July and August 2025

Returning home from Europe at the end of May we quickly turned around and a week or so later drove north to Oakland for some time there with Jessica, Kris and Gemma before all of us drove to Sonoma to celebrate the wedding of Jessica and James, close friends of the kids.  Kim and Marty joined us there and it was a great weekend of love, laughter and of course, good food.

In July we spent the fourth of July weekend in Solana Beach, somewhat of a tradition for us culminating in the impressive fireworks display out of the nearby fairgrounds in Del Mar.  A week or so later the Cisco’s gathered in Wildomar to celebrate J.B.’s birthday with a surprise party.  Originally this was to have been held in 2020 for a milestone year, but Covid shut that down and so his wife Sheila figured five years later would work just fine.  And it worked out well as he was truly surprised.  In the meantime, we and the other Cisco’s stayed nearby in Temecula and spent a couple of days there exploring its cute downtown and generally relaxing. 

Later that month we participated in a tour of 3420 Boelter Hall, the original lab at UCLA (we belong to the Retiree’s Association there) where the internet was born.  In 1969, in this small lab a group of computer scientists created the foundation for the Internet.  It was basically just a giant metal box — a prototype for a router — and it only transmitted the first two letters of a text message before crashing the whole system.  But for the first time, using what was dubbed the Interface Message Processor, a connection was established between two computers: one at UCLA and another more than 350 miles away at Stanford Research Institute.  We were hosted by one of the original forces behind the project, UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock, and it was a moment that made us proud of our association with the campus. 

At the beginning of August, we traveled north to Oakland for a few days before heading up to Grants Pass for one of our regular visits (well over twenty times since our first visit in 1981) to what we have always lovingly referred to as Kamp Angst, named after a long-ago publishing company that Tom had started.  This visit would be tinged with some regret as father time has caught up with Tom and Kathy meaning that living far out in the country on a large piece of property was no longer manageable. 

And so, the need to sell the property, one I’ve often described as being the last house on the dirt road off the county road and move into Grants Pass.  Fortunately for us, the sale wasn’t set to close for another couple of weeks and so we would have one last chance to visit this place filled with so many memories.  Given the chaos that moving entails, we opted to stay in town at the Riverside Inn, lodging we’ve passed by many times on our way in and out of town, as it sits on one of the main streets that crossed the Rogue River. 

Arriving in town we checked in at the Inn before heading out to Selma, stopping at a one of our favorite joints, Cartwright’s Market (where our friend Mark was a butcher many years ago) for sandwiches and deli salads to take out to the Kamp.  After dinner we returned to Grants Pass and the next morning went back to Kamp for a last full day there, featuring a dip in the pool they installed 20 years ago and plenty of reminiscing about times past.

For dinner we drove down Highway 199 to Cave Junction to Taylor’s Sausage Country Store, where we usually stop for a lunch of hot dogs or sausages.  Starting out as just a butcher shop, then expanding into a sandwich and soup spot, they have further expanded by adding a bar and what could only be loosely described as a dining room, essentially a section carved out of the kitchen, not the most romantic set up imaginable, but the food was excellent and is often the case in rural areas, entirely reasonable.  I had a delicious French Dip Sandwich while Joanna enjoyed a sausage platter and we split a nice Ceasar Salad. 

The next day, we rode our bikes to Don’s Bike Center and using a download from their website, enjoyed the 24-mile Upper River ride, which took us up and down the hillsides outside of town.  Once we finished, we cleaned up and drove over to the new house for our first, but not last, official tour of the latest Kamp Angst, Grants Pass Edition.  While they will have lost the benefits of living in a quiet area somewhat off the grid, being in town means easy access to restaurants, shopping, doctor’s appointments and importantly, reliable internet service, something sorely lacking at the old digs. 

It being around lunch time we jumped in the car with Tom and drove out to Rogue Creamery Farm Stand, just missing a tour but thoroughly enjoying one of their highly regarded grilled cheese sandwiches.  Joanna and I split one as we knew we’d be eating dinner later and are glad we did as it now appears that the Farm Stand is either temporarily or permanently closed. 

We dropped Tom off back at the new house and bid him farewell as he and Kathy would both be busy that night.  We returned to the Inn for some downtime before heading out to dinner at another of our favorite Grants Pass venues, the Twisted Cork, located on SE 6th Street near the corner of G Street, just a couple of blocks away from Don’s Bikes and another of our usual restaurants, The Bohemian. 

We started with a glass of Chardoney apiece to go along with the cup of cold cucumber soup we split, then dove into our entrees, the Beet Salad (mixed greens, roasted red & gold beets, pickled red onion, apple, goat cheese & crushed pistachios, tossed with pomegranate vinaigrette) for Joanna and the Macadamia Crusted Halibut for me, which I washed down with a glass of Pinot Noir.  Our total tab was $120, about what we would spend at home give or take, a truly good meal for the price. 

That would finish our stay in Grants Pass, and we’d head out the next day for Bend to see my brother and to meet a bike tour we’d be joining there.  We’ll cover all of that in the next post.

Links

3420 Boelter Hall: https://uclaconnectionlab.org/internet-museum/

Professor Leonard Kleinrock: https://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/index.html

Riverside Inn: https://riverside-inn.com/

Cartwright’s: https://cartwrightsmarket.com/

Taylor’s: https://taylorsausage.com/

Don’s Bike Center Rides: https://donsbikecenter.com/links/Maps.htm

Rogue Creamery: https://roguecreamery.com/

The Twisted Cork: https://thetwistedcorkgrantspass.com/