In Albany

We drove down to Albany, Oregon to spend a few days with our friends Joy and Jack. We had a wonderful time with them. It is always a chance for the guys to do "guy stuff", and the girls to do, well, "girl stuff". Jack and I went to a driving range on Saturday. I am terrible at golf and thought that maybe they'd ask me to leave because I hit about 1/3 of my bucket out of bounds due to a terrible (or really great?) slice. Later that day we met the ladies, who had been shopping, in Portland for The Bite of Oregon. The next day Jack and I went to "The Bourne Ultimatum", while the girls watched a sappy movie. We really enjoyed our spy flick, and I think it was a fitting conclusion to the movie trilogy. Later that evening we drove up to a "star party". Local amateur astronomers had gathered to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Many had brought their telescopes. I wasn't shy about asking to look through, and saw some amazing sights. It is one thing to see a photo of something like the Ring Nebula, but to see it with my own eye was an experience all its own. I was fortunate to see the Hercules Cluster, Swan Nebula, the Wild Duck Cluster, and several entire galaxies! At one point I was looking at two galaxies in the same field, and a meteor went streaking through! We also saw lots of satellites, and the biggest of all, the International Space Station went zooming overhead before anyone could get a telescope on it. We had a great weekend, and some memorable experiences with some dear friends.