Marshall's metamorphosis

With three kids in their 20s and (eek) early 30s, Lori and I are at the age where we can take pride in the different paths they've taken to adulthood and the multitude of interests they've pursued along the way.

So it isn't much of a stretch to feel a certain pride in the accomplishments of our friends' children, too, as they hit various milestones on their life's journey. Such was the case Tuesday night when we saw Marshall Baker, one of Jordan's lifelong friends, in a live musical performance at the White Eagle Saloon.

He and his musical partner, Tony Hawes, played a half-hour set of original contemporary folk music under the moniker of Instant Tradition. They're on a tour of the Northwest that continues tomorrow night at Artichoke Music in Southeast Portland. Check out their bios and listen to their songs on their Facebook page.

We've known Marshall literally since he was in diapers, part of a play group that also included Jordan and led to a friendship with his parents, Rebecca and Greg, and little sister Clara. The two boys went to preschool together, joined (and survived) the Cub Scouts, attended each other's birthday parties and attended the same  neighborhood public schools, culminating with their high school graduation in 2005. They played together on sports teams and wrestled at Grant High School, during which time Marshall evolved from tall, scrawny kid to tall, muscular kid.

Jordan joined the Army, got married and lives off base near Fort Lewis in Washington state. Marshall went to Whitman College, got a degree in music composition, and moved to Lawrence, Kansas, to start making music. Marshall's always been scary smart -- the kid who could get straight As with little or no effort -- and a handful at times, but he's also been a talented musician, influenced by his fiddle-playing dad.

Todd Hawes and Marshall Baker: KJHK studios in Lawrence, Kansas

On Tuesday, he played the fiddle and mandolin and sang harmony vocals. At age 23, with his shoulder-length brown hair and baby face, blue denims and long-sleeved white shirt, he resembled a young Johnny Depp. He got called up by the next band to join them for a couple of songs on fiddle and the vocalist couldn't help but notice the fan support.

"You seem to be pretty popular, Marshall."
"Yeah, I grew up here."

Marshall came over between sets, gave us each a hug and signed two copies of his band's debut CD.

Instant Tradition. Pretty cool.

Album cover, photo: www.facebook.com/instanttradition

New homeowners!!

Jordan sans Jamie (who was waiting for us at their rented duplex)

On the way home from Orcas Island this past Sunday, we made a stop in Spanaway, Washington, an unincorporated suburb of Tacoma, to see Jamie and Jordan’s new home. That’s right -- their new home.

The Army has a homebuyer assistance program for its troops. Jamie and Jordan sat through a few classes, then went out with a real estate agent and looked at a dozen or more homes. They made an offer on one they liked -- a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, split-level house on a quiet cul-de-sac -- and they got it.

They figured that since they were receiving an off-base housing allowance as a married couple, there was no reason they shouldn’t think about investing it in a home. They made the offer in late May, just before Jordan started three weeks of field training.

While he was away, there was some back and forth following an inspection but Jamie handled all the negotiations and the seller agreed to pay for all repairs. They began moving into their new home little by little and by the time we passed through on Sunday, the 26th, they'd gotten most of their big items in there.

We gave them a Home Depot gift card so they could pick out a lawn mower. They'll need it, as the backyard has a terraced lawn that wraps around one side and out to the front. Jordan, the presumptive mower, will have to maneuver around five fruit trees, a greenhouse and a raised bed for gardening.

Once they decide where to board Jamie’s two horses, they'll be set. The move puts them much closer to the Army base at Fort Lewis as well as to Tacoma, with its expanded shopping and entertainment options.

As you can imagine, we’re very proud of them. Homeowners at age 23 (Jordan) and 26 (Jamie)! What a great start.

A father's appreciation

Nathan and Jordan / 2007

Four chapters into the book I'm reading, I was stopped in my tracks by this paragraph:

Lou puts his arm around Rolph. If he were an introspective man, he would have understood years ago that his son is the one person in the world with the power to soothe him. And that, while he expects Rolph to be like him, what he most enjoys in his son are the many ways he is different: quiet, reflective, attuned to the natural world and the pain of others.

 -- Jennifer Egan, "A Visit From The Goon Squad"

 

For me, it's beside the point that Lou is a twice-divorced jerk having a fling with a younger woman. Or that Rolph is an earnest 11-year-old boy, not quite at the cusp of adolescence, not yet fully aware of his father's character flaws.

No, the power of that paragraph lies in that it made me stop and ask: What about my own kids? How are they different from me? And what do I enjoy most about them?

With Father's Day nearly upon us, it's a good time to answer those questions.

Nathan is outgoing, comfortable in seemingly any kind of new social situation. I can still be a wallflower at times, but he often (and quite naturally) becomes the center of attention with his storytelling and killer sense of humor. It's been great to see him grow comfortable in his own skin.

Simone in Oaxaca, Mexico / 2006

Simone is self-confident, a trait that's rooted in her academic success and enhanced by working in the trenches with the disadvantaged: alternative high school students, teen parents, gay youth, immigrant kids and their parents. It's one thing to write about the poor and the overlooked, as I've done, and another to work with them directly, as she has. She walks the talk when it comes to social justice.

Jordan is independent-minded, someone who is unafraid to take the path less traveled by his peers, joining the Army at 21, getting married at 22. I enjoy solitary activities like running and swimming  but he takes it to another level, welcoming the mano-a-mano of wrestling and mixed martial arts. I guess you could say he's fearless when it comes to physical challenges.

These were the first things that popped into my head. A good followup question: Are these traits the products of nature or nurture?

Memorial Day 2011

Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta

As Americans prepare to observe Memorial Day, I imagine there will be plenty of people who don't give much thought to the meaning of the holiday.

How I wish I could sit them down in front of a TV or a computer and have them watch a "60 Minutes" special that aired tonight: "Honoring Our Soldiers"

The first segment profiled Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, a self-described "average" or "mediocre" soldier from Iowa who was awarded the Medal of Honor last November -- the nation's highest combat honor -- for his extreme bravery in a firefight with the Taliban in 2007 in Afghanistan's notoriously dangerous Korengal Valley.

The second segment took viewers to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where an Army captain and his troops at a small base are trying to hold their own against a relentless wave of insurgents, many of them foreign fighters who pour over the international border in one of the most hostile environments on the planet.

In both cases, you're left admiring the soldiers' professionalism and their absolute dedication to each other and their mission. You also can't help but plead for President Obama to pull the plug on our involvement there and bring the troops home. But for one night, those geopolitical considerations were secondary to Sgt. Giunta's story and what it depicts about the courage and heroism that spring up in the most ordinary of American servicemen.

Giunta was a teenager working as a "sandwich artist" at a Subway shop when he decided to enlist. Four years later, he ran directly into enemy fire at close range to drag a wounded sergeant to safety and then ran back a second time to kill a Taliban insurgent and prevent another wounded soldier from being taken captive.

For his actions, Giunta became the first living American soldier since Vietnam to receive the Medal of Honor. And yet he comes across as the most humble person you'd ever want to meet, insisting he had done nothing special and was, in fact, uncomfortable being singled out.

"This is only one moment," he said in the interview. "I don't think I did anything that anyone else I was with wouldn't have done. I was in a position to do it. That was what needed to be done. So that's what I did."

Of course, I thought of my son Jordan and his buddies. This weekend, they're away from base, in the midst of three weeks of field training designed to prepare them for deployment if and when it ever comes. I understand that Jordan wants to put his military training to use -- it's only natural to want to follow through and test yourself on the things you've practiced over and over. But as a father, I pray he never has to be put in harm's way.

If that day comes, I'm confident he'll serve honorably. For me, it's not that much of a stretch to see that Spec. Jordan Rede has a lot of the same qualities and values as Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta: Humility. Loyalty. Dedication to the team and the task at hand.

I'm equally confident that parents all over this country would say the same about their own son or daughter serving in today's volunteer Army.

Quick Takes for May

Keep trying to write short. Keep failing. Gonna try again.

-- How do you like your politics? Do you want your elected officials to work toward compromise? Or do you want them to hold fast to their principles, even if it means a lesser chance of accomplishing something for the common good? Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times has an interesting column, pointing out that American voters are increasingly pushing themselves to opposite poles and that's only encouraging our politicians to put ideology over problem-solving. I, for one, would rather have our elected officials in most cases working toward solutions that satisfy most, if not all.

-- Ever heard of the Q conference? It's an annual gathering of young Christians who are trying to find answers to faith-based questions in a post-Christian cultural climate. The conference was held in Portland in late April and thanks to my friend, Kristen, you can read a good account of the event on her blog. Now comes a followup by The Oregonian's religion writer, Nancy Haught, including a video clip featuring Q conference organizer Gabe Lyons' interview with two Portland participants --  Tom Krattenmaker, an author and contributor to USA Today, and Kevin Palau, who runs the Luis Palau Association founded by his evangelist father and is a big force behind the Season of Service that puts church volunteers to work on public service projects.

Pfc. Lori

-- Has the Army relaxed its recruiting standards? Not exactly. When Jordan came down to visit last weekend, we saw the gear he carries in his car -- helmet, vest, gas mask, boots. Lori slipped on the helmet to see how much it weighed (a lot!) and I snapped a quick photo. Next thing you know, she'll be heading over to the Recruiting Office to enlist.

Illustration by Kevin Kreneck, Tribune Media Services

Lori and the three amigos

Jordan, Lori & Nathan

A year ago, Lori and I went over to Simone and Kyndall's place in North Portland to celebrate Mother's Day with a backyard brunch on a warm, sunny day. Nathan joined us but Jordan and Jamie weren't able to, as they were stationed in El Paso then.

Today it was a different lineup, but one that I think we'll remember for a long time: Lori, our two sons and me. The three amigos.

I'd invited Nathan and his girlfriend over to our place for brunch but she understandably declined in order to spend time with her mom, who also lives in the area. Then, on Friday we got confirmation that Jordan was going to be able to drive down from Olympia, where he and Jamie now live, although she was going to have to miss the gathering in order to work Sunday (today).

Jordan arrived in time Saturday for us to walk to dinner for one of his favorite meals: a chicken burrito from Chipotle. (What can I say? The guy knows what he likes.) He went out that night to see Nathan at Holocene, the night club where he works the door and sometimes DJs, so it was good they had Bro Time, considering how seldom they're able to see each other.

Around noon we sat down to a delicious brunch: spinach/sun-dried tomato frittata; wild mushroom mix with butter lettuce and pine nuts; mixed greens with orange wedges and a citrus dressing.

On a day when we honor the women who give us life and raise us, it was wonderful to see Lori positively beaming. We absolutely missed Simone and Kyndall (though we did talk to our daughter this morning), as well as Sara and Jamie. But seeing a mom with her two sons was pretty special. Throw in the ol' hubby and there was a lot of testosterone at the table. And a burp or two.

Nathan, George & Jordan

Lori and I always marvel at how wildly different our three children are. (And, come to think of it, how wildly different their significant others are from each other, too. But I suppose that makes sense.

All I know is that as a husband and father, nothing makes me happier than seeing my wife bask in the love and attention of our children. As the saying goes, she'd take a bullet for any of them.

Cinco de Mayo 2011

The ferris wheel and other rides are up and ready for the crowds that will celebrate Cinco de Mayo today and through the weekend at Waterfront Park.

The beer commercials on TV and print are advertising specials to draw in customers for their drink-a-thons.

And here I am, once again thinking of how this day isn't about a hijacked Mexican holiday for me. Rather, it's a celebration of the day when Jordan, our youngest son, came into our lives when we adopted him on May 5, 1988, when he was a little over four months old.

I scrolled back through the archives and found what I wrote about him and this day two years ago. Don't think I can say it any better than this, so here's an encore: "Another reason to celebrate Cinco de Mayo"

Since then, Jordan Emilio has joined the Army, gotten engaged and married, been assigned to Fort Bliss in El Paso and gotten a transfer to Joint Base McChord-Lewis near Olympia, Wash., where he's stationed now, about 100 miles north of us.

The photo? Taken at Lost Creek in November 2009, the day he married Jamie outside Medford, Oregon.

A wiffle ball and Easter dinner

Huh? What possible connection could there be between a perforated, hard-plastic white ball and a Christian holy day?

In my mind, it comes down to reminiscing about my youngest son Saturday and then having a late dinner with him on Sunday.

After work Saturday, Lori suggested we take a walk to the neighborhood park so Otto could run around with other dogs. As we were getting ready to leave, I spotted a wiffle ball in the grass. I tossed it to Lori. She caught it and tossed it back. Just like that, we had an impromptu game of catch. A few throws into the game, I tossed one straight up in the air, mimicking a pop fly.

"Know what this reminds me of?" I said. "When Jordan was little, we'd play catch on the front lawn and  he used to love it when I'd throw it as high as I could. He'd settle under it and catch it nearly every time."

Easter came the next day. Lori and I had plans to go to an early dinner by ourselves. We canceled our reservations, however, when we learned that Jordan and Jamie were going to be passing through Portland a little earlier than anticipated. They'd gone down to southern Oregon to visit with Jamie's family and were headed back to their home in Olympia.

They were set on driving through so Jamie could report to work on time Monday morning, but they arrived in Portland with enough time to join us for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. So, for a couple of hours we had a chance to catch up on what's new in their lives since we last saw Jordan at year's end. Topics: military life, household chores, tattoos, pets, parents, siblings and much more.

The "South Park" boys: Kyle, Kenny, Cartman and Stan

I'll spare the details but share one thing that made us laugh. Among the soldiers in his unit, Jordan is nicknamed "Hippie" -- which, he said, tells you how conservative the rest of them are. How ironic! In our liberal family, Jordan's views on politics and social issues are the most moderate, occasionally veering toward right of center. And as a regular watcher of "South Park," he used to howl at the caricatures of clueless hippies portrayed on that irreverent television show.

Looking at him across the table, with his high-and-tight military haircut and taut biceps, I felt a sense of pride at seeing how well he and Jamie are doing as a young married couple. But Jordan a hippie? No way.

The Afghan War: Up close and personal

In my Best of 2010 list, there was one item conspicuously missing: Sebastian Junger's gripping book, "WAR: As Soldiers Really Live It."

My friend Colleen gave me the book last summer and I read it voraciously. While I've read outstanding pieces of reporting about the Afghan War in The New York Times and Esquire by C.J. Chivers, this was by far the best treatment I've seen in book form. In fact, the movie "Restrepo" -- co-directed by Junger with photographer Tim Hetherington -- was based on this book. It played in Portland movie theaters for just a few weeks, but I missed it.  Had I seen it, I imagine the book and film would have landed on my Best of 2010 list. You can bet I'll be ordering it soon on Netflix.

So what was so good about the book?
-- The reporting: It's one thing to debate U.S. policy objectives, as so many pundits do, but another entirely to devote yourself to immersion reporting on the front lines. Starting in the spring of 2007, Junger and Hetherington spent 15 months with a single platoon at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. The proximity to those troops resulted in first-hand observations and descriptions of the soldiers' thoughts, fears and actions, both risky and heroic. It's harrowing stuff, reading about the sound of gunfire and the physics of a single bullet's speed and lethality, let alone the hidden dangers of roadside bombs and the punishing climate and mountainous terrain of the Korengal Valley.

Misha Pemble-Belkin, left

-- The writing: Junger, the author of "The Perfect Storm," does a great job describing the hostile environment of Afghanistan, the brotherhood among the troops, and their genuine respect for the enemy (impoverished Taliban fighters who were outnumbered and under-resourced yet gave their American foes all they could handle in a firefight). He also tells the stories of a few individuals, including Oregon's Misha Pemble-Belkin, to paint the larger picture of a platoon made up of unique personalities and backgrounds.

It was a weird irony of the war that once you were here -- or your son was -- the politics of the whole thing became completely irrelevant until very conservative families and very liberal ones -- there were some -- saw almost completely eye to eye. Misha Pemble-Belkin's father was a labor organizer who had protested every American war of the past forty years, yet he and his wife were wildly proud of their son.

Pemble-Belkin wasn't allowed to have toy guns when he was young, even squirt guns, so he and his brother picked up crooked sticks and pretended to shoot those instead. The men of Second Platoon shortened Pemble-Belkin's name to "PB," which inevitably became "Peanut Butter" and then just "Butters."

He spoke slowly and very softly, particularly on the platoon radio, and he played guitar and drew pictures of the valley on a sketch pad. He claimed it was the only thing he knew how to draw. Butters could easily have been an art major in college except that he was a paratrooper in the Korengal Valley. He joined the Army after spending a year living in his car, snowboarding.

-- The insight: Junger is a great conduit for the thoughts and motivations that keep these young men on task, whether coping with the boredom and oppressive heat of a summer day or the adrenalin-fueled sensation of coming under attack from an unseen enemy. In one passage, he overhears one soldier complain to his sergeant about a man in another squad falling out during an uphill climb after a 20-hour operation.

The idea that you're not allowed to experience something as human as exhaustion is outrageous anywhere but in combat. Good leaders know that exhaustion is partly a state of mind, though, and that the men who succumb to it have on some level decided to put themselves above everyone else. If you're not prepared to walk for someone you're certainly not prepared to die for them, and that goes to the heart of whether you should even be in the platoon.

Toward the end of the book, Junger writes about war's "all-embracing fog of uncertainty" and how it binds combat troops.

Combat fog obscures your fate -- obscures when and where you might die -- and from that unknown is born a desperate bond between the men. That bond is the core experience of combat and the only thing you can absolutely count on. The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another's lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time.

The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly. What the Army sociologists, with their clipboards and their questions and their endless meta-analyses, slowly came to understand was that courage was love. In war, neither could exist without the other, and that in a sense they were just different ways of saying the same thing.

I don't remember dog-earing as many pages in a book as I did this one. And as I plowed through it, my youngest son, Jordan, was ever-present in my mind. He doesn't talk much about the harshness of training exercises or the camaraderie amongst the troops, nor do I push him to reveal what he'd prefer to keep to himself -- although he and I did talk about the book at one point last year. Still, Junger's book -- like Chivers' newspaper and magazine articles -- added to my understanding of the realities that Jordan might someday face if he is deployed.

He's training with a Stryker Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and possibly could be deployed sometime in 2012. He hopes to go so he can finally put into practice all that he's learned to do. We get that -- he wants to perform the job he's trained to do. But as parents, Lori and I of course hope that day will never come. With the U.S. presence there pretty much assured until 2014, we'll have to see how things unfold.

Photograph by Tim Hetherington

Jordan at 23

Jordan and Jamie at the 2009 Rede Reunion in Portland

In the next hour or so I expect to hear the front doorbell ring and there, standing on the porch will be my youngest son and his wife.

As hard as it was for me to come to terms with being 58, it won't be a big deal to have Jordan turn 23. The number seems to fit him. Since getting married in November 2009, he's seen a lot and done a lot, thanks to the military, and done a lot of maturing, thanks to his sweet bride, Jamie.

After they got married, they moved to El Paso and the ironically named Fort Bliss, where life was anything but. Jordan went on training manuevers in the desert mountains north of El Paso and, to the west, the barren terrain of New Mexico. He tried out for the Special Forces (Army Rangers)  in North Carolina and then, earlier this year, he got transferred to Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Olympia, Washington, about 100 miles north of us.

It doesn't surprise me that Jordan is able to take all the physical training and tedium of the military in stride. He's always loved physical activity and challenges, whether it's skateboarding or wrestling, snowboarding or camping, and he's generally a patient person, although, I'm sure, even he has his limits when asked to inventory the same items he and his fellow grunts accounted for the day before.

Most of all, it seems he has settled nicely into the role of a young husband who's loving toward and supportive of his wife.

It's fun to think back on his different phases and interests, such as ... When he dyed his hair blond and did all kinds of skateboarding tricks in middle school. ... When he took up break dancing, then progressed to mixed martial arts. ... When he lived alone for a few weeks on our Orcas Island cabin, subsisting on part-time summer jobs helping out on a local farm and working in a restaurant kitchen.

Killer Burger baskets

As he's grown older, it's nice to see the bond he has with Nathan and Simone grow ever stronger. I think there is mutual aspect amongst the three of them, who each bring different talents and personalities to the table. They've taken him under their wing in certain ways but there's no doubt that he's flying on his own now: A married man, serving in the all-volunteer Army, and training to be part of a Stryker Brigade at the same time that he remains a kid at heart, laughing out loud at "Elf," guzzling root beer and cuddling his orange-and-white kitten, Mr. Biggs.

If all goes according to plan, we'll take him out to dinner at Killer Burger -- his first time there -- and then come back to tear into his favorite dessert, a chocolate wafer cake with layers of whipped cream.

Becca's milestone

Becca, left, and friend Cate

It's a good feeling when you realize there are some folks you've known for so long that you take pride in the accomplishments of their kids just as you would your own. And so it was that we went over to the home of our friends, Eric and Sue, on Saturday night to join in celebrating their daughter Rebecca's college graduation.

We've known Becca since she was in diapers. She is just days younger than our son Jordan, and both will celebrate their 23rd birthday in the next couple of weeks. I have fond memories of seeing the two of them toddling around the house, horsing around on Jordan's bunk bed, laughing at TV shows and, as they grew into teenagers, solidifying their friendship as if they were sister and brother. Since our families lived two blocks away, it was pretty normal for one to visit the other and vice versa.

Becca started out at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., then transferred to Portland State, where she finished her studies this month and got her degree in anthropology. She's working as a part-time kindergarten classroom assistant at the same elementary school where her mom teaches, and she hopes to land something soon in the area of marketing.

Scott's dog, Speedy

With two older brothers, Scott and Steve, one might imagine the little sister could get overshadowed. Not Becca. She's got a big personality -- outgoing and energetic -- and curly blonde hair that would stand out anywhere. She wound up serving as a "groomsman" at Steve's wedding six months ago and has been there for Scott, a captain in the Air Force, since his return from Afghanistan earlier this year.

As we left our friends' house, we congratulated Eric and Sue on a job well done: Three adult children, all with college degrees, all in good health and all living within three hours of Portland. We've seen each of them grow up, along with our similarly aged kids, and we share in the pride of seeing Becca join the ranks of those with a bachelor's degree.

Short Stuff, Part 2

I began the month attempting to be succinct. I'll end it trying to be brief with a humorous edition of "Short Stuff."

 -- Santa pays an early visit. Our son Jordan and his wife Jamie stayed with us over the long holiday weekend. After we said our goodbyes Saturday, we went back inside to the garage and discovered Jordan had been a little too efficient in packing up for the drive back home to Olympia. He took the snowboard and a sackful of winter clothing that we'd been storing for him, but he also unwittingly took another bagful of Christmas presents that Lori had set aside. Who knew Santa lived in Olympia? :)

-- Fall leaves bring a fall. Over the years, I've had my share of mishaps when running on city streets and in nearby parks -- and it never fails to amuse my family. I'll trip over a curb, skin my knees and come home with blood running into my socks or slip on a muddy trail and come home looking like I wrestled Sasquatch. On Friday, I was four blocks from home and running in the street when I suddenly went sprawling headfirst, arms extended like a diver. A thick coat of leaves had totally covered up a speed bump. D'oh. I bounced up, like Ichiro Suzuki stealing second base, and didn't miss a beat.

-- For sale by owner. Complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 45 volumes. Excellent condition. No longer needed, got married, wife knows everything. *

* Thanks to The Edge, The Oregonian's humor column.

Settling in at Lacey

Nearly a month ago we stopped in to visit Jamie and Jordan at their duplex outside Lacey, Wash. Last weekend, they returned the favor. Though they only stayed long enough to grab a quick meal from Chiptole -- their favorite take-out place -- they had Jamie's parents with them and her two horses in a trailer they were hauling up to their new home.

It's always nice to visit with her parents, Jeff and Linda. They are so down-to-earth, unpretentious people. They included Jamie and Jordan in an annual rafting trip they do with extended family on the Rogue River before hitting the road with them to bring the horses up from southern Oregon. One of the animals is Jamie's long-time favorite, Blazer. The other is a younger horse that needs to be broken before they can ride it. Evidently, the horse trainer up there is doing a good job with the horse and expects they will be able to ride it in a matter of weeks.

I don't have a photo of either horse, but I do have this one from when we visited the newlyweds. We got a tour of the property that included a stroll through the stalls and a walk in the woods behind their duplex. I'm glad things worked out for them. It's got to be a wonderful respite from the urbanized areas around them -- especially now that Jordan has Comcast internet service. They can be in the country but still be within minutes of the city.

It's good to have them back in the Northwest, two hours -- instead of two time zones -- away.

Relaxing on the river

It's one thing to live in a place that calls itself River City and view the water from a distance, as you're crossing a bridge or running along a multiple-use path. It's another thing to actually get out on the river and experience the city from the inside out. At least, that's how it felt this past weekend when we joined Jordan and Jamie on a 2 1/2-hour cruise on the Willamette.

For a wedding gift last fall, someone gave them a "romance package" aboard the Portland Spirit, a 150-foot yacht with three public decks that sails from downtown Portland to Lake Oswego and back. Inexplicably, that same party gave us -- as the long-suffering parents, no doubt -- a certificate for a free cruise, too.

So, with Jamie and Jordan in town for the weekend, it was nice to take advantage of a hot summer night and cool off on the water. We sat down to a delicious meal in the galley -- blackened salmon, rack of lamb, beef medallions -- then went upstairs to enjoy the fresh air for the second half of the cruise.

And what did we see? A little of everything:

• Ostentatious mini-mansions in Dunthorpe and Lake Oswego, with way more house than any one family could reasonably occupy.
• Houseboats, small marine craft and a lone water skier.
• The west side of Ross Island, home to beaver, bald eagles and 50 pairs of great blue herons, the city's official bird. (We didn't see the east side, which has been ravaged by a sand and gravel operation.)
• Oaks Park, an amusement park with carnival rides and an old-fashioned wooden roller skating rink.
• Milwaukie's sewage treatment plant, quite possibly the worst land-use planning decision ever made. (Whose bright idea was it to put it next to the Willamette instead of developing the riverbank for a public park?)
• The familiar city skyline, with its handful of tall buildings -- nothing like the towering edifices in most cities that make you feel insignificant.
• And one randy woman on a grassy picnic area who (from a distance I guessed to be in her 50s) decided to moon everyone on the boat.

It was a nice treat to see so many familiar landmarks from a different vantage point. Now, if someone would just give us some more certificates, we'd be happy to check out the brunch and Friday getaway cruises, along with the Columbia River Sternwheeler that goes out to Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods.

Photograph: Portland Spirit Co.

On the road again

No, not me. This time, it's the boys.

Sometime today, Nathan and six friends will head up I-5 and ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island for a weekend stay, returning Tuesday. It's a quick getaway, one that I know will replenish the spirit with the slower rhythm of island life.

At the same time, Jordan and wife Jamie will also head up I-5 from the Medford area to come and spend a night with us in Portland. They left El Paso on Tuesday, saying goodbye to the desert heat and dreary landscape of Southwest Texas in order to move themselves to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Olympia, Wash. They're eager to be back in the Northwest and settle into their new home, a duplex on a horse ranch near Lacey.

Unfortunately, the brothers will miss each other this weekend -- and it's a shame Jordan and Jamie also just missed saying goodbye to Simone before she moved to Pittsburgh earlier this week. But the nice thing is there will be plenty of opportunities for us and Nathan to see the newlyweds now that they're within easy driving distance.

I hope there won't be any snags at work today because I'd like to get home earlier than usual to see Jordan and Jamie. Neither one has even seen, let alone set foot in, our new home and I know they will be in for a shock. When Jordan enlisted in the Army last spring, we were still in the three-bedroom home in Grant Park. It's been a little over seven months since we've been in the Irvington condo.

Above: Nathan was best man at Jordan's wedding in November.

Coming home

For several weeks now, I've refrained from writing about the most unexpected but most pleasing development involving our soldier boy, Jordan, and his wife Jamie.

They're coming home! To the Northwest, that is. Jordan's request for a transfer was approved and he's being reassigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Olympia, Washington. We'll see them sometime later this month as they pass through en route to their new home just outside Lacey, which lies southwest of Fort Lewis, the Army base that recently was consolidated with McChord Air Force Base.

We first heard of the possibility of this happening in May, but knew we needed to keep quiet until the Army went through all its processes and gave Jordan the final OK. The green light came inJune and Jordan recently went through the formality of a re-enlistment ceremony with the 1st Squadron, 13th Cavalry (above). Now, here it is the Fourth of July, the most patriotic of holidays, when I finally sit down to share the news.

Why the move?

Two reasons: Our Northwest-born and bred kids were miserable in the relentless sun and heat of El Paso. They longed for trees, green hills and, yes, overcast skies and rain. Also, Jordan is eager to get overseas. Transferring to Lewis-McChord will speed up the timetable because Fort Lewis has been a staging area for soldiers going abroad since 1945.

What's next?

The latest word is that Jordan and Jamie will leave Fort Bliss behind on or about July 13. They'll visit with Jamie's parents in southern Oregon, then come up to see us, no doubt driving a U-Haul truck and towing their car. We haven't seen them since we exchanged goodbyes the day after their honeymoon in late November.

They'll continue north to get settled in their new place --a duplex on a horse ranch that we checked out for them (on our return trip from Orcas) after Jamie found it online. It's a 75-acre spread and the landlord, an energetic widow who rents out space to about two dozen horse owners, seems like a nice person. If all works out as planned, Jamie can bring up two of her horses from her parents' ranch.

Jordan is supposed to report to duty sometime in early August, so they should have ample time to move in and get acclimated. He will be part of a Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the light and mobile units that have been used in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the soonest Jordan could deploy would be the fall of 2011. By then, let's hope the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has begun.

Once the newlyweds are in place, they'll be just two hours and 100 miles away, instead of two time zones and 1,600 miles. We're hoping they can get away to our cabin before Jordan starts his new job. Even if they can't, maybe they can join us for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the island.

Whatever works out is fine by me. Lori and I are just so happy that we'll soon have our youngest son and daughter-in-law back in this corner of the country. Happy Fourth!

Welcome home, troops

When I went to the front porch this morning to pick up The Oregonian, my eyes went to a photo of U.S. flags and cheering people (below) and the headline, "Oregon embraces returning soldiers." I was struck by two things -- not just the sense of pride I felt as an Oregonian to see residents lining the streets to welcome home the first wave of National Guardsmen who'd served in Iraq during the past year but my own warm feelings.

There was a time in the late '60s and '70s, when soldiers returning from Vietnam -- and that hellhole of a losing endeavor -- were routinely vilified as "baby-killers" and made out to be the villains of that colossal misadventure in U.S. foreign policy.

With the passage of time, we now recognize that was shameful behavior on the part of anti-war activists, who misdirected their anger at the grunts instead of the generals.

Forty years later, it's a whole different scene. Whether people support U.S. policy in the Middle East or not, I think they are better able to separate the roles of the men and women who volunteer for military service -- whether as regular service members or as part of the Guard -- from the civilian and military higher-ups who make the decisions that put them in harm's way as part of our geopolitical commitments.

In this case, 2,700 Oregonians in the National Guard were assigned to serve in various support roles in Iraq in the state's largest-ever deployment of Guard troops.

My colleagues at The Oregonian -- reporter Julie Sullivan and photographers Jamie Francis and Torsten Kjellstrand -- teamed up to present a terrific story, photos and video documenting the soldiers' journey from Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Wash., to their families and communities in such places as Bend, Mill City, Detroit and Imnaha.

It was a story about their return to families that have endured their 10-month absence. In some cases, fathers have missed the birth of a son or daughter.

Coincidentally, we spoke with Jordan yesterday just to get an update. He was back home in El Paso, at Fort Bliss, after a couple weeks of training in New Mexico, and enjoying a chill weekend. It's encouraging to hear him speak of future goals, including using the G.I. Bill to get his college degree and possibly becoming an ROTC recruiting officer or attending Officer Candidate School.

We're still not eager to see him deployed but at least the date, for him, has been pushed back to 2012. We understand, though, that he does want that experience and that his military contract calls for him to do so. If he has to re-enlist to go overseas, he'll do it. If and when that happens, he'll know we support him.

Photos by Jamie Francis, The Oregonian. Above: Maj. Micah Goettl greets his daughters for the first time in months after serving in Iraq. Below: Hundreds of people lined the streets in Bend to greet National Guard troops returning home from Iraq.

Julie Sullivan's story: "Oregon embraces returning soldiers"

Finally...the wedding photos

What great timing that yesterday's mail brought us the long-awaited DVD of photos from Jordan and Jamie's wedding, courtesy of Jeff and Linda Taylor, Jamie's parents. Here are just a few from that memorable day, Nov. 22, 2009. And what better day to post them than Valentine's Day 2010...


On the deck overlooking Lost Creek, outside Medford.


Jamie with bridesmaids Kristen and Grisel.


Best man Nathan with the groom.


Simone and Lori.



Newly married....

Back to normal in Texas

Our hopes were raised earlier this month when Jordan left for North Carolina and the first phase of what he hoped would land him a spot in the advanced training program for the U.S. Army's Special Forces.

Alas, he didn't make it. In short, it was the loss of certain equipment he needed to complete a field exercise rather than the punishing physical challenges that doomed his chances. It's too complicated to explain here, but suffice to say that any points lost early on are difficult to make up later -- and then there is no guarantee that just completing the three-week course gets you in.

We're awfully proud of him, though. Without exception, everyone who has learned that he was even trying to get in has expressed admiration for his resolve and ambition. Typically, it takes multiple attempts to qualify for the training so there's no shame in not making the cut the first time. A couple of Army guys we know say that to make it on your first try is the equivalent of landing on the the U.S. Olympic Team the first time you try. Jordan assures us he'll give it another go.

In the meantime, Lori returned late Monday from a whirlwind weekend trip to visit Jamie. They had a great time exploring El Paso (if you're a Portlander, think 82nd Avenue repeated every mile or so) together and getting caught up with each other. Lori says they found a nice apartment off base and Jamie is making friends and getting involved in different groups, so that's good to hear.

Lori returned with a new pair of cowboy boots and that should come as no surprise to those of you who know her love of footwear. "It was a great deal," she told me. "A discount I couldn't pass up."

Reminds me of the postcard she has on the refrigerator door up at the cabin" "If the boot fits, wear it!" **

** I stand corrected. "If the boot fits, buy it in every color!"

A boy and his dog

Scrolling through my photo archive the other day, I came across this picture of Jordan and Max. Two words: fond memories.

It was taken in 2008, I think, on one of our trips to Orcas Island. If you click on the photo to get a full-size image, you'll see signage in the background that makes it clear we were on board the ferry that crosses from Anacortes to Eastsound.

Jordan would typically sit in the back seat while Lori and I switched off as driver and front-seat passenger. And Max, rest his soul, would plop his big old head on the lowered head rest between the seats.

Max's last trip to the island was March 2009 ("Losing Max"). Thinking about it now, I guess Jordan's last visit to the cabin was the previous summer or fall. I know he misses the island vibe as much as we do.

If all goes as planned, Lori and I will head up there sometime in March.