Leaving Eugene

We left Demetra's Eugene, Oregon home on Tuesday, July 15 with the remains of a home-made blueberry-tapioca pie, headed for Bob's son Alistar' s and daughter-in law Natalie's house in Portland. There we had a nice conversation with the two (30-year-old+) kids, left the remaining pie and Bob's Mitsubishi with Alistar, and caught our plane to Illinois from the Portland Airport. At the beginning of the flight we could see a large wildfire on Mt. Adams, in Washington State. After that, it became dark fairly quickly. The person seated next to us was also a Chicago native and High School graduate (as is Demetra), and was traveling from her home in California with her two daughters to celebrate her parent's 50th wedding anniversary on July 19; the same day as the wedding we were attending for Demetra's niece, Katrina.

The flight went smoothly and we arrived at Chicago's Midland Airport around midnight, where we rented a Korean four-door sedan and drove to Demetra's cousin Helen Harper's home in Western Springs, where we stayed for most of our trip.

Bob with blueberry pie at Demetra's house.	Mt. Hood to the south of the Columbia River.	Forest fire smoke visible on Mt. Adams, north of Columbia.