Okay, so I was a dope and completely forgot to take my camera up to Oregon. Boo to me. We got a few pictures on Lacey's camera yesterday, so maybe eventually I'll get copies and scan them in to post or something. We'll see.

I got into Portland Friday afternoon and was met at the airport by Lacey, Hugo and Ellie (Hugo's older daughter). We went to hear Jez Lowe at a house concert that evening, which was much fun. He's got a lot of good songs that we were all humming, whistling or singing for the rest of the weekend (still are, actually). We had lots of music at the apartment, too. Hugo keeps all his instruments out of their cases and in a stand, so we could just pick them up and play every time we walked past them. So I played a lot more mandolin this weekend than I had for a while. And Lacey's even learning a little bit of mandolin! Yay! I played a couple Morris tunes with her and taught her half of an Irish tune.

On Saturday night we were going to try to go swing dancing and we found a place Lacey hadn't been before. But when we showed up we found out that they do almost all West Coast swing there, which none of us can really do. I suppose we would have learned a bit if we had stayed but we figured we'd really rather just get a lot of fun dancing time than get confused about learning stuff, so we just high-tailed it out to the contra. I really enjoy contradancing in Portland. Lots of good dancers, more young people, and bands I've never heard before. Also, I think somehow I feel like a better dancer when I'm in a new place with new people. Probably just because it was contradancing, which I am more confident about than most things. The swing dance would probably not have had the same effect, even if it hadn't been West Coast.

Yesterday we took a little trip out to Multnomah Falls, which was an absolutely beautiful place up near Washington (where we went for lunch). The waterfall there is something like 600 feet high and there's a mile-long trail that zig-zags up to the top of it. I love all the wonderful trees and rocks up there, and the general greenness of it all.

Hugo was coming down here on a business trip this week and managed to get himself on the same flight as me, which was nice because it meant I got company for the trip and didn't have to take buses and trains. Thanks, Hugo! And thanks to both Lacey and Hugo for all their hospitality and a lovely weekend.