Portland

We just got back from a great visit with Jessica and Adam in Portland.  It was Rose Festival time, and being from Southern California and growing up with the Pasadena Rose Parade, I felt I needed to go.  So we did.

Got to the Rose Parade Saturday morning, didn't even have to spend the night for  curbside view!

Llama all done up for the parade

Portland's version of white suiters--they're called Rosarians

The Rose Garden was amazing@

While we were there we went up the Columbia River Gorge to Multnomah Falls

liquid or ?????

LIQUID?????  YES OR NO

I don't know what state of matter peanut butter would be classified as, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't vote for liquid.  Tell that to TSA. 

Steve is going to England for business.  We figured he'd take some things for a care package for Michael and mail them from England, gotta be cheaper than the fortune that it costs us to mail things from here.  So he takes some peanut butter, actually attempted to take some peanut butter.  It was confiscated by TSA at SFO because it is a liquid. 

My opinion....Steve gets to the airport just before noon.  Meanwhile, the guy at the security checkpoint just realized he left his lunch at home on the counter.  Suddenly he had visions of a PB&J floating before his eyes.  Now all he need is to find a passenger with some bread and some jelly.....



The New Year in Portland

For New Years we were able to take a quick trip to Portland to see Jessica and Adam...

And their sweet new kitten Meeka...

Jessica gave us a great Christmas present.  A book about Oregon with pages all clipped with suggestions for what we can do when we come to visit.  We got started right away....

A dinner cruise down the Willamette River (a couple even got engaged on the cruise--we called it, but probably won't be invited to the wedding)



A visit to Pittock Mansion

The requisite stop at voodoo doughnuts for a voodoo doughnut.  



Dinner at Marrakesh, a fun Moroccan restaurant where you sit on the floor--not too old for that yet!



And lastly, pictures with the umbrella man in Pioneer Square with some Hot Chocolate from Starbucks!

Fun times--can't wait to go back!

Thank you Hawaii and husband

Steve and I have been married for 25 years; and for our anniversary Steve gave me a trip to Hawaii--Maui to be exact.  It served a dual purpose, since for the first time in 22 of those years we would have no children in our house for Christmas--Steve knew that wasn't going to go well for me, so it was a good plan to get me out of the house and to the island paradise of Hawaii!

I couldn't believe I would be looking out of my room and seeing this every day!

For 8 glorious days I laid by the pool, slept in the sun, ate yummy food, took in the beautiful scenery, and on occassion walked on the beach...that's about it...I loved every minute of the inactivity.



Perhaps my favorite place at the resort was the serenity pool.  It gave rise to my word for 2012--serenity. 

 We did take a quick trip up the volcano our first morning there.  We had to get up at 3:30 to see the sun rise and it was 37 degrees!  My Hawaii wardrobe didn't prepare me for the freezing temperature but the sunrise was beautiful.  It reminded me of sunrises in Ecuador.

We also took a day and drove the road to Hana--amazing!

We would have seen more glorious waterfalls such as this.....

Had I been wearing the appropriate footwear and not had my feet bathed in non-washable mud oozing between my toes..

we stopped and had the "original banana bread"  delicous!

By the way, this wasn't the car we drove--but I seriously would love to drive this car!



Thank you for a most lovely vacation

Newport

Newport is pretty important to our family:


The Barton's annual beach house vacation
Newport Beach California July 2008



Jessica and Adam (now living in Portland Oregon)
 Newport Oregon August 2009



Michael (from a train while serving a mission in England)
Newport Wales October 2011



Ocean Girl

Something to share from my favorite niece:

I love the ocean too.  I miss it.  I wish I could make a visit to the ocean this weekend.  Every once in a while I find that I just need to smell the beach and it has been way too long. 

I read Sunset Magazine (scary thing for my family--I come up with all kinds of adventures that I would have never known about had I not read about them). There was an article recently about the new Open Sea exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I want to see it.  I want to see it even more because of this:

A few years ago they had a great white shark on exhibit at the aquarium.  Jessica and I went to Monterey just to see the shark.  We were going to the aquarium on Saturday morning at 10:00 am.  I was super excited.  The shark got "overly aggressive (think eating other animals)" and they had to release him back to the wild at 5:00 am.  So close.  In the ensuing years Jessica has determined that she's terrified of sharks, so I don't think she would go with me, but maybe Steve.....?????

Yosemite

I love Yosemite in the fall.  Steve and I rode our bikes around Yosemite Valley yesterday. 

It threatened rain all day, but it was amazing to see Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls still in full waterfall mode in September!