The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Do you see the younger kid with the weird look on his face? Have you seen a few dozen photos of Busby wondering why his photo is being taken? Yes, the kid on the right is me. My dog might take after me, or vice versa, I’m not sure. In the photo, I’m measuring a carrot, which looks to be about 11 inches long.

I just watched a documentary called Urban Fruit, which is about a few different urban farmers in Los Angeles. The photo here was taken in Federal Way, WA. While a small town in wet western Washington is nothing like a large city that’s always drought ridden, one similarity is the fact that kids most kids who don’t grow up on a farm don’t grow their own fruit and vegetables. Thankfully, my brother and I had the experience of a large garden when growing up so we got to help grow our own vegetables. 

Granted, I never saw a lemon tree until much later in life… in California. But now I want one!

As you might guess from the photo, my brother and I had help growing all of those carrots (thanks Mom & Dad). However, I remember measuring out the distance between rows when planting seeds, and the distance between the holes for the seeds in each row. I especially liked picking just a few seeds and dropping them in a hole (finger-length deep), and then covering the hole with dirt. It’s fun to watch a plant grow from a seed you put in the ground.

There were a few weird things though: I recall massive potatoes that were hollow in the middle (probably rotten), carrots that had spit ends, and maybe the thing that shocked me the most was seeing my dad rub the dirt from a potato and bite into it. I learned to do the same with a carrot, but a potato? I still think he’s a bit weird for eating a potato straight from the ground.

Anyway, if you live in a city, and/or if you have kids, please grow something that you’ll eat. They’ll like it. You’ll like it. Children make for cheap labor. Fresh corn and carrots were my favorite, but I now add beets, broccoli, and spinach to the list. In Seattle, Lorie and I loved the spinach we’d grow on our deck; and we’re now planning on our San Francisco garden.

Extra tip: A compost bin is more fun when you can use it in your garden versus having the city haul it away in a bin each week. 

Looking north at 8:15am with the San Jose airport in the background and the stadium where the Sharks play.

Tuesday night SF Giants game, since a friend from NY is in town.

This year at Lake Pickeral, Minnesota, we had a bit of wake boarding and knee boarding as always. But, I also had quite a bit of diving and swimming with the kids, which was a first for me. Now they know their uncle Brian a bit more and are shocked at how much older I am than they are. Lorie even gave the jet ski a try, which was a first too.

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This year, the niece and nephew had a few new experiences while visiting in San Francisco, such as:

• Not being let out of the airport by Delta, since they were unaccompanied minors and we weren’t expecting any issues
• Eating at a very crowded La Taqueria at lunch time, which is a Mexican restaurant like they’ve never experienced
• Walking along Haight street and checking out a funky used record shop playing electro music, another that was much bigger and packed with all sorts of music, plus a few “hippie” shops with a variety of fun clothes and stuff
• Taking shoes off to have a Thai dinner
• Running around with dogs on a beach, so now they can say they’ve been to a Californian beach
• Seeing a stick bug that was attached to our house
• Seeing quite a bit of graffiti art, as opposed to regular graffiti
• Tasting odd ice cream flavors, seeing even weirder ones on the menu, and having to wait in line about 20 minutes just to get it
• Having tacos in what used to be a garage
• Playing Ticket To Ride, and having Brian and Haakon win a game
• The big Converse store in downtown San Francisco
• The rainbow crosswalks in the Castro neighborhood
• A really weird and interesting costume shop
• Cereal from Paris and London
• A big store full of board games, including a bunch of tables to sit and play games at

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And probably much, much more.

What were you doing with your friends in June of 1997?

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I was hanging out with my two best friends, Jeff and Keith, my dog Sam and Jeff’s dog Chinook (yes, a dog, not a salmon). Thanks to Gary (Jeff’s dad), for the on-going use of their ski boat back then, because we had a blast hanging out on the lakes and river spending our time wakeboarding and knee boarding. The 3 of us often joke about how safe-and-sane we were back then compared to our options at the time. I suspect we were clueless, but we’re no different now (maybe we’re still clueless?).

Parents might call this “good parenting”, we might call this “good judgment”, but we call it “good fun.” We’re still just trying to just have fun, but maybe now with a little bit of good judgment thrown in (to make us sound smart).

But back in June of 1997, Keith, Jeff and I were all single and had quite a bit of fun on the water and often in the mountains on the snow (technically, that’s also on the water). This time, we were wake boarding on the Columbia River, near the (now destroyed) Trojan nuclear power plant. Yes. Really, despite, what you might think: Jeff has a really cool and normal (non-toxic-waste-deformed) daughter, and he even learned to windsurf in the cooling pond of the power plant! Anyway…

I usually remember things through my photos, but I clearly remember something I don’t have a photo of. Sam, my dog, was running along the beach with Chinook, because we figured they might want some time on the land to do their business and be out of the boat. Plus, as you can see in the photos, we all knew Sam, the lighter brown one, didn’t really enjoy riding in the boat. (Gary: No, he never got sick in the boat. Everyone else: Sam is the one who clearly doesn’t want to be on the boat.)

… The dogs were running on the beach and we were in the boat, listening to our music, as “kids” are prone to do. I very clearly remember looking at the beach; there were only 2 humans on the beach. They were having a nice little picnic. Unfortunately for them, Sam was the most loyal dog I’ve ever experienced. As we went upriver in the boat, he ran upriver on the beach. So, when we turned and went downriver, he turned too. He ran right over the picnic blanket with the picnic food. The couple reacted as Sam was about 5 feet past them, as Chinook wisely went around them. Did I mention Sam barked the entire time he was running up and down the beach? I doubt this couple has such fond memories of that day.

However, I smile when I remember hanging out with my friends, wakeboarding, and having our dogs with us. For those who know me, you know I value experiences in life. This is one of many experiences that isn’t overly exciting, dangerous, or adventurous. But, it’s an experience I cherish because my friends and my dog were with me doing something fun.

There must be a life lesson in there somewhere!