Jan & Roger's 50th Annivesary

Jan and Roger are the parents of our friend Laurie and we see them at the monthly breakfasts that Laurie and Burt host.  We were excited to help them celebrate their Golden Anniversary.

Jan's dress, which is tiny.  It was so small it only fit a few of the teenagers in the room. And they were younger that 15. Jan remarked with chagrin that at the time she was wearing it, she though she was fat.  And so goes the lives of most American women.

The Obamas wish the couple congratulations

Poor insertion of this photo from their wedding album, but it was my favorite.

The topper from their wedding cake. During cleanup, one of the teenagers would ask if she could put her face in the cake.  We all gleefully watched while she did.  Also, my parents had a very similar topper, but it was in blue.

The wedding party. I adored the dresses and the white jackets.

Food!

The celebration's program.

Fabulous decor.

Which extended to the tables.

On the back of the program was a crossword puzzle about Jan & Roger.  Each setting also had a bookmark featuring a photo that the couple had taken on their travels.

There were also gold pencils to fill out the crossword.

Their son Andy, his daughter, and also Burt, Laurie's husband, provided some entertainment.

Then there were speeches.  Adam, the youngest son went first.

While Adam spoke, Laurie went over her tiny cue cards.

Which meant she was ready to speak.

Then Andy gave his speech.

After that, Jan and Roger followed with words of their own.

I enjoy that there were a variety of things this receipt covered, not just marriage.

Another poor transfer.  The list of the gifts the couple received. Notice how the thank yous were all sent out, you can tell by the check marks.

Photos were taken in various iterations.

Because they had the room until 4:00, Jan and Roger encouraged people to bring games and hang out.  The Gamers absconded to their game early on.

More photos.

This one is my favorite.

Jan with her dress.

Photos taken, we settled down to a game of Chronology, which I enjoyed enough to purchase for myself.

The Gamers ranks were depleted, but they kept on.

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Sunset over the Columbia

Hint.  When attempting to complete your McMenamin's passport page for Vancouver on a Friday night, get your stamp at the location on the Columbia, then drive out to east county and finish your stamp there.  The lines are very long at the west side location on a beautiful Friday night.  While we were waiting for a table (and before we abandoned our quest and went to Pizza Fino for dinner) I took this picture of the sunset using the feature on my camera where one click takes multiple pictures.

Escapism Portland

Matt and I joined several friends at a local Escape Room.  An Escape Room is a place where you are locked (or rather "locked") in a room and have to solve several puzzles to find your way back out of the room.  Portland has several Escape Rooms to choose from.  We chose Escapism Portland and the Ritual Room for our first Escape Room appearance.

Here were the rules for the room.

Our team of eight people solved our puzzles and escaped from our room in 36 minutes (of a total possible 60 minutes.)  Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about the puzzles, but I can tell you they were well-crafted and varied and the entire experience was fun in that "pretty neat" way that makes you sound square when you are talking about it.

Here's a picture of Matt's back, hard at work at one of the puzzles.  The most interesting thing about the experience was that after our guide locked us in the room (due to fire code, there was a second door that was unlocked) we heard a short scene-setting announcement (we had to solve the puzzles to join a powerful secret society) we had to figure out where to start.  I do not often find myself in a space with no instructions, so figuring out where to begin was quite fun.

Escape rooms are hip (or square) enough to be featured on the Big Bang Theory as in this excerpt. We didn't solve as quickly as the BBT cast did, but we were impressed with how quickly we did solve things.