They are NOT the Andretti's

Today Al and Don celebrated their March birthdays at Malibu Grand Prix. Al had never been and boy did he have fun. Apparently you pay for a lap and you race against a clock. With each lap you try to better your time. Don almost broke the track record and Al was not far behind. When they got home they both looked like they'd driven in the Indy 500...dirty, tired and happy. Did I say tired. Al took a nap at Jana's and Don fell asleep in a recliner at Costco. Sheesh, you'd think they just finished Le Mans. Anyway, they had a great time and look forward to racing again.

You know its....

You know it's summer in Oregon when school is out, the strawberries are ripe, the Spyder is out of storage, the top is down and you're not only freezing, but you have to stop twice to put the top up so you don't get rained on. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's June for heavens sake WHERE IS THE FRICKIN' SUN?
P.S. I heard that the Nat'l Weather Service has registered 4, count 'em 4, sunny days in Salem since April 1.

Grand Floral Stroll

I made rose garlands for our hair.

Fun people, perfect weather.

Our shady reserved seats.

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde float. Lovely!

Last weekend, Al, Porter, Jana, Finn & I joined 2500 other walkers and kicked off the Grand Floral Parade in Portland. The Grand Floral Parade is a our version of the Rose Parade in Pasedena and is every bit as good (just not as big or famous). The 5 mile walk starts in NW Portland and crosses the Steel Bridge to the Collesium. From there it heads down the east side of the river then crosses the Hawthorne Bridge and meanders all over downtown. 500,000 parade watchers cheered and clapped for the walkers as we strolled down the parade route. Right after the walkers finish, the big parade starts. Marching bands, equestrian units, clowns, crazy motorcycle cops, and gorgeous floats. This family friendly, easy walk will become a DeBacker/Avison family tradition. Next year we'll get AJ, Maryanne and JJ to join us. All had other obligations on the 12th. At the end of the walk, the event organizers had chairs set up for all the participants in a prime parade watching area. No spending the night drawing chalk markers for our lawn chairs for us. We'll just take a delightful walk and watch the parade from our reserved seats. Ahhhhhh!

How cute is this?

Today Jana and Finn and Porter and I took a little shopping trip to Life Source in South Salem. Porter just started walking this weekend so I thought...why not have the P man push our cart. He loved it and was the talk of the entire store. He just walked up and down the aisles smiling at one and all. He did stop to look over the merchandise several times but decided to stick with the bananas, lemonade & yogurt.