Summer Visit Home Part 9 - 10 Year HS Reunion

After Backpack's party we met up with Papa. My parents sold their house in Portland. Before that Dad did some work inside that I hadn't seen. Papa was waiting for us at the neighbors house. When we arrived, him and Uncle Al took us over to the house and knocked on the door. The new owner was real nice and let us look around. I wanted to cry. I had spent the majority of my childhood here and now I'll never go back! It seemed so empty! In the backyard is an apple tree. The first owner' son went to the same elementary school I attended. One day he brought home an apple tree and planted in the backyard. It's the same tree! Unfortunately, its dying so the new owner is having it taken out :-( The house was built by a barge builder. His wife loved to bake. The kitchen was huge with a breakfast nook. It has large bins that held the flour and sugar. It even had a 'cold cupboard' that was open to the outside, with a screen barrier, to put food in. Since she was a baker some of the door openings were a big larger than usual. She also babysat kids. One of our neighbors would come over and tell us stories about the family that lived there. At one point Mom wanted to strip the wall paper to paint. There were way too many layers to strip through, so that project was axed. Apparently she also like to decorate. The house also had built in mahogany shelves and drawers. It was a neat house, with hardwood floors. Because it was so old, there is a lot of upkeep. We were only the third owners. Alas, the sale was meant to be. The owners, hopefully, will enjoy the house and love it as much as we did.

Anyway, with Papa we went to a nearby park and let the kids play for some time. Again, no pictures!! After playing we took Papa back to the neighbors and headed to our hotel room. Travis and I got ready to go to my 10 year high school reunion. Yaya and Linda took care of the kids for us. They had quite an adventure trying to get them to Red Robin for dinner!

We got dressed up. I had a cute little black dress from Dress Barn and Travis wore his black slacks and white shirt. The reunion was at Grand Central Bowl. I was a little bummed that I couldn't convince Anne to go and most of the people I hung with were either not interested in going or lived away. The reunion committee rented half of the upstairs were the bar was. They paid, I thought, way to much for what was there. Apparently what we really paid for was the open bar! We don't even drink! There was promises of dinner, but no tables to sit at. Dinner was pizza, chicken wings, chips and dip, and vegetables. Um....we could've eaten at Pizza Hut for less! And who puts finger foods on the menu when you're trying to look nice...Hello, its not a Superbowl party!! We didn't even get a game of bowling out of it!! Our school wasn't huge. The graduating class was almost 300. (I remember sitting though graduation and wondering who some of the people were that walking across the stage). So out of that number, there may have been maybe 50 people there, including significant others. So we chatted with the people I knew and watch some of a slideshow (full of pictures of the people that put this together and their friends...go figure!) and ate. After that we decided to leave. Of course all the juicy gossip I got from that night doesn't belong on the blog...sorry! That is between Anne and I :-) My friend Sharon did tell us that her husband is in a band called Pristine Blue and that they were playing at The Ponderosa that night. (If you get a chance, check out their website found here.) Well, we were already dress up and the kids were with the best babysitter ever so why not. We went over there and had a great time dancing the night away.

Why even go to a 10 year HS reunion? We went to Travis' and had a great time! It was also a great excuse to go to Portland! The committee just did what they consider fun...chatting and drinking! Sounds like a great party for...high school kids...not 28 year olds with careers and kids....oh wait, that would just be us. I easily would've got the award for 'The Most Domesticated Life'. It wasn't a huge let down. There were some people that I able to catch up with and I got to show off my gorgeous husband, so all was not lost! (Maybe you're reading this thinking that I didn't completely enjoy myself because I was complete nerd in HS....well that's not ENTIRELY true... *wink wink*)

We got back to the room and the kids were all sleeping soundly! One last post and our trip is complete.