We took the Paulie and Sarah fishing at Promontory Park today on Paul’s last day in Portland before he heads to Fort Hood, Texas for his first assignment. It was a nice, relaxing way to end his visit. He seemed to need the time to decompress after several days of the usual behavior of a twenty year old male on vacation–party, party, party with his sisters and friends. He’s been feeling a bit pulled in every direction since he has a large family and everyone wants to spend one-on-one time with him before he leaves given that it probably won’t be too long before he’s in Iraq or Afghanistan. He seems kind of stressed about the tearful good-byes and such, so I’m very glad we’ve been keeping things normal and light!
He crashed (practically literally) at our house Friday afternoon and slept for hours. Woke up in the early evening and we sat up watching John Waters and Monty Python movies and chatting while Mark was at band rehearsal. We all slept in late-ish. OK, not really late-ish, as we were out of the house by 10 to have breakfast. After breakfast, Paul wished he could go fishing so off we went. Given that we don’t own fishing poles or tackle, it was perhaps not very practical…but hanging and letting Paul pick his own form of relaxation made it more than worth the money.
Sarah enjoyed the trip in her own way: soaking up sun and snoozing!
To anyone in MY family who might read this: don’t worry. I did NOT actually touch a fishing pole. I finished knitting a sock and just enjoyed the ride. I was also the designated photographer.
There are more pictures of the fishing trip and other moments from Paul’s visit over in the Jolin-Carleton gallery!
I wonder if Paulie is ever going to get tired of wearing his uniform in public? ;-)))
