Bill and I are in Ashland this week on vacation. &nbsp;We&#039;ve been coming to Ashland to see the plays for the past twenty-five years. &nbsp;In the interim, we&#039;ve moved several times; bought and remodeled and sold several houses; had occasional health issues; had kids grow up, leave home, go on with their own lives, but Ashland has been a constant in ours.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally, while Bill was still working &quot;outside the home,&quot; we&#039;d come down on the weekend and see six plays in three days. &nbsp;That&#039;s two plays a day. &nbsp;Then, gradually we got older and smarter. &nbsp;Now we come for a week. &nbsp;We see one play a day--and see six plays during the week. &nbsp;We used to try to play eighteen holes of golf a day. &nbsp;See &quot;older and smarter&quot; comment above. &nbsp;Now we play nine. &nbsp;Usually On Monday of this week, with no play in the evening, we made arrangements to play eighteen. &nbsp;At the end of nine, however, with the temperature in the high nineties, we asked for a &quot;sun check.&quot; &nbsp;A &quot;sun check&quot; is the opposite of a &quot;rain check, and they let us come back on Tuesday to play our &quot;second nine.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So the pacing this year is good. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We&#039;re having Rick Steves style picnics each day. &nbsp;Those are fun. &nbsp;Once was on the terrace at Weisenger&#039;s Winery south of town and the other was in the garden here at the Ashland Springs Hotel (formerly the Mark Anthony.) &nbsp;Bread, cheese, sliced ham, fresh fruit, and good conversation. &nbsp;What could be better than that?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally Bill and I came to Ashland by ourselves. &nbsp;Over the years people have joined us for a while and then dropped out. &nbsp;Now we have six &quot;regulars&quot; but we added a new couple for three nights at the beginning of this week&#039;s stay. &nbsp;They were totally unaware of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (It&#039;s not ALL Shakespeare, by the way!) and they were thrilled with the caliber of performances they were able to see. &nbsp;As I&#039;m writing this, we&#039;ve only seen two plays. &nbsp;I wasn&#039;t overwhelmed by either of those, but we always know there will be at least one walking-away winner. &nbsp;Sometimes it&#039;s a good day to save the best for last.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Sunday we&#039;ll hie ourselves over to the Blue Giraffe Spa for our Spa Day. &nbsp;We&#039;ll be manicured and pedicured and cut and curled and massaged. &nbsp;That&#039;s always a high point of the week, but it also means the week is coming to an end.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the way down, we took an extra day and made a detour to Cannon Beach where we surprised our grandson and his mommy at their vacation hotel. &nbsp;Being able to see a carefree five.eight year-old frolicking on the beach at sunset with his white faced golden retriever pal is one of those experiences we&#039;ll always treasure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only drawback to this whole trip is a bad case of separation anxiety--from Bella, our rescued dachshund. &nbsp;When Boney, our now deceased half German shepherd/half Irish wolfhound suffered from separation anxiety, he ate a rubber tree plant (frond by frond) a checkbook, and a pair of RayBan sunglasses. &nbsp;We&#039;ve been dealing with separation anxiety by eating desserts. &nbsp;The Ashland Springs is a &quot;pet friendly&quot; hotel, and Bella has stayed here before, but we couldn&#039;t very well leave her alone in the room while we went to play golf and see plays. &nbsp;So Bella is spending some quality time at Woodinville&#039;s Academy for Canine Behavior, doing what they call Board, Train, and Spoil. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;m sure she&#039;ll be glad to see us when we get home, and I&#039;m sure the reverse will also be true.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We&#039;ll be more than ready to see her!&lt;br /&gt;