Swimming Soccer and Pizza

Mom and Dad, being the gracious guests, asked the kids what they wanted to do for their last weekend in Cambridge. The kids made it clear they weren't interested in a drive, and didn't want to see any more old stuff. So Mom took them swimming, twice. Their first and second trips to the indoor public pool, heated and everything. With two (flumes) slides.

Photos were restricted in the pool, but on the second day the weather was nice enough for a bit of "football" in the park across the street (Parker's Piece). It was here we encountered our second brush with local crime. I had stayed very close to my bag containing the video camera, my purse, my camera, etc., and finally decided if I placed in towards the center of the park so that we were between the stuff and the street, I could watch it adequately. When Mom decided to rest she took the bag and all of the coats to the picnic bench with her, right in front of the sidewalk at the edge of the park, looking parkward.


This picture is probably taken from the park bench. Not far.

It wasn't long before a somewhat sloppily dressed bloke strolled casually between mom and the game. I decided that was probably okay, until he stopped and turned around walking back from where he came. I looked at mom, and at that instant saw a second young man approaching the bench from behind her, climbing over the rail and taking the step or two toward the bag. I swear it was in his reach. I yelled across the twenty feet or so between us "MOM!" immediately abandoning the game and walking quickly in her direction. "Yes?" she answered, a little too casually. And I tried to direct her attention to the man behind her. Without even looking up, the man then turned around and climbed back over the rail, and before I reached mom, he was confering with the first guy and a third man with a very large duffel bag. By the time I told mom what had been going on, the three of them were walking in three different directions, quickly disappearing. If he had gotten the bag, I'm sure we would have had no chance. The sun was setting, we were all a little shaken, we decided to quit while we were ahead and try for dinner.

Our first dinner at our "neighborhood" Pizza Express

From there we went to our new favorite restaurant chain, this time in Cambridge, just across the river from our house (about a mile walk), practically in our neighborhood. The walk there is longer and less scenic than the walk from our house in Corvallis to American Dream, but at least it's an option, but this night most of us were able to drive. Still expensive, like everything else, but the food was good, and there were no complaints from the kids (very unusual when it comes to meals, even at home).


Sophia's mid-meal siesta.

It was a little later than our usual dinner time, and what with all the swimming, Sophia again took a little nap before desert, but she did wake up for desert -- thank goodness. It doesn't go well when she wakes up and everyone else has had ice cream.