I wish you guys had never come.......

My father used to say this at the end of every visit.  It was his way of saying that it would be so hard to see us leave.

We have had that experience twice this year.

This weekend we had our fifth annual camping trip to Lincoln Rock State Park with Jules, Jessica, Ian and Adam.  The reason for the trip is that Jules, Vicky, and I (and on one occasion one of Jules' and our friend) do the Apple Century Bike Ride.

This ride is one of our four or five favorites.  Of course, the main ride of the year is the STP (Seattle to Portland, 210 miles).  Our other favorites are the Inland Empire Ride (with Jules) and our yearly Century ride (with Jules), and the 40 mile ride around San Juan Island with a stop at Roche Harbor.

The Apple Century is lovely.......and hilly.  It begins in Wenatchee, WA, and goes several miles north of Leavenworth, WA.  Along the way you travel through apple orchards with beautiful views of the valleys and the Cascade Mountains.  This year Jules did the entire century (100 miles), and we did 80 miles.

.........and need I mention that he beat us to the finish line by at least 30 minutes even though he rode 20 more miles?  It's because he's fast and we're slow, a dynamite combination.  Here he is, on Deadman Hill, when he caught up to us and passed us (and, yes, there really is a steep steep hill called "Deadman Hill").

Here we are at the half-way point of our 80 miles:

Some shots along the way:

Along the way Vicky spotted a beautiful elk high on a hill.  Several of us stopped to look at it.

And we looked and looked, and it didn't move....and didn't move.....and didn't move.

Finally, we all came to the realization that it was a statue.  It was very realistic.  Someone has a terrific sense of humor.

We did this ride on Vicky's birthday.  So, Jessica, Jules, Ian and Adam had a party for her upon our return.  Sweet, huh?

Vicky trying to blow out the candles on her cheesecake:

Everybody laughing because they were those candles that don't blow out!

 Including Jessica who hadn't realized that she had purchased that type of candle!

Isn't that fun?  What a life.

Vicky and I took our camper:

Our plan was to stay another day and take our kayak out on the water.  But after everyone left, the weather wasn't that warm and it was windy.  We sat for a couple of hours trying to get inspired, and just felt the emptiness of them being gone.

So, we said what the heck, packed up, and went home.  Good decision.  

I wish they had never come.

The other time we felt that way this year was after our trip to Disney World with Emily, Sean, Soren, and Sebastian.  We did something similar with them---we stayed for a day after they left.  The difference was that we had Disney World to entertain us and this is where we went for our honeymoon, so we still had special day.  But I remember telling them their last night:

"I wish you guys had never come."

It's a nice feeling.  It means we would like to do it all over again.  How great is that?