End of Summer Road Trip

Summer has raced quickly by once again.  Way back, I promised Gray I would take him to visit a few colleges.  I told him to wait until after my State Inspections came through our facility.  As luck would have it, they waited until the end of summer to come and visit.  So in typical Samuelson fashion, Gray and I made a last minute dash down to San Francisco. We thought we would hit UC Berkley, UC Santa Cruz, UofO and maybe OSU.  We would definitely hit In-n-Out as many times as possible, find a skate park or two, and hit the beach.  And if we had time to ride a carnival ride, the kind that makes you laugh and cry until you think you might lose your Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast, then so be it. To be honest visiting schools was just an excuse for me to spend some time hanging out with Gray.  It has been awhile, and there is nothing like sharing a Blazer for four days to force a little father/son connection. So Wednesday night we packed our bags and headed south.  We discovered that after having been to San Fran a few times, there isn’t much new to do.  Drive to the Warf, head through China town, sit in a bunch of traffic, and you have basically done it.  We loved Berkley, I loved Santa Cruz, we drove around one of my childhood places, San Jose.  It was lots of fun, and Gray got to skate.  Here are a few pics and videos from the time.  I had a blast, you’ll have to ask Gray what he thought.

 

Taste of Soccer – Portland Style

He told us he was going to be playing soccer.  I don’t think we thought much of it.  He was going to be playing in a 3 on 3 tournament downtown Portland.  We had watched him play in these a hundred times before (no exaggeration). Evan along with Brian, Jarad, and Granite.  Only one of them was playing on a team anymore.  I know two of the four were out of shape. No way were they going to play that well.  The real intrigue to me was that they were going to be playing in Pioneer Square, on brick. Not your best soccer surface.  So I was surprised when Evan started calling saying they were winning, than another call saying they were advancing. Finally the call that they might make the semi finals.  So we decided to end the family dinner early and make a mad dash for downtown.  We got there just as the semi finals started and watched the team win.  While all the other teams had uniforms, Evan and buddies had tie=dye shirts.  They looked like a bunch of good friends getting together for a pick up game, but some how they made it to the semi’s and then the finals.  We watched and

cheered, but they came up a game short.  At the end, after catching their breath, they were all smiles, I don’t think they really thought they would get that far.  Made for a great night.