8/13/12

Back from Klamath Falls

Clearly, I'm not as flexible as I once was.  We were only gone overnight, but now that we are home, I feel as if organization flew out the window.  To look at my house, one would think a baby lives here.  Technically, I suppose one does...a baby cat.  Holy Moley.  Nothing was broken, but things certainly were strewn hither and thither while we were gone.  Pretty much anything that isn't nailed down has been played with and dragged off somewhere that it doesn't belong.

That's all beside the point, however, because we had a wonderful weekend seeing our son Matthew.  Matthew has been living in the dorm at Oregon Institute of Technology since starting school there three years ago.  For his senior year, he found a little house that is just perfect for him.  I asked him to look cool when I took this picture.  This is Matthew's vision of what cool looks like:


His house has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, and even a laundry room.  It is such a cute little place, and I'm so glad he found it.  He's been wanting a house almost his entire stay in Klamath Falls.

It took Matthew a few years post high school to gain some traction on his future.  Those weren't wasted years, however.  He spent part of his time living and traveling in Brazil, where he also learned to speak the language fluently.  When he returned from Brazil he was ready to move along and went to Klamath Falls to attend engineering school.  Everything he has touched since going there has figuratively turned to gold, and I think both he and Mike would agree with me when I say that Matthew is as happy as a pig in mud.


Here are Matthew and his dad.  That's his drum set in the foreground.  If you look around the room, you'll see that pretty much everything is related to music in some way.  His major in school is engineering, but his heart belongs to music.  

After we dropped off Matthew's stuff and saw his house, we went to lunch at a little restaurant in Klamath Falls called A Leap of Taste.  


The restaurant is located on a corner of Main Street.  This is Main Street Klamath Falls.


Is this not the epitome of Main Street, USA?  There were lots of things to look at inside while we waited for them to make our sandwiches.  These chocolate bars cracked me up.


Especially this one:


At $6 per bar, I resisted.  It would have been harder to resist these truffles,


except that they gave me a little truffle with my sandwich.  It was a hot day, and this soda went down cool


The sandwich wasn't much to look at, but it was so delicious.  It had ham, turkey, vegies, and wild plum chutney.  I love chutney.  No really.  I really love chutney.


After having our lunch, I used an app on my phone to find out if there were any quilt shops close by.  There was one just around the block from us!  Holy spit!!  We wasted no time going to check it out.  It was called Willing Hands.  Despite having been to Klamath Falls many times, I was previously unaware that this place existed.  I think it must be new.


Few things in life excite me any more than a new quilt shop to browse.  We were there early in the afternoon on Saturday, so imagine my surprise when we approached the door and saw this:


Here's my question:  Is this shop trying to fail?  Who can shop at these hours?  Retired people, or people who don't work, that's who.  And who are the people who generally have money to spend?  Working people.  So...are they not catering to people with money to spend?  Ya' got me.  Oh well.  No rotary cutters for you, Willing Hands.  Take that!  I was able to visit another quilt shop about a half an hour south of Klamath Falls.  I'll tell you about it in a separate post.

After that, we dropped Matthew back at his house, and then Mike and I went to our hotel.  Later that evening, we saw Matthew and his band perform at the American Legion.  It was such a lot of fun.  And his band is really good!  I so enjoyed seeing him playing drums and singing.  He sang lead vocals on one of the songs they performed while we were there.  I was able to shoot some video with my camera and I took a few pictures.  I didn't want to use my flash, and so these images are a little blurry.


I kind of like the artsy quality of this one.


And I just want to say right here...you know those people who see Jesus in toast and other objects?  That's not Jesus.  It's Matthew.  I'm so glad to have cleared that up.

We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then we feared turning into pumpkins, so we headed back to the hotel.  We had breakfast with Matthew Sunday morning, and then headed for home.

Now, even though we weren't gone for very long, the place seems a disorganized disaster to me.  I'm taking time to write this blog post because if I don't, the words will be swirling around inside of me until I let them out.  But now, I have some things to do to make the place habitable again.  I'm getting a pedicure tomorrow, which will help me to steel myself for a trip to the grocery store.  There probably won't be much sewing until Wednesday, and I am chomping at the bit to do the top-stitching on my 2nd Doors of Ireland quilt block.  So.....til later.  Hope you all had a good weekend too.

19 comments:

The Vegetarian Hunter said...

You might be the coolest mom ever. I loved your post today. Your family looks great and so happy.
The main street is so quiet! I cannot believe this town has a Technology school. Where are all the people?
I find many quilt stores have the same horrible hours. I do not get how they can stay open!
I hope you were able to get your house organized OK. Enjoy your pedi!
Cheers,
Carolyn

Siri Tullerusk said...

What an enjoyable post :-). The Main Street picture reminded me of the small towns in Iowa and Minnesota where I lived in a 'previous life'. The chocholate bars were hilarious, hope you don't regret not buying one! As for the opening hours of the quilt shop, I bet the shop won't be there next time you visit your son?

Anonymous said...

Glad you got to visit your son, wish I could get up and go visit mine! Now get back to your routine and start stitchin!

Lynette said...

What a sweet little house for him! It's adorable. I hope he has a really great senior year. :) (And I just laughed and laughed at the feline chaos for you to find when you got home.)

WoolenSails said...

I would say you have a lot to be proud of, you raised a well rounded son who lives life to the fullest and is headed for a wonderful career, and he is artistic, what more could you ask for;)

Debbie

Dana Gaffney said...

It looks like you had a good time, I love college towns and that one looks wonderful. We're getting a quick visit here, then going to see our daughters new place this weekend. I wonder if Smitty dragged Gracie into kittenhood and she helped with any of that mess. A quilt shop with those hours is a hobby not a business.

Unknown said...

Love love this post...you are such a cool Mom!

Julianne said...

Wow! Sounds like you had a fantastic visit with your son!
Those quilt shop hours are just plain stupid..

Diane Wild said...

You find such interesting places to eat with crazy names. And the chocolate? How could you resist? Looked like a fun trip. Again, thank you for the tour of Klamath Falls.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

10-4? Yep, either everyone is retired, doesn't have to work or they are trying to go out of business!

I like the little house, it's a good choice these days. Glad you got to have fun listening to the band.

legato1958 said...

I so enjoyed reading your blog!
And your descriptions of how the house looked upon returning home had me chuckling out loud~! Looks like Matthew is all set up for this year, thanks to mom and dad!
( My son is also majoring in Engineering, and has a room full of guitars, drums , amps and CORDS, too! Organization is not his strength!)

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Cute little house - love the expression 'Holy Spit' and just have to use that! The candy and soda labels - how cool! You just don't miss the small stuff and I love it.

Nancy in IN said...

Sounds/looks like a neat town. My son has a music engineering degree and works for a university in the music department fixing what needs to be fixed, teaching, composing, and even plays in a community band.
Hope you found some neat fabric. What are you sewing?

Snoodles said...

What a great post....you had us on a roller coaster, from proud parents to exasperated tourists, and back again! How blessed you are that your son is doing well and is happy (and happy with you). I'm sure you treasure those times.
Enjoyed this so much - hope Smitty didn't actually break anything! LOL

free indeed said...

You made me laugh today! Hubbs had to come see what was so funny...the Jesus in toast comment just got to me .... too funny!
It's exciting to watch our kids go through these stages. I lived my life through mine pretty much, because I didn't ever live on my own, go to college do cool stuff, so I was always so tickled when the kids did! :) Love Matt's new little pad
Oh and that chutnet on a sandwich has me wanting a recipe for wild plum chutney...we have a tree with fruit coming in...never quite knew what to do with them....do you have any favorite recipes for such an animal? Never knew to use it on a sandwich...sounds very grown up :)

quiltzyx said...

What a cool little house! I wouldn't mind a place like that myself. (It would definitely force me to get rid of some, um, stuff.
I don't know if I could have resisted that last candy bar, even at $6...well, maybe I could.
Hope things are getting under control at home. I wonder who was chasing who(m)?

greelyrita said...

My daughter's first job was working at a restaurant with similar hours. Even worse - not open at mealtimes and expensive too. The owner was very good to her however, which was nice. Needless to say, that restaurant is no more.

Kate said...

Looks like a fun and interesting weekend.

I don't get quilt shop hours like that either.

karen608 said...

Oh you made me laugh out loud several times. Jesus in toast...ha!
He sure does look happy and I wished I could see more of that little house. I agree that the quilt shop hours are not very friendly, too bad that they didn't have a phone number to call and you could get in to shop at least. If it was my shop I'd just have to live there under a quilt in the back of the shop. Wouldn't that be fun?