For Christmas 2010 one of our gifts to our children and grandchildren was the performance of ZooZoo at the Broadway Center for Performing Arts. Our daughter Andi and her husband Rich along with their twin girls Dakota and Demetria were on a cruise. Our oldest grandchild, Talia was busy with school as was our second oldest Vanessa. For the rest of the clan Peg and I bought fifteen tickets for the family-friendly production.
Granddaughter Daron was brought to The Spar Tavern after church by her mother Kirsty and the four of us had lunch. Daron objects to having her photo taken. She's such a pretty girl and getting taller every day, and I do like to annoy her. During lunch she talked almost non-stop about the books she's reading. At one time (in the first grade?), she was not doing well with reading. I remember reading stories with her to help her improve. Peg would read both with her and to her.
Now, she has the reading bug and checking out books at the library as often and as many as she can.
Daron was overjoyed to learn that we were treating her and her mother to lunch at The Spar.
Peg and I have several favorite breakfast restaurants and The Spar is one of them. Almost all of our grandchildren have eaten there with us . . . some much more than once.
When I am ordering breakfast at The Spar I almost always order the same menu item: biscuits (with sourdough toast substituted for the biscuits) and gravy with sausage links.
Likewise when I'm not ordering breakfast, I almost order the same menu item: fish and chips (with Spar chips instead of French fries). Their Spar Chips are thinly sliced russet potatoes, deep friend, and lightly salted. They are served with a sour cream concoction in a plastic squeezy bottle. I try not to eat there too often, prefering to eat healthy across the street at Cafe Divino. Now, of course I could eat healthier at The Spar, but it's difficult for me not to order my favorite meals. With this little group we ordered onion rings, Spar Chips, and fried zucchini to share. I held back on the squash, but had a few rings and quite a few chips. I also paced myself on the sour cream. The fish was excellent as was Peg's deep fried prawns.
During our meal the four of us caught up on life (jobs, family, and stories about Daron) and then Peg and I took Daron with us to the Broadway Center. In the theater, we saw friends Barb and Pat Van Haren with three grandchildren, and John Schneider with his two children. Although, I didn't see them Lori Augino and her daughter Sophia (she loved it) were there, too. ZooZoo was calling for the children.
Defying classification, Imago Theatre of Portland, Oregon has populated stages with characters and beings such as comedic amphibians, acrobatic larvae, circus boulders, and metamorphosing humans in works which tantalize and entertain audiences. Imago blurs the lines of the expected. It's hard to explain what they really do, but the opening scene of a black swamp of moving round blue eyes started the crowd laughing. Generally, the five entertainers were in animal costume. My favorite scenes were husband and wife hippos dressed in pajamas and trying to keep the spouse from hogging all the covers. And my other favorite scene were five penguins playing musical chairs. No words are spoken by the performers, but everyone laughed throughout the two acts.
I enjoyed the show sitting in the theater and looking down row "L" as much as I did the show on the stage. Peg and I agreed that the Christmas gift of tickets for ZooZoo was money well spent. In addition to our two sons, their wives, and their children, we also invited my sister and her grandson. The teenagers sat together and had a great time chatting and laughing and the younger ones played, and giggled, and received lots of hugs. Now, isn't that a great gift?
