Turn Left!

While the past few days have been packed full of driving and fun, today was a less structured day. We decided that was something we wanted to do differently from some of our previous trips. We wanted to have some down time in which we could just relax and hang out. As such, the only definite on today’s agenda was to find some huckleberry flavored goodies. We learned to love the flavor of this elusive little berry when we visited Yellowstone a few years ago. Matthew, who doesn’t generally get to sample the local offerings we encounter on our journeyings, was pleased to be able to partake of a variety of huckleberry flavored goods in the past and was anxious to indulge in a few more. Huckleberry items are generally found at the tourist focused stores rather than the Winco or Costco where we have been doing our grocery shopping, so we consulted Google and found a store called Made in Oregon whose website showed quite an array of huckleberry flavored delights. It was located in a mall in downtown Salem, so we drove into town and purchased jam, preserves, and several kinds of candy before making our way back to the house.

The weather was lovely today, sunny and clear but still nice and cool, so the kiddos took advantage of the opportunity and spent several hours lazing on the back patio. After some good down time, we took a short drive through the farmland surrounding Albany until we reached a fork in the road. Literally. We were, in fact, driving specifically to find said fork, which we learned about through an internet search while looking for interesting things to do near Albany. It seemed like just our kind of random, and with the Muppets’ “Moving Right Along” in our minds, we made our way through the countryside to reach it. It wasn’t a long drive, but we feel it was well worth the thirty minutes we spent coming and going. Sometimes I wonder why people do or create weird things and that thought did pop into my mind, but if nothing else, it was worth the entertainment value it gave us!

The evening was spent rowdily playing card games. I say rowdy because we are seldom subdued when it comes to Uno, Phase 10, or And it Came to Pass. We love to play games, and there was much laughter and joking at the table this evening. That is one of the perks of a more lackadaisical schedule: more time for Pig Pile.