Back from Ashland

After talking with Mort and the Baron of Darkwing Manor in Phoenix, OR at FrightFest Northwest this July we decided to come to Ashland and stay with them and work on a few halloween effects and see a few plays and drink some wine over the Labor day weekend.

We had a great time in Ashland this past weekend. We drove down on Thursday afternoon and got to the Darkwing Manor B&B (ok not a real B&B but home to our halloween friends the Baron and Baroness Tim and Tina Reuwsaat) at dinner time. They treated us to Tamales from a local store. We rushed off to see Gem of the Ocean at OSF and afterwards snuck back to their place to crash from a long day of driving.

We got up Friday and had no plans. Turned out Tina (Mort) went to work but Tim only worked until 10ish. Tina had left us some apple coffee cake for breakfast. Since Tim was home we filmed him doing his speech. Latter Missy came over with her Ghost costume and we filmed her too. I created a couple of videos on my laptop and after some technical difficulties we created 2 DVD's. We went to the Black Sheep Pub and met Jason and Becky for drinks that evening. We snuck back to their place late again.

Saturday morning Tim made cornmeal pancakes. We went to Pascal Winery with Jason and Becky and met Linda and David there. We did some tasting, bought some wine, and hung out on the patio with a bottle. Everyone went to a play but we stopped at the store to pick up cheese, bread etc and went back to Darkwing to work on video editing. Turns out Mort didn't like Tim's speech so we re-taped it and created a newer DVD. We had Jason, Becky, Linda, and David over and we all hung out on the patio and had wine and food until late. Mort baked a duch apple pie (my favorite and one of the best I have ever eaten). Becky was determined to stay up till 3am but at midnight all the wine she had thought otherwise and it was off to the motel with her.

Sunday Tim made scrambled eggs with cheese and I even ate some leftover apple pie. We went to Wiesingers Winery and did a bit more tasting (hair of the dog as they say). We bought a bottle and had some snacks on the deck. We all went into town and we saw Distracted (a play about dealing with a child with AHDD and how to treat him). After the play we hung around town and then went to dinner at the local brewery where Tim and Tina joined us. We all went to Taming of the Shrew in the outdoor theater and had a great time. We went out for drinks later and Jason and Becky stayed until they closed with us. We snuck back to Darkwing pretty late.

Monday we slept in a bit. We had an Egg dish that Mort made with some fresh berries. Jason and Becky came over to get a tour of the Morguetorium and then we went to Jacksonville for lunch and to shop around. We headed back to Darkwing to pack our things and drive home. We ended up getting back around 9pm. Chris took tuesday off so we could catch up on stuff at home.

What a trip. 3 plays, 5 days, 2 Halloween video effects, 10 people, 12 bottles of wine (ok maybe more?). It was a blast. And to think we weren't even going to return to Ashland in September this year.