HOOD RIVER

My friend, June, gave me a wonderful gift last week. She works for the Rogue Valley Water District and they have an annual conference in Hood River, Oregon every year, just across the state line (the river) in the Columbia River Gorge. She invited me to come stay in her hotel room with her for three nights during the conference. It was glorious.

I enjoyed one long day of doing nothing, then another wandering the town without agenda or timetable. I did all the puzzles in the newspaper every day and watched home shows on TV and cooking shows and an HBO movie. I hung the "Do not disturb" sign on the door and stayed in my pajamas until I got so hungry I had to go foraging for food at 3:00 in the afternoon. The first day, I only made it one floor down to the hotel restaurant, got a salad to go, and ate it in the room. The next day, I ventured into town to the Three Rivers Inn and gorged on artichoke soup, crab cakes, beet salad, and creme brulee.

June was pretty involved in her conference, so I saw little of her, but the evenings were great fun--a slumber party with my best friend. It was the perfect combination of solitude and friendship.

By the way, Hood River is the windsurfing capital of the world, so if you're up to zipping wildly across river waves on a little board, with what appears to be very little control of velocity or direction, then falling into very cold water while trying not to get bonked on the head or draped in a sail, come on over. I'll watch.