THE TRIP TO PORTLAND.....and back!

We made plans to meet our friends, Larry and Diane, at the Kennedy School, in Portland, OR. The Kennedy School was to be the end of their train trip across the northern USA with a stop at Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, something happened to the tracks in North Dakota and they had to re-arrange their trip but we met in Portland anyway. The Kennedy School is a hotel in what used to be an elementary school. When enrollment declined in the 70's the school was closed and after some time it was purchased by the McMenamins brothers and converted into a hotel. Upon arrival you check in at the "Front Office," get your key and find your way to your room. The halls are very wide and many rooms and hallways have blackboards in them - with chalk and erasers! If you ever go there be sure to request a "Blackboard Room" or you may be booked into the new section of the hotel. The new section is very nice, but the original room we were assigned was VERY small. The sink was in the sleeping area and there was barely enough room to walk around the bed. The construction of the new section is very well done with beautiful woods and windows but the rooms are very tiny. 

Our journey started on Tuesday, June 3 when we left Hemet and headed north. We traveled as far as Woodland California, which is a little north of Sacramento. It was a very long ride and we were happy to check into the Best Western Shadow Inn, have some dinner and relax until it was time to sleep. On Wednesday morning we headed out to Grant's Pass, OR, the second stop on our trip north. As we drove along Interstate 5 we passed Mount Shasta. Very beautiful! Grant's Pass claims to have a climate as nice as California - as the big sign over the main street lets you know. They also have a fondness for bears who grace the main and side streets.

Mount Shasta

The Logger Bear

The Vineyard Bear

The Farmer Bear

The Dancing Bears

The next day was suppose to be a short journey to Portland - however, as we traveled north on Interstate 5 we decided we should stop in Salem as it it is the capital of Oregon. We followed the signs to the "Capital," found a parking lot - FREE - and followed the posted maps to the capital building and beautiful grounds.

Stay tuned for the further adventures of the Portland trip!

Huntington Library

We had a wonderful breakfast at the Doubletree Hotel on Sunday morning after the Renaissance Faire. Then we packed up all our "stuff" and headed out to the The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. Our objective was to visit the Chinese Garden which is one of many areas of this very beautiful setting. Henry Huntington was part of the Huntington family that owned the Central Pacific Railroad. He moved to Los Angeles and bought the property that the Library now sits on. In addition to being an excellent businessman (railroad companies, utilities and real estate in Southern California) he and his wife amassed a large research library, established a wonderful art collection and created botanical gardens representing many geographic areas. We have visited The Huntington several times since moving to Southern California and I'm sure we will visit many more. It's a beautiful place. We spent our time on Sunday walking through the Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden and Desert Garden. It was a beautiful day!

Renaissance Faire

We met our good friends Diane and Larry in Monrovia, California on Saturday, April 26 to attend the Renaissance Faire. Bob and I had never been to such an event and had no idea what to expect. We checked into the Doubletree Hotel, snatched our cookies (yum), and hopped on the shuttle for the Faire. Our room rate included the tickets to the faire, the shuttle ride to and from, and of course, the warm chocolate chip cookies! The Faire was much larger than I had anticipated and there were many, many people in costume. I had no idea that the visitors to the faire would come in costume. Some were really beautiful and others made no sense whatsoever - like the guys dressed in their togas. I didn't take their picture! There was a jousting tournament with horns, drums, a Queen, knights on horseback and real live wenches!

Real live Wenches

And here are some other photos taken throughout the day. And when I think about it I'm still amazed at all the beautiful costumes and those push-up bras!!!!!

Balboa Park

It has been a most unusual winter here in Southern California. The temps have been in the mid to high 80s on many days and the sun shines almost all the time. We often think of our friends and family on the East Coast and their daily struggles with the unrelenting cold and snow. My sister lives in Michigan and doesn't think the snow will leave much before the end of April! My son works outside and often resembles the little kid who's mom puts so many winter clothes on him he's unable to move in the snow. And we think back to the last winter we lived in New Jersey and the hurricane that brushed us in the fall and the winter it was still snowing in March. We love California weather - well in the winter anyway. It the summer it can get a little warm (big understatement) here in the San Jacinto Valley.

Last Sunday we drove to San Diego and the beautiful Balboa Park. The park houses the San Diego Zoo as well as many diverse museums, gardens, paths and activities. There is even a building on the grounds titled "The Bridge Club" (I think that's the name). There is a huge lawn bowling area that has a big sign advertising free lessons. There is a beautiful rose garden. Let us not forget the dog park! There are musicians, dancers, painters, magicians and many other entertainers on the walk ways. I'm sure there is much more here to see and do. It's a great place to visit.

After the park we went to our favorite Italian restaurant in Little Italy and had a great dinner. All and all it was a fun day. Here are some photos of our great adventure.

Humphrey's By the Bay

On Tuesday, January 28th we loaded the bikes on the back of the car and headed for San Diego. Humphrey's on the Bay, a lovely hotel on Shelter Island, to be exact. The weather here in Southern California has been absolutely beautiful. That nasty jet stream that has been keeping those in the east so cold has been warming our days into the 80s. However, there is always a price to pay and our price is an ongoing drought. We thought we should take advantage of the weather before it turned on us and actually became winter - such as it is here.

Humphrey's has a lovely area in the center of the hotel grounds where two parrots hang out during the day. They are always gone by 4:00 pm and I suspect someone takes them inside for the night. They really are handsome fellows!

The Ronald Reagan Library

 On Thursday, September 12, we hit the freeways and headed to the Ronald Reagan Library in famous Simi Valley, California. They chose an absolutely beautiful spot for this library. It sits on top of one of the rolling hills and has wonderful view of the valley below. Our mission was the Lincoln Exhibit that is closing at the end of September. In order to get to see Lincoln we had to go through the entire library. It's a pretty interesting library, so it wasn't much of a hardship. And it brought back lots of memories of when my boys were still boys and not men. I remember dropping Dan at Little League practice on the day that Reagan was shot. 

When we finally made our way to the Lincoln exhibit we decided it was well worth it. Unfortunately, I left my glasses in the car (parked a long way from the building) and only had my sun glasses. And although they are prescription I found it very difficult to read anything in this exhibit. The lighting was dark to begin with, add some sun glasses and it's almost impossible. Taking any sort of photo was also difficult in such a dark environment. I am now very careful to remember to check for the right glasses!

I liked the title of this exhibit

The young Lincoln

Scrapbook Pages

I'm not a genuine scrapbook person. I just like to put together pages of special places we've been or special people I adore or earth shattering events such as my grandchildren performing their drama camp presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a wonderful production and will always be one of my special memories of them. All of my scrap book pages are produced digitally using Photoshop Elements on my iMac and all the free papers, fonts, and embellishments that I have collected from the many blogs that are floating out there. It's amazing how many talented people offer their stuff for free. The generosity is really something to think about.

The other part of making scrapbook pages digitally is that there is no mess. No glue, no scissors that I can never find, no having to print the photo three times because I can't measure correctly, and if I want to switch things around it's just "click and drag." Great fun!

And every time I turn the pages of one book or another wonderful (mostly) memories come flooding back to remind me of just how great life can be and what fun I've had along the way. Making the pages and then revisiting them from time to time is one of my favorite things.