Ashland May 31st. to Seattle

Sunday AM started off with a breakfast of nut granola and organic berry mix puree coupled with a cup of coffee.  After getting ourselves fueled Will and Char took me to a Sunday meditation session at their local Buddhist Temple which they have been attending for two years.  While not declaring themselves Buddhists, they do appreciate the teachings of the llamas and opportunity to meditate and improve their day to day lives through improved mental clarity.  The temple was built in a way that follows prescribed designs and layouts, has passive ventilation and has prays buried in  the foundation floors.  The assemblage was what you might anticipate in Ashland, a mix of well educated, liberal folks with open minds and a bent towards giving to others.  The lessons from the llamas that day was how to take in your own suffering and dissolve it through meditation in our heart, and then to move on to taking in suffering from others and do the same.  I donated $20 to the temple in the form of the purchase of two books on Buddhism and meditation from the Dali Llama of Tibet.

At the conclusion of the initial one-hour session, Char introduced me to one of the Llamas and then the teaching session began.  Upon completion, Will, Char and I had lunch at their local coop store which also has deli foods much like Whole Foods presents daily.  They are members of the coop, and later in the afternoon Char and I returned to purchase some staples.  All the produce is organic and GMO free, which precludes having to sort through produce like at Whole Foods for those that are organic.  There is much produced in the valley that is made available through the coop and at various farmer's markets.  The entire Ashland County voted to ban GMO crops, and Monsanto currently has a lawsuit against the county concerning this.

Ashland is an eclectic town of about 20,000, with a history in the 19th and 20th century of logging.  The railroad completion in 1874 put Ashland on the map and helped the young town grow and prosper.  Nowadays, it is the home of Southern Oregon University, Will and Char's home,

Front of Will & Char's Home- Ashland, OR

Deer Greeter at Will & Char's

Will Nuessle & Boyd in back

a famous location for Shakespeare and other plays, and has a distinctly quirky/friendly persona.  It's popularity is causing an influx of Californians with money secured through rising property values there, which in turn is causing the property values in Ashland to rise dramatically.  The town fades within a few miles to agrarian landscapes with dairy cows, goats etc. and further out into vineyards near Jacksonville

Boyd & Char at Woolridge Winery near Jacksonville, OR 5/30/2015

 I took Will and Char out for dinner at a restaurant in town called Smithfields.

Boyd, Char and Will at Smithfield's - Ashland, OR 5/31/2015

They had a great mix of barbecue pork, beef and chicken and I had warm Greek olives with blue cheese and Meyer lemon, followed by sweet potato gnocchi, black morel mushrooms and prosciutto.  We coupled our dinner with a nice Albarino from Spain, and then had deserts (orange sorbet, a baked raspberry truffle and creme' brulee.

Came home Sunday evening and finished packing up ready for an early run to Seattle.

After breakfast and an early morning yoga stretch session with Will and Char, I reluctantly left Ashland and it's multitudinous bridges and houseboats to Seattle.  The GPS unerringly took me to my friends home on Mercer Island just across the water from downtown Seattle.

Byron & Doris's Home - Mercer Is., WA

An affluent island consisting primarily of homes and some small support businesses with a population of around 22,000. Paul Allen of Microsoft fame has an enclave of 9 houses he bought to provide some privacy and Byron took me through the area so I could see how one of the richest men in the world lives.  Byron and Doris bought into Mercer Is. many years ago, and since then the popularity of the location near Seattle has continued to draw people to the island, and with this impetus, the real estate prices have continued to escalate.

Doris returned home from her work at a local elementary school, assisting  students who require additional tutoring and guidance, and we had dinner at a nice bar/restaurant on the north end of the island. Having lived on the island so long, they both greeted numerous people who were also denizens of the restaurant. Later in the evening I shared the digitized Super 8 films that my exchange student, Masashi Tachibana took while living with us in Grosse Pointe, MI fromm 1966-67.  I wanted to show Byron a short clip of his mom Martha.  Byron loved the clip and identified several other relatives in some film Masashi took while with them at a cottage along the St. Clair River, for what Byron recalls as a 4th of July weekend.

Made contact with my cousin Carolyn, who practices Chiropractic offices in nearby West Seattle. We agreed to meet for breakfast Wednesday AM before I head to the airport to pick up my friend and erstwhile minion at Hilton Head Hospital, Beth Gasiorowski.

Following a breakfast of oatmeal and fresh blueberries Byron did some working out and I downloaded some pics and worked on the blog.  We are soon off to downtown Seattle for  lunch.