Oregon For The First Time

Ken and I left the redwoods of California and discovered the coast of Oregon as we followed Route 101 north to Portland ~

Where we stayed two nights at the Mark Spencer Hotel ~

Teachers Fountain in the downtown area, dedicated to teachers everywhere ~

An antique car caught our attention, and a few days later we read a newspaper article about Nash Metropolitan cars that have been refurbished in Los Angeles ~

We took a walk to the waterfront ~

To see the bridges across the Willamette River ~

That go up so ships can go under ~

The waterfront park has a fountain that starts gently ~

And bursts forth periodically, which delights the children ~

A poster drew us to the Portland Art Museum ~

Where roses were still in bloom in the park across the street ~

This photo is for Mary, whose birthday is July 15 ~

This building once housed The Portland Telegram, a newspaper with the same name as a current paper in Maine ~

Then it was time to say good-bye to Oregon, for now, and take our leave for Seattle ~

California 2012

Ken and I flew into the San Francisco airport on July 2. We rented a car and drove to Los Gatos, arriving late at night to stay with our son and daughter-in-law. We didn't realize until the next morning that they have a lovely courtyard outside their front door ~
And beautiful greenery off their back deck ~

That night we attended a baseball game in Oakland and watched the Red Sox lose to the A's in the 9th inning under a full moon ~

The game was followed by an amazing display of fireworks ~

We celebrated Independence Day with a private wine tasting and vineyard tour in Cupertino at Ridge Vineyard, which literally sits atop a ridge ~

That overlooks Santa Clara and San Jose ~

Ken and I enjoyed baked goods and coffee the following morning at Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company ~

On Friday we soaked in the atmosphere of early morning Los Gatos at Posh Bagel before we started the drive north to San Ramon ~

As we drove we couldn't get over the golden hills that rise up at every turn ~

And line every highway ~

On Sunday we topped off a wonderful visit with a delicious dinner at The Peasant & The Pear Restaurant in Danville ~

And a walk through the Blackhawk Mall, where shops encircle a pond complete with live ducks and whimsical sculpture ~

Monday morning we left early for Oregon, with a stop to say hello to the massive redwoods in Prairie Creek State Park, our last stop in California ~

Excuses, Excuses

I interrupt real life to bring you this message: the first round of photos from West Coast Trip 2012 will be posted tomorrow. I just posted 26 photos on FaceBook, a teaser for those of you who visit me there. I don't plan to duplicate pics, though there are a couple that are my favorites that will show up twice, because I have plenty to choose from. In this space there will be posts for California, Oregon, and Washington.

There has been a delay due to daily life.

Things keep breaking.

I no sooner bought a new dehumidifier than our stereo speakers went on the fritz. I selected new ones online, an excellent deal on Newegg, but the UPS delivery yesterday was of a computer and printer, not speakers. I called Newegg right away and learned that I had to get those items, with labels they would email to me, to a UPS center to send back before my speakers would be sent to me. This morning the labels had still not arrived, so I put in another call to Newegg...and the packages went out this afternoon from a mailing store 25 miles away.

In the meantime I gathered my courage to start up my laptop. Or I tried to. My laptop died. Yikes! This morning I took it right into the ComDoctor, a local shop that has been in business for many years, and they said it would take a couple days to transfer data to Ken's laptop. Fortunately they got to it right away and I drove the 20 miles back, with fingers crossed that the transfer worked.

There were no guarantees and at first I wasn't sure what I'd find. Everything from my laptop was in one file on the desktop. It took a bit of searching, and I found my documents, although I couldn't open them. We never activated Office 2010 on Ken's laptop! Thankfully I saved all the paperwork, found the product key, went through the steps and now have a working laptop. Shhh. Don't tell Ken. He's out of town this week.

The laundry is finally all caught up, everything ironed or folded and put away. Mail has been sorted, bills are current, and appointments have been made. The travel journal is almost complete. Now for the photos....

See you tomorrow ~

Three Days Home

I am home. We arrived home after midnight Monday, so I have actually been home for three days. The re-entry has been slow going. I keep thinking I will get a handle on being in this place again, but life keeps happening so I have decided that it may be awhile before I get a handle on things.

So here I am. Photos are still in the camera, safely I hope but who knows for sure, and I will post my favorites later.

The trip was indeed delightful, even more so than I expected.

Los Gatos, California, where my son and daughter-in-law live, is a beautiful city. Their apartment is in a quiet residential neighborhood and a short walk to the downtown area, which has every kind of shop, bakery, and restaurant that you could hope for. We enjoyed getting to know a bit about where they live, and we even had a chance to meet our son's co-workers. The sun shone every day, and there was a lovely breeze in the valley.

Then we stayed with friends in San Ramon, where we ate more good food, attended Shakespeare's Henry V in the park, enjoyed more good wine, and saw the movie Safety Not Guaranteed ~ all of which I highly recommend.

The drive up Highway 101 was beautiful, moving from the redwoods of California to the coast of Oregon, with ocean on one side and forest on the other. Portland, which is named for Portland, Maine we learned, is a great city. We stayed right downtown, where we could walk down to the waterfront, over to Powell's Books and The Real Mother Goose Shop, and up to the Museum of Art.

Before we knew it we were headed for Seattle, where we stayed at The Moore Hotel, a unique and interesting place where I hope to stay again. It was great to spend time with our son and see many of the city's sights. We experienced hot sunny days, cool nights, a cold blustery morning, and even a thunderstorm while we were there. Pike Place Market is at its best early in the morning, and the original Starbucks is not busy at 6:45 on a Thursday evening. The buses run fairly often and are a nice reprieve from climbing the steep hills.

Then it was time to come home. I wasn't ready, but I don't know when I would have been. It was wonderful to spend time with people I like, to eat good food and drink good wine, and to see new places. I like nice hotels. I love cities.

But it was time to come home to the woods, back to real life. I figured I would need a couple days to regroup, and thankfully I was able to schedule a massage for my second day home. My body was grateful.

Today I started to feel myself again. There are still piles of laundry to do because the dehumidifier in the laundry room has given up the ghost, but I did some research and decided which one to buy tomorrow. The skies cleared so I hung jeans on the line this afternoon.

Tuesday night I heated hot dogs in a fry pan, opened a bag of chips, and called it dinner. A bit of grocery shopping and some recouped energy later, we've had cold salads and fresh fruit to eat. I was pretty pleased with my CD selections this evening as I prepared pasta salad, until we realized that one of our seventeen-year-old speakers has bit the dust. More research and cost comparisons and we found a good deal on newegg.com. We can't live without our tunes:)

I haven't dared to turn on my laptop yet. The cord got really warm before we left, and the way things are falling apart around here I decided I better wait until I am ready to quickly download everything on it to a thumb drive before I start it up.

Fingers crossed that photos download to the desktop in good shape. We captured some moments we will savor for a long time. It was certainly a trip that I won't forget.

I am already making plans for next time....

Delight

The angel card I drew for today is "delight."  Well, that's not entirely true.  The first card was "forgiveness" and I made the executive decision that that word does not fit my day.  The feeling of delight does fit.

Then, in thinking about the last two weeks, I realized that the words are two sides of the same coin.

The last two weeks have been the trifecta of life lessons.

For the first nineteen years of my life the best thing about any holiday, event, project, or trip was the anticipation, the possibility.  Things never worked out.  Never.  Even when I thought things came off without a hitch there were consequences for the goodness.  That was the way it was with my family.

Anticipation.  I still love the anticipation. 

But over the thirty-seven years I have known Ken I have learned that sometimes things do turn out right.  In fact, more often than not whatever I have been looking forward to is better than I could have ever imagined.

The last two weeks have been the realization of what, at one time, was only a dream.

It started with spending copious amounts of time with my daughter.  That's always a treat but this time we had goals in mind for working on her house, and we exceeded every one.  I used to fear finishing a project because the finished product did not live up to my expectations.  Not true this time.

Her kitchen is beautiful.  Perfect?  No.  Beautiful?  Yes.

First lesson:  Do the best I can and be happy with the results.

In the midst of all the "house" work, my car died.  There was nothing to be done to fix Lily May.  I have been anticipating buying a new car for a year and actively looking for six months.  I was enjoying the anticipcation.  Every person I know could have bought a new car and I would have been just as happy to anticipate when my turn would come.

Then I had no option but to make the purchase.  I was apprehensive.  It turned out that the choices were limited, only three cars on the lot fit our most-basic criteria.  And they had a red one, which is the color I've wanted from the beginning.  Before I knew it, I owned a brand new car.

Second lesson:  What I have been anticipating really can be as wonderful as I hoped.

While all of that "life" was happening, I was supposed to be getting ready for Ken and I to travel to the west coast for two weeks.  Any other time I would have spent those two weeks preparing for the trip: cleaning the house from top to bottom, completing every item on the home maintenance list, shopping for items that needed to be replaced, and packing and repacking the suitcase.  There has been no time to do that.  Two nights ago I was on the phone with my son and looked down at my Birkenstock sandals, my go-to shoes all summer.  They are looking sad, still in one piece but looking very tired.  No matter because there is no time to shop for shoes.  They will get me through this trip.

Third lesson:  Enjoy the anticipation and be flexible enough to fold in the unexpected.  Life happens.  Go with it or I will miss all the good stuff that is happening right this moment.  In the end, things will work out just fine.

Ken is right now registering the new car because the temporary tags run out while we are gone.  The packing is done and the flights have been confirmed.  My daughter is going to keep an eye on the house.  Everything else will keep until we get back.

I have been anticipating this trip for months.  I just know it's going to be "delight"ful.