Northern Exposure: Boricua Edition!

Cast of characters:
Jose - Jose Cruz Sr. (Luis' dad)
Gloria - Gloria Cruz (Luis' mom)
Abuelo - Tono Cruz (Luis' grandpa)
Junior - Jose Cruz Jr. (Luis' brother)
Sara - Sara Cruz (Junior's wife)
Andre - Andre Cruz (Junior's son)
Kendra - Kendra Cruz (Junior's daughter)
Joel - Joel Cruz (Luis' brother)
Vitito - Victor Santiago (Luis' uncle)
Yolly - Yolanda Santiago Cruz (Luis' aunt)
Yolimar - Yolimar Santiago Cruz (Luis' cousin)
Yomary - Yolmary Santiago Cruz (Luis' cousin)
Pablo - Pablo Cruz (Luis' uncle)
Iris - Iris Cruz (Luis' aunt)
Pablito - Pablo Cruz Jr. (Luis' cousin)
Alexandra - Alexandra Cruz ( Luis' cousin)
Luis - Luis Cruz
Mason - Mason Cruz
Siena - Siena Cruz
me - me

Tuesday -

I have no pictures from Tuesday but that's only because pictures weren't allowed in the venue. Luis, me, Yaya, and Papa Ron went to a wonderful concert at Oaks Park featuring Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, and Shawn Colvin. All sat on stage together harmonizing on each other's songs. It was a tremendous evening.

Wednesday -

Mason's last soccer game of the summer was on Wednesday. As a treat, there was a team potluck after the game and the kids got trophy's. Mason was so excited!
It was his very first trophy! It has a special spot on his shelf in his room.
Here's Mason and Andre with their soccer coach.

Friday -

Luis' relatives from Puerto Rico arrived Thursday night. There are 9 visiting in all. We spent Friday around town, going to Jose & Gloria's house, the mall, and then Joel's house for dinner.

This is Pablito and Alexandra.

Part of the group spending some quality time in the food court at Clackamas Town Center. From left: Siena, Junior, Kendra, Pablito, Iris, & Pablo.I had to take this picture of Vitito drinking a beer other than Coors Light (his usual).

Yolly, Iris, and Yolimar at Joel's house.

Siena and Abuelo (her great grandpa).

This is the "serious" dominoes table. Be careful, these guys are pros. Abuelo is a force to be reckoned with at the dominos table. Siena is brave to take a seat with these guys.

Mason took quite a liking to Yomary. He calls her his "girlfriend" and would move away anyone who tried to take his spot next to her.

These teens love their phones and internet. Here's Yolimar and Alexandra.

Siena and Mason had a great time.

Saturday -

Saturday we did the "Twilight" tour. That's a recent movie for you non-frequent movie goers that was filmed in the Columbia river gorge. Our plan was to leave at 10:30 which means we weren't on the road until noon. Regardless, our caravan of 17 people and 4 cars made our way.

First stop was the Vista house. Here's the view from the top:

And Luis in front of the Vista House.

Here's Jose and his dad, Abuelo, at Vista house where we had lunch.

The kids found the spot in the shade.

The group at Vista House. From top left: me, Luis, Junior, Vitito, Yolly, Jose, Gloria, Iris. From bottom left: Siena, Mason, Andre, Kendra, and Pablo.

From the Vista house we took the Old Gorge Hwy. to Multnomah Falls. As it was the 4th of July, parking was a bit of a nightmare but once we found a spot for the car, the kids were able to score some snow cones.

The falls. Jose, Pablo, Junior, Luis, Vitito, Alexandra, and Yolimar.

It was a beautiful day at the falls.

Andre, minus a couple of teeth and a snow cone mouth.

Titi Iris shared her ice cream cone with a very happy Mason and Siena.

The group again at the falls.

Jose and Abuelo.

Sunday -

Today we headed up to Mt. Hood. Here's the mountain from Timberline. There's a little snow left.

The boys in front of Mt. Jefferson: Abuelo, Jose, and Pablo.

Believe it or not, Puerto Ricans don't see snow very often (it doesn't snow there ever). They had a lot of fun playing in it. I tried to upload video but for some reason, it wasn't working. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Here's Yolimar, Yolly, Abuelo, and Yomary.

Iris and Pablo in front of the Shining house - Timberline Lodge.

Inside the lodge, Yomary, Pablito, Alexandra, and Yolimar.

Here's Andre, Mason, Siena, Gloria, and Jose.

Siena and I found a Norwegian flag at the top of the lodge. Shout out to my ancestors.

Siena and flowers.

Boys again. Vitito, Jose, and Abuelo.

The other Cruz family. Alexandra, Iris, Pablito, and Pablo.

Luis somehow managed to close my back hatch onto his forehead this morning. It left a cool looking gash. Here he's showing it off.

Lunchtime at the mountain. Here's the cousins: Pablito, Yomary, Yolimar, and Alexandra.

Alexandra got her feet wet in the snow (she was wearing Crocs) and used her t-shirt as socks. Cool!

My sweet little baby boy throwing a snowball at his mother.

The young bunch went to find more snow after lunch. Alexandra, Yolimar, Yomary, Siena, Mason, me, Andre, Kendra, and Sara.

Andre hurt his hand trying to sled down the hill on a log with the big cousins. He is sad.

Luis and Mason test out the cold water.

It should be noted that of all 17 of us, I'm the only one that wore sunscreen and I'm also the only one that got a sunburn. Figures.

Northern Exposure - The Revival!

Starring:
Ron Torland - Papa Ron (my Dad, son of Mildred, grandson of Herman and Anna Swanson)
Mary Lou Ham - Auntie Lou (Papa Ron's sister, my aunt)
Heidi Evans - Heidi (my cousin)
Ellia Evans - Ellia
Berren Evans - Berren
Larry Bullock - Larry (Papa Ron's cousin, son of Hannah, grandson of Herman and Anna)
David Bullock - David (Papa Ron's cousin, Larry's brother, etc.)
Luis J. Cruz - Luis
Mason Cruz - Mason
Siena Cruz - Siena
Kris Cruz - me

This weekend was the annual Roslyn road trip. For a recap of last year's trip, check here: http://dayzdtomato.blogspot.com/2008/06/miner-detour.html. Last year's post includes more of the history and backstory of the town and since this is weeks blog is already going to be insanly long, I won't repeat last year's post.

I have to admit that thanks to a bad batch of Burger King burger shots, the car ride up to Roslyn was miserable for Siena and I. I left my barf mark right outside the fence of Ft. Lewis, one good splash from setting off a trip wire, I'm sure. Siena wasn't so lucky. Her throw up landed all over her blanket, outfit, carseat, etc...it was a long drive.

Regardless, we made it. Since there were 4 of us, we decided to stay at Suncadia - the resort located just outside of Roslyn. It has only been around for a couple of years but was very nice. This was the view from our room (Cle Elum river is below):

We ate dinner the first night at Pasttime, a restaurant in Roslyn across the street from the Roslyn museum. This was after driving around for 30 minutes looking for the Safeway that was 2 minutes from us. Hummm, like father, like son.
The next morning, we met up with the rest of our people and first hit the rocks (aka the 8th wonder as dubbed by Luis). This is the view down from the top of sliding rock. Note the ass grooves where Mason is scaling the rock.

The top of sliding rock with Mason and Ellia. I'm more concerned here with making sure no little kid topples the 40 feet down the backside of this rock.

Heidi made it this year after being sick the week of the trip last year. Mr. Berren had no qualms scaling a large boulder. Give him a few more years and he'll have Everest conquered. Heidi had an iron grip on the back of his overalls the whole time.

Luis making sure Berren makes it down in one piece (see videos at bottom of blog for awkward slides down the rock).

The boys - Mason, Luis, Berren, Papa Ron, and Larry. This particular 8th wonder has no formal name (that I am aware of) but since it is the boulder of choice for family photo's, I'll dub it Kodak rock.

The Cruzes, sans Mason who was halfway up the hill with Ellia, and Papa Ron atop Kodak rock.

Dancing rock is under my right foot and the opposite side of the crevase is under my left foot. I'm sure this pose would have never happened had Yaya been present.

Several brave kids make the trek through the crevase. I too was able to do this trek about 40 pounds ago.

Siena checks out the route through the rocks...

After the 8th wonder, we hiked a little further down the path to find the spot where Uncle Clarence (Herman and Anna's son) had played baseball for the Roslyn team in his youth. The flat area is now overgrown with trees and shrubs but it is the area to the right behind Papa Ron and Siena.

Whew. One hike down.

Happy kids and wildflowers.

Last year I neglected to give a shout out to the Brick. The Brick is on Pennsylvania Ave. in downtown Roslyn (the main strip) and has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operated bar in the state of Washington. And it has some mighty tasty Roslyn Brewery beer on tap.

The Miner's memorial, also on Penn. Ave.

There are still some homages to Northern Exposure (the tv show from the 1990's filmed in Roslyn) throughout the town. The exterior of the radio station is behind the miner's memorial.

I found this particular placquard at the memorial to be interesting. Wouldn't you think that after #2 died in the mines that Ms. Johanna might have considered marrying a man of a different profession?

Papa Ron holding the camel's tail. Luis is holding...well, we're not sure...

The actual neon sign from Roslyn cafe is pretty cool too...we had lunch here on Friday.

3 kids in front of the mural.

This year we walked up to the cemetry in Roslyn. Here's uncle Clarence's grave. Note the guitar and baseball bat on the top.

Mason and Ellia found the one wet spot in the area.

The cemetry is organized by ethnicities and social groups. Here's the Moose area of the grounds. Not sure why the sign is crooked.

The kids found a nice bench outside the Jewish section of the cemetry. Unfortunately, they found themselves in the path of the sprinkler...

We hung a right at "Old City" to make our way to Herman and Anna Swanson's graves.

Family portrait beside Herman and Anna's grave.

Luis was on the other side of the gravesite with all of the camera's...

After a tasty lunch at Roslyn cafe, the kids checked out the old mining trains outside the Roslyn museum. Aren't they sweet?

Mason takes a turn behind the wheel of one of the old mining machines. These machines were part of the cause of one of the miner's strikes during the 1930's. They would burrow out sections of the mines, taking work away from a number of men.

Ellia and Seina also had fun "driving" the old machines.

Since Berren (and apparently Papa Ron) needed a nap, we went back to our place for some playing and swimming. Suncadia had a couple of really cool mine themed playstructures.

Here's Mason on the other side of Suncadia Mine #10 (note that there were 9 active mines in Roslyn/Cle Elum/Ronald history).Mason under Heidi's hat. What can I say.

Heidi and Ellia came over to our place for some swimming in the afternoon. Another playground. Who says the kids get to have all of the fun.

Dinner at Village Pizza in downtown Roslyn. Papa Ron and I enjoyed a pitcher of Roslyn Brewery's finest.

Berren LOVED his pizza!

I think its been a while since Papa Ron had 2 cups of beer. After dinner we went back to the park for a little while. First we looked over and saw Papa Ron on the swings. Who says parks are just for kids.

In addition to pizza, Berren loved the yellow ducky at the park. This is when he wasn't scaling walls and play structures.

Back to 2 drink Papa Ron. Now he's on top of the jungle gym with Ellia.

Guess its easier to climb up than to crawl out, huh Papa Ron.

Look, its Papa Ron on another piece of playground equipment!

The next day, all of us drove up to Cooper lake which is about 10 miles past Ronald. We took hike that went from Cooper lake to Salmon-la-sac camp ground. Since we didn't want to do the 4 mile hike twice, the 3 men (Papa Ron, Luis, and David) took 2 cars down to the end of the trail at Salmon-la-sac and brought one back to the head of the trail. Unfortunately for them, the head of the trail was 1.5 miles from the parking area at the trailhead.

That left Heidi, Auntie Lou, the kids, and I to start out ahead while they parked the cars, knowing that we would be slower and that they would be able to catch up. After 3 miles of lugging Berren and Siena, we were all excited to see the men catch up to us.

And I was thrilled to have Luis be able to finally help carry Siena a little bit. She did a lot of walking on her own though for having little legs. Mason and Ellia made it the whole way without help or complaint!

A picture of Papa Ron taking a picture...

The views were beautiful. Especially this one until Mason gave me a shove in the rear...luckily he's not quite strong enough to get me off of the cliff...

After the long and dusty hike, we had a late lunch at Pasttimes. Here's David playing with the kids.

And of course a little post lunch ice cream at Cicely's to top off another great day and another great trip.

Most of the family went home after the hike on Saturday. We stayed at Suncadia and left this morning. The kids had a bath and we all relaxed. Luckily the drive home today was much less eventful than the drive up.

Final mosquito bite count (from the hike):

Luis - 1

Mason - 0

Siena - 0

Kris - 12

Next year, we're bound and determined to get a few more spouses to come with us. Luis has a great time and I think all us would agree that a large part of the appeal of this annual trip is spending time together.

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Because this week's blog isn't long enough, I'll continue. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the passing of Michael Jackson. I haven't been much of a fan in the last 15 years but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't sad to hear of his death.

I remember vividly listening for hours to Thriller back in the early 1980's with my friends. We tried to moonwalk. We wore white gloves. We watched the Wiz and watched every Michael Jackson video that came on MTV. I had this poster hanging on my wall.

Whatever people may think about what became of Michael Jackson, I'll always remember his music as the soundtrack of my 1980's. His talent is indescribable. His impact will be long lasting.

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As promised, here's the video footage of sliding rock. Yes, I about lost my footing. Its steeper than it looks.