Memorial Day Weekend on Bainbridge Island

Trafton B.

May 31, 2010 - 2:00 PM

Happy Memorial Day, all! I hope you all spent your long weekends in the most relaxing way as possible. I know I did, and I'm not the only Oregon student trying to enjoy the calm before the storm that is the final two weeks of Spring Term. This weekend, to commemorate our nation's soldiers, the McAlister Crew rolled five hours north for our 2nd Annual Memorial Weekend Trip to Bainbridge Island.
I think I mentioned this before, but just to make sure we're all on the same page, when I say McAlister, I'm referring to my group of friends and former freshman year residence hallmates. There were about seventeen of us at our friend Leslie's house, which believe it or not is fewer than last year, and it couldn't have been much better.

The weather wasn't the same picturesque blue skies that we had last year, but it didn't really bother us. After all, we're Eugeners. Plus, our first day was mainly spent inside the gymnasium at _____________ Elementary. Mr. Jones, Leslie's father, is an elementary school PE teacher, so Saturday headed to his gym to play all those fun games we all used to play in our Fourth Grade PE classes, and apparently games have gotten better since I was that young.

I'd really love to explain these games to you in detail, but I don't really think I'd be able to possibly do it without visual aids. Star Wars is pretty much a game of Dodgeball, with the added bonus game of trying to hit a gigantic suspended beach ball - i.e. the Death Star - across a rope toward the other team's basketball hoop. Lock & Keys is a cross between Dodgeball and football, so pretty much the game is an endless volley of about thirty different shaped Nerf ball flying from one side to the other. Neither team ever won that game, which I guess is the beauty of these games. At the end of the day, anyone that wasn't out of breath was laughing hysterically.

On Sunday, every hopped aboard the Jones family boat, Island Joy, and we motored into Seattle Harbor to spend the day in the city. We strolled through Pike Place market, saw some fish flying through the air amidst the familiar smells of incense and patchouli oil. We snapped a few pictures of the Gum Wall beneath Pike's Place, which, if you've never seen or heard of it, is exactly what it sounds like. It's an old brick wall covered completely with gum of all shapes, sizes and colors. Cam and I had a contest to see who could stick their piece of gum higher on the wall. Cam won (c'mon he's like half a foot taller than me), but as you can see I definitely had the cooler picture. Thanks, Trey.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center before heading back to the boat for dinner. The Jones, affectionately known as Mojo & Jojo (for Momma Jones and John Jones), had been napping and reading books while we were the kids went out to play and we all a little jealous of them considering how sore we were from Saturday's session in the gym.

We headed home and ended our weekend with roasting s'mores by a campfire next to the Puget Sound. I know I'm forgetting to include some other events of the weekend. There was a homemade game of Jeopardy, failing to successfully navigate any of the roads upon arrival, playing cranium, hot-tubbing with too many people in the hot tub, digging for clams, eating the clams, the guys sleeping on the dining room floor and hitting heads on the chandelier. You know, those kinds of things, and a whole lot of laughter too.

Now, my car is heading south somewhere between Portland and Eugene, bellies fully of Original Tillamook Cheeseburgers from Burgerville. The rain is going absolutely haywire right now. It's blue skies and sunny right now, but I swear we just saw raindrops the size of golf balls no more than three minutes ago. I'm trying to keep my mind off of the massive amount of work I need to get done when I get home. This might be the longest four-day week of my life. I'll you know how it goes at the end of the week...if I make it that far.

Until then, Happy Memorial Day! Thank you soldiers, for courageous fighting for our nation and giving me one extra day on Bainbridge Island.