday evening. It is a beautiful facility and we enjoyed ourselves very much. We used to go to the McMenamin’s in Wilsonville once a week when we lived there and liked it a lot. The one here in Centralia is really not so good–too noisy and somehow seems to have a culture difference from the ones in Kalama and Wilsonville. It is an hour drive down to Kalama, so we do not expect we will be doing it so often. We had around 30 20-30 somethings at the house over the weekend for a birthday and going-away party for Kelly. It was wonderful.
There was a big church get-together in Phoenix over the weekend for 18-25 year-olds to play volleyball. Really, it is more about the everyone hanging out and meeting new people from around the country. As you can see from the picture, Christian attended and climbed a palm tree. I have now idea how far his off the ground nor where it is nor who took the picture–Kelly sent it to Lorena in the middle of the night. Looks pretty cool.
Lorena and Christian told me about a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona they thought was a favorite in the 
I learned tonight that the world series is starting here in Boston at Fenway Park. The Dodgers are playing the Red Sox. I have fond memories of watching baseball games in my youth. It was the one sport where I really did not have any ambitions of being competitive, so it was just nice to watch. I grew up in one of the few baseball towns in Oregon (it was mostly all track and field all the time–Nike/Duck U.). My brother, Doug and I watched American Legion and Babe Ruth League baseball during our youth and enjoyed it a lot. In the mid-1980’s when I lived in Silicon Valley, I attended matinee games at Candlestick Park. It was a great joy. Different from other sports. It would be nice to go to a Major League Baseball game, but there is something that is even more compelling to me about amateur baseball played for fun. My undergraduate university (Oregon State) has won three NCAA national championships. The head coach went to high school with my little sisters. Still, that is not nearly as compelling as hometown baseball. We currently live in a baseball town. Maybe I should take Lorena to a high school or American Legion or Babe Ruth league game this spring.
We had quite a nice party of mostly twenty-somethings over the weekend. The shoes and purses were piled up much higher than this at the peak of the party. We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with very spicy guacamole on Sunday evening and and then quiche with Lorena’s special, extra spicy salsa on Monday morning. I do not think people got a whole lot of sleep, but the “kids” all seemed to have a nice time. We inaugurated or new fire pit and made gallons and gallons of coffee. We were thankful to have an extremely nice Canadian contingent (maybe that statement is a little bit redundant) and a strong showing from the very polished California young urban professional crowd. We are looking forward to doing it again next year.
I imagine the amazing improvements to the features and image quality of cell phone cameras have done away with a big chunk of the snapshot camera market. When we move to Washington, I found our old Canon camera that was really a great little camera at the time we bought it. I took a few pictures with it and then put it away. The image quality and easy of use of my Note 4 was way better. That has been multiplied even more with the Pixel 2 phones Lorena and I purchased a few months back. So, it was a little bit of a surprise when Kelly told me she wanted to get a “Polaroid” camera that takes pictures that print immediately onto a 2.4″ x 1.8″ snapshot paper. Talk about retro. The funny deal is I remember when the first instant Polaroid cameras were the new-new thing and very expensive. I guess it is all kinds of fun for the right kind of people at the right kind of party. We will see.
Kelly and Christian are getting ready for a celebration of sorts. The party games have started to arrive. They are not horseshoes, but similar and we already have an amazing croquet set we got for our wedding and has been used for only seminal events like this one. Lorena and I are pretty much the hired servants, but our buddies Al and Michele will be here to suffer with us, so it is all good.