Graduation & Road Trip Part I

Well I am home now from the trip to our son's college graduation and the road trip that followed. Graduation was on Sunday May 14th in Salem Oregon at Willamette University. We drove to Salem on the Saturday before and helped him move out of his apartment. His sister had already arrived from Washington DC and was helping him clean up his kitchen.There was a lot that needed to be done! My sister then arrived from Portland to help. His apartment was on the 5th floor.... yes 5th floor with no elevator. With everyone's help we got the place cleaned out and went out to eat at the Outback Steak House in Salem. We then went to our hotel room and had a little party. I gave our son an antique pocket watch that I received from my father and he had received from his father back several generations.I believe it had come over from Norway and was owned by my great grandfather. On Sunday we had a brunch together and then went to the graduation ceremony. Willamette set up a large tent for commencement as they call it. The graduates were led into the tent by a bag pipe band with Old Glory flying and it was a very nice ceremony. Following graduation we all went to Newport Bay for dinner. Monday morning my son and I said goodbye to his mother who was driving her car back to Medford with most of his apartment contents and our daughter who had a red eye flight out of Portland for Washington DC. We then headed out for our roadtrip to visit Graduate Schools. It was nice for all of us to be back together as a family again. I appreciate the fact his sister and aunt could be there for this big event in our son's life. Willamette University is a good school and I think he enjoyed his time there and it allowed him to grow and blossom there.