On Wednesday morning we met up with Alicia and her kids, Payton and Kinsley, at a berry farm and picked Cojo 
raspberries. We were a couple weeks too late for strawberries, but these beauties were just ripening and they were large and easy to pick. The farm has a policy that you can eat as many as you want while you pick, so we all filled up on delicious, sweet, juicy berries while still managing to get a massive amount into our bowls and boxes. 
I know it wasn’t a competition, but I found myself working hard to fill that 8 pint flat Alice had given me. When I got it filled, it was really hard to stop picking. I just kept seeing more big berries that I didn’t want to leave behind.
We went back to Alice’s to wash, dry and freeze them so we could pack them on dry ice to bring them home. Then we were off to Alicia’s for a boat ride and dinner. On the way, we stopped at an outlet mall to see if the goods are any different in Oregon than they are in Arizona. (They aren’t, and I didn’t buy anything.)
Alicia and her family live about 500 yards from the Willamette River, and have access to a friend’s boat docked there. So we took a nice long boat ride, pulling the kids on skis and everyone on the tube. Everyone, that is, except me. It’s not that I was afraid, or didn’t want to go, I just didn’t “want” to go and decided to let those who did have the rides. Here’s a video of Alice, Alicia and Kinsley (three generations) getting a ride.
Later, Keith grilled hamburgers and we had a picnic in their
back yard. Alicia had made a cream cheese pie and we enjoyed it … oh did we enjoy it! I was ready to pop. I’ll post the recipe on my recipe page.