More Oregon

J. and I were down in Oregon for Easter, and for a mandatory marriage preparation retreat weekend.

I think this picture pretty much sums up the first impression this rural Alaskan made at her mandatory marriage preparation:





















Rest assured, I made certain to explain - at the first presented opportunity - how Alaska's local option laws required me to travel around with that big, shocking "ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE" sticker. It was fun, however, to hear all the assumptions that had been drawn before I delivered my explanation.

I'm still not sure exactly what I had been expecting from our mandatory marriage preparation weekend retreat, but it turned out to be a wonderful weekend. We learned some good things about each other, and about marriage. We met some really good and fun people, and caught up the times with childhood friends I hadn't seen in over twenty years. I had fun sleeping in the dormitory that used to be my parents' college dormitory and taking "classes" in a building where they once took their college classes. And I loved being able to go with J. to Tiny's Tavern, my father's college local so many decades ago, and be able to plug "Hey, Hey Good Looking" into the jukebox.















All in all, it was wonderful to be back in a childhood stomping ground to find so much - and yet nothing at all - had changed.