By Jason
Two weeks ago Ann, Athena and I drove up to Medford, Oregon to meet Athena’s new baby cousin, Alia. Ann may write a bit more about the trip later but I wanted to post some pictures while I had some time. The past few weeks have been very busy for both of us at work so blog posts have fallen behind a bit.
We left after work on Friday and drove up through the night so that Athena would be able to sleep through the drive. For the most part she did – she only woke up when I stopped for gas, talked to us for a bit, and then fell back asleep. Shortly after that we passed Redding and started driving into the mountains and some rainy, foggy weather. It’s the first time I’ve driven in California and really worried about the weather conditions… but still not as bad as snow storms in Cleveland.
Ann was pretty happy to get there:
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
Ahan with Alia – Ahan is actually changing diapers. Apparently doctors don’t learn how to change diapers in med school, not even pediatricians, but he was able to get up to speed.
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
It was interesting for me to hold such a tiny baby again. Alia is growing fast, but she feels so light after carrying Athena.
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
Medford is an interesting place, it’s actually a lot more like California than how you usually think about Oregon. We went to nearby Ashland to eat and check out Lithia Park. That was just fine with Athena. She ran to see the ducks, played on the slide and swing set, interrupted a game of frisbee, and took a short hike with her dad.
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
I’ll let Ann add more about the trip and post more photos – you can see the whole set in Picasa.
Ahan and Julie live on the edge of the suburban part of Medford, with farms and open land on three sides. In addition to all the fun baby pictures, I took a short walk and took some photos of the landscape. We’re going to have to come back when the weather is nicer and do some hiking.
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
They have cows and horses for neighbors:
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
I saw a lot of these small-scale wind turbines around. Turbines this small aren’t really cost effective for grid power, I wonder if they’re used for irrigation or pumping?
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
Athena was very sweet with Alia – we were a little worried since Athena can be a bit rambunctious.
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| From Visit with Ahan, Julie, and Alia |
We weren’t in a hurry to leave, but both of us had to work on Tuesday. The drive back was amazing – the Siskiyou Mountains are very scenic and you can see Mount Shasta for much of the drive until we hit the Central Valley at dusk.