Ashland

Hi Everyone,

Darren and I could not decide whether to continue the blog since we have had so much trouble obtaining internet access. Also, we were not sure if there was much interest from you guys out there. However, it has been a month since our last entry and recently we have had inquiries as to where we are and what have we been doing. So for now we will continue documenting this adventure.

We left off with our time in Crater Lake. We went to Ashland after that to meet up with our friends Jeff and Alex to attend the Shakespeare Festival. Shannon is still with us. What a fabulous time we had in Ashland. If you have ever thought about going to the Shakespeare Festival you need to go. Ashland in and of itself is a nice place to visit to get away from the “daily grind”. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains, has the lovely Lithia Park to stroll, hike, or spend the day having a picnic. There are lots of adventurous outings to indulge in such as kayaking, mountain biking, and water rafting. And of course there is lots of shopping for those who like that sort of thing. Ha! Ha! Ha! (For those who do not know, Tracy hates to shop and Darren loves the fact that Tracy hates to shop).

Our friends Jeff and Alex are die hard Shakespeare fans and attend two - three plays a day for four days consecutively!!! Darren and I on the other hand are Shakespeare pagans (as Jeff calls us), as we only saw one play a night for three nights. However, the plays were awesome. We saw “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, “Cyrano”, and “The Importance of Being Ernest”. Everything about the plays were great: the acting, costumes, stage sets, the outdoor theater, as well as the indoor theater.

Cyrano depends more on the lead actor than probably any other play, including Hamlet. It seems 50% of the time Cyrano is talking, so it is considered a real tour de force for the lead. Well our lead had to go home to see his sick mother and his stand in had to do it. Understand leads spend literally 100’s of hours practicing their parts before the first show, the understudy hardly any since they are leads for another part. Understudies are allowed to carry around a scrip for the first few plays due to this. Well the stand in for Cyrano didn’t. He pulled off one of the most difficult parts in the world, with no notice and did a superb job. Very impressive, BRAVO!

In addition to seeing the plays we went on a back stage tour. It was fun learning how the actors know when exactly to enter the stage at a crucial moment, how they change from one elaborate costume to another in a matter of minutes, as well as just seeing what is back stage. We strongly encourage the back stage tour as it gives you an important perspective of what an actor must do in order to make their job seem so easy.

We also went river rafting while in Ashland. It was a great time. First of all ladies our guide was drop dead gorgeous, something we all can appreciate. Well, most of us any way. Darren appreciated the fact that he is a biology major at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. Ha! Ha! Ha! Actually, he (Corey – the river guide) was very knowledgeable of the environment in and surrounding the river. He was constantly pointing out wild life and explaining the ecosystem of the river. However, I don’t think the women in the group saw any of it. They just saw the river Adonis pointing at something.

The ride on the river was awesome!!! It was a class 3-4 river. We had lots of rapids, water fights, swimming, and even an opportunity to ride a couple of rapids outside of the raft!!!

We also enjoyed some superb dining!! Thanks to Jeff. He knows all the best restaurants and made reservations many months in advance in order for us to enjoy the best. Thanks Jeff. Also, I must give a huge thanks to Alex as she saved us $100.00 for missing one of our dinner reservations. Our river rafting trip was an hour and a half behind schedule due to a raft getting stuck on a huge bolder half way down the river. Two of our guides helped dislodge the raft, but it took a very long time to do so. As a result, we missed our reservation by about 30 minutes. We called the restaurant, but they would only hold the table for 20 minutes and told us they would charge us $100.00 if we canceled the reservation. When Alex got wind of this she took the bull by the horns and applied some leverage. The next thing we knew all was taken care of. Alex, you’re our hero!!!

Thanks Jeff and Alex, we appreciate you inviting us along for a great time in Ashland. We had a great time and hope to join you again.