Well we made it up to Michigan to enjoy our first snow weekend of December 2010.
We enjoyed x-c skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling.
We have about 14 inches of snow on the ground now and expect many more in the coming days.
It was a wonderful respite to get out of the city and into the quiet winter woods again.
Cross country skiing along the snowy pine trails in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior and Snowshoeing in the same area.And then an hour riding along through the woods one one of the many snowmobile trails. Dave even prepared our backyard hill for the girls to go tubing when we come up after Christmas...complete with watered down areas to firm up the deep snow. He also put out our snoman post that measures the snowfall in our yard.The snow seems to fall a bit each night so it stays that beautiful sparkly white in the morning. It is like walking into a winter postcard. I will never get over the beauty of this in winter. We sat inside next to a cozy wood stove fire, snacking and watching old movies to relax in the evening. Ahhhhh just what we needed after an unexpectedly stessful week . God's timing for this weekend really helped to renew me for the coming week!!
What a blessing in our lives!!!!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hello Winter 2010
Well in checking the snowfall this past few weeks upper Michigan went from 4 inches to 24 inches in the past week...yikes! I can't wait to head up to Michigan and begin cross country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling,and sledding!! I love winter!!!...did i mention that?? I never could take the hot weather...no wonder we are retiring north( only ones i know of hehe ).
The girls will be home soon...only one week to Christmas and we will spend some of the time in Michigan with them...fun fun!! My daughter that lives in Portland ,Oregon misses the winter snowfall and fall turning of the leaves in the Midwest as Portland is mostly pine trees (with not much colorama in the area( i send her colored leaves in wax paper...hehe) and rain year round( not oppressive however just light showers for the most part). That is not to say she dislikes living there... on the contrary she loves it, as it is :progressive, art enthusiastic,environmental, nutrition minded(boasting local in-season harvest choices at many restaurants) and a great place to walk, hike and bike.It is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA, although unemployment is also very high there. (It is a blessing that my daughter however is currently employed.)
My other daughter lives in Boulder, Colorado and she said it was an unseasonal 70 degrees there today and very little snow. I think however it may turn out to be a very snowy winter later on as a warmer winter usually produces more snow!! I guess she has succumbed to waiting for the Michigan snow so her holiday travel goes smoothly since they don't even have any snow yet.
That's all I have to say for now....I am just sharing my enthusiasm for the Michigan snowfall we are currently receiving!! Let it snow...Let it snow....let it snow!!!!!
The girls will be home soon...only one week to Christmas and we will spend some of the time in Michigan with them...fun fun!! My daughter that lives in Portland ,Oregon misses the winter snowfall and fall turning of the leaves in the Midwest as Portland is mostly pine trees (with not much colorama in the area( i send her colored leaves in wax paper...hehe) and rain year round( not oppressive however just light showers for the most part). That is not to say she dislikes living there... on the contrary she loves it, as it is :progressive, art enthusiastic,environmental, nutrition minded(boasting local in-season harvest choices at many restaurants) and a great place to walk, hike and bike.It is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA, although unemployment is also very high there. (It is a blessing that my daughter however is currently employed.)
My other daughter lives in Boulder, Colorado and she said it was an unseasonal 70 degrees there today and very little snow. I think however it may turn out to be a very snowy winter later on as a warmer winter usually produces more snow!! I guess she has succumbed to waiting for the Michigan snow so her holiday travel goes smoothly since they don't even have any snow yet.
That's all I have to say for now....I am just sharing my enthusiasm for the Michigan snowfall we are currently receiving!! Let it snow...Let it snow....let it snow!!!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Scents, Sights and Guilty Pleasures of Childhood
There are smells and tastes and "guilty pleasures" that come to mind from everyone's childhood. These are a few of mine and the people I loved.
The thought of this all started when I was taking a shower the other day and thought of how my GRANDMA FLORENCE loved her "Dove" beauty bar hand soap. Her whole house smelled like Dove soap. Coming through the depression era it was her only guilty pleasure as it was more expensive than other bar soaps. It was a simple pleasure to be sure- how complicated our pleasures are now days!!
My GRANDPA TEDDY enjoyed his "Twinkies"( called them "Twinklies")with every supper. It was so cute to watch him prepare his supper ,as a widower in his 90's, carefully placing the Twinkies on his dinner plate even before he filled the rest of the plate with real dinner foods. He also carried hot water he heated from the stove to the sink to wash his dishes as he thought it much more expensive to used hot water from the faucet!! WOW what a conservationist ahead of his time, although in reality the gas to fuel the stove may have used more of a carbon footprint. (I always worried about his falling with that hot pot of water from stove to sink but he managed just fine.)
Both FLORENCE AND TEDDY loved to garden and indeed two thirds of their yard was a large vegetable garden. I can see them both bending over to tend to their strawberries or other garden plants. Grandma also gave great attention to her manicured front lawn, I can still see her bending on hands and knees to pull out every crab grass that ventured into it! She also grew beautiful Gladiola flowers between her back yard grass and the large vegetable garden as a lovely border of color .
My MOM had a guilty pleasure of eating dates from the box while ironing into the wee hours of the morning. She worked full time but enjoyed this quiet alone time when everybody else was snug in bed. She also loved to sunbathe on a beach or in our back yard- sneaking in another relaxing "Me" time. The only other guilty pleasure I can think of for my mom was that she bought "Oil of Olay" lotion for her face. It was pricey at the time so for her it was a bit of a spending splurge if you will( no spa services like these days).
My DAD had a secret( not so secret) stash of chocolate bars in his sock drawer!!Although they were older than sin and tasted like it, he enjoyed one now and then as he did not have to share them with the kids in our household! He also bought a box of 100 inexpensive chocolates now and then for strategic back up for his love of the cocoa bean!! He loved watching nature specials on TV( boring to us kids) and Saturday cartoons with us when he was the only one laughing out loud!! My dad also loved to cook and you could often smell German dinner sausage for a sunday lunch, eggs and bacon for a Saturady breakfast, chili in Winter, English Boiled dinner, and occaisonally his famous Ox Tail soup.
My BROTHER DALE loved to make real eggnog's and popcorn for a TV snack. Yes we ate them together. He added just the right amount of nutmeg and vanilla...yummmmmm! Dale loved to hike and bike and loved the Rocky Mts in Glacier National park best of all!!
Our FAMILY had a routine of making "pie stops" when out for a family outing on a Saturday or
Sunday in the Kettle Moraine countryside west of Milwaukee. After a nice swim at a state park beach or fall hike dad would have us look for signs of a good home cooking restaurant in the area that boasted of "Homemade Pie" and we would stop and we would all have a piece of pure country delight!! I am still in this frame of mind when making day trips with my car.
One of MY preschool guilty pleasures was on a very hot summer day( with no house air conditioning in the 50's) my Mom would take the mattress off one of our beds and let us jump on it in the front room - all of us kids stripped down to our underwear-YIKES! Such Fun!! I also loved to turn our sandbox into a bakery ,even thought my brothers tried to fill it up with plastic Cowboys and Indians or Army men! I also loved out four seated rectangular wading pool in our back yard in summer and the snow sledding hill my dad would make out of snow he shoveled from the alley behind our house. Ice skating with the family was so fun in winter...when i was too little to skate my dad would pull me around on a sled, then i graduated to two blade skates and then eventually the real thing!
Later in grade school my FRIEND LINDA and I would ice skate every available day in winter after school in the small park down the block from her house.Ah yes and then there was my dad's REA Express company picnic- with kids games and great ice cream.We also had a Tasty Freeze ice cream store and the end of our block that gave out free plastic stuff with every come you bought( i say stuff as it was mostly adult stuff like a colorful plastic measuring cup -- but hey it was free)!! We also had an amazing penny candy store at the end of our block- my favorites were: dots, candy lipstick , bazooka bubble gum,flying saucers,wax lips and straws filled with koolaid like powder,and banana Laughy Taffy...(no wonder i had so many cavities as a kid)!!
Also my UNCLE ERV owned an old fashioned drive in and we went now and then to get extra large ice cream sundaes made by my AUNT ARLENE. Yummmmmmmmmmm! I also loved my grandma's homemade grape juice and plum tomatoes from her garden that tasted so sweet as right from the garden.She also occasionally gave us a store bought treat of neopolitan ice cream out of a tiny pint carton. My dad grew raspberries and strawberries in our backyard and would pay us 25 cents to pick a bowl..although in reality we ate most of it by the time we brought it into the kitchen forfeiting the money incentive( he also paid us for digging out dandelions in the backyard-- but this didn't entice us at all).
Occasionally my DAD would take us and our inner tube tires down to Lake Michigan to swim at one of beaches after dark when he got off work- that was a hoot!! My mom always called swimming in lake Michigan a "Dip" as too cold to stay in to really swim- just a quick run in and out!!
I also remember playing war in empty lot/park behind our house with my BROTHER GARY- I was the nurse and gave out poison berries for medicine...hehe! And occasionally i would watch "Mr Wizard", the science show on TV- and Gary's favorite. Gary went on to build lots of science stuff in our basement- he made a steam engine, go cart, photo lab complete with enlarging machine, a Sunfish sailboat that he later used as an ice boat, and the craziest of all was a Lloyd Bridges "under water device" from the TV show "Sea Hunt". This was made out of an old bomb shell (with a car battery) that he carried home on the public bus and that almost drowned him while trying it out at a local lake(which my whole family went to watch) !
We also went on "treasure hunts" by the factory at the end of our block. I don't even know what they made- maybe asphalt??? But anyway they produced a by-product of Rosin that looked like gold rocks to us. So we would sneak under the fence and hunt for these golden rocks!! Fun fun!! Later when i was older and in grade school my NEIGHBORHOOD FRIENDS would come over to pantomime songs to our 45 records, or play "street tennis" or baseball (while dodging the cars that drove down our block). I also loved "playing school" with the little kids on my block, teaching them on my front porch- the neighbors loved it as free babysitting of sorts!
These are the things I remember as most fun in my childhood.....I guess we all could go on and on...but some things really remain as fondest memories!
Funny the things we remember about our childhoods...it is fun to reminisce about those times gone by. Many of the people mentioned above are no longer with us ,so it is with fond memories I share this with you all.
The thought of this all started when I was taking a shower the other day and thought of how my GRANDMA FLORENCE loved her "Dove" beauty bar hand soap. Her whole house smelled like Dove soap. Coming through the depression era it was her only guilty pleasure as it was more expensive than other bar soaps. It was a simple pleasure to be sure- how complicated our pleasures are now days!!
My GRANDPA TEDDY enjoyed his "Twinkies"( called them "Twinklies")with every supper. It was so cute to watch him prepare his supper ,as a widower in his 90's, carefully placing the Twinkies on his dinner plate even before he filled the rest of the plate with real dinner foods. He also carried hot water he heated from the stove to the sink to wash his dishes as he thought it much more expensive to used hot water from the faucet!! WOW what a conservationist ahead of his time, although in reality the gas to fuel the stove may have used more of a carbon footprint. (I always worried about his falling with that hot pot of water from stove to sink but he managed just fine.)
Both FLORENCE AND TEDDY loved to garden and indeed two thirds of their yard was a large vegetable garden. I can see them both bending over to tend to their strawberries or other garden plants. Grandma also gave great attention to her manicured front lawn, I can still see her bending on hands and knees to pull out every crab grass that ventured into it! She also grew beautiful Gladiola flowers between her back yard grass and the large vegetable garden as a lovely border of color .
My MOM had a guilty pleasure of eating dates from the box while ironing into the wee hours of the morning. She worked full time but enjoyed this quiet alone time when everybody else was snug in bed. She also loved to sunbathe on a beach or in our back yard- sneaking in another relaxing "Me" time. The only other guilty pleasure I can think of for my mom was that she bought "Oil of Olay" lotion for her face. It was pricey at the time so for her it was a bit of a spending splurge if you will( no spa services like these days).
My DAD had a secret( not so secret) stash of chocolate bars in his sock drawer!!Although they were older than sin and tasted like it, he enjoyed one now and then as he did not have to share them with the kids in our household! He also bought a box of 100 inexpensive chocolates now and then for strategic back up for his love of the cocoa bean!! He loved watching nature specials on TV( boring to us kids) and Saturday cartoons with us when he was the only one laughing out loud!! My dad also loved to cook and you could often smell German dinner sausage for a sunday lunch, eggs and bacon for a Saturady breakfast, chili in Winter, English Boiled dinner, and occaisonally his famous Ox Tail soup.
My BROTHER DALE loved to make real eggnog's and popcorn for a TV snack. Yes we ate them together. He added just the right amount of nutmeg and vanilla...yummmmmm! Dale loved to hike and bike and loved the Rocky Mts in Glacier National park best of all!!
Our FAMILY had a routine of making "pie stops" when out for a family outing on a Saturday or
Sunday in the Kettle Moraine countryside west of Milwaukee. After a nice swim at a state park beach or fall hike dad would have us look for signs of a good home cooking restaurant in the area that boasted of "Homemade Pie" and we would stop and we would all have a piece of pure country delight!! I am still in this frame of mind when making day trips with my car.
One of MY preschool guilty pleasures was on a very hot summer day( with no house air conditioning in the 50's) my Mom would take the mattress off one of our beds and let us jump on it in the front room - all of us kids stripped down to our underwear-YIKES! Such Fun!! I also loved to turn our sandbox into a bakery ,even thought my brothers tried to fill it up with plastic Cowboys and Indians or Army men! I also loved out four seated rectangular wading pool in our back yard in summer and the snow sledding hill my dad would make out of snow he shoveled from the alley behind our house. Ice skating with the family was so fun in winter...when i was too little to skate my dad would pull me around on a sled, then i graduated to two blade skates and then eventually the real thing!
Later in grade school my FRIEND LINDA and I would ice skate every available day in winter after school in the small park down the block from her house.Ah yes and then there was my dad's REA Express company picnic- with kids games and great ice cream.We also had a Tasty Freeze ice cream store and the end of our block that gave out free plastic stuff with every come you bought( i say stuff as it was mostly adult stuff like a colorful plastic measuring cup -- but hey it was free)!! We also had an amazing penny candy store at the end of our block- my favorites were: dots, candy lipstick , bazooka bubble gum,flying saucers,wax lips and straws filled with koolaid like powder,and banana Laughy Taffy...(no wonder i had so many cavities as a kid)!!
Also my UNCLE ERV owned an old fashioned drive in and we went now and then to get extra large ice cream sundaes made by my AUNT ARLENE. Yummmmmmmmmmm! I also loved my grandma's homemade grape juice and plum tomatoes from her garden that tasted so sweet as right from the garden.She also occasionally gave us a store bought treat of neopolitan ice cream out of a tiny pint carton. My dad grew raspberries and strawberries in our backyard and would pay us 25 cents to pick a bowl..although in reality we ate most of it by the time we brought it into the kitchen forfeiting the money incentive( he also paid us for digging out dandelions in the backyard-- but this didn't entice us at all).
Occasionally my DAD would take us and our inner tube tires down to Lake Michigan to swim at one of beaches after dark when he got off work- that was a hoot!! My mom always called swimming in lake Michigan a "Dip" as too cold to stay in to really swim- just a quick run in and out!!
I also remember playing war in empty lot/park behind our house with my BROTHER GARY- I was the nurse and gave out poison berries for medicine...hehe! And occasionally i would watch "Mr Wizard", the science show on TV- and Gary's favorite. Gary went on to build lots of science stuff in our basement- he made a steam engine, go cart, photo lab complete with enlarging machine, a Sunfish sailboat that he later used as an ice boat, and the craziest of all was a Lloyd Bridges "under water device" from the TV show "Sea Hunt". This was made out of an old bomb shell (with a car battery) that he carried home on the public bus and that almost drowned him while trying it out at a local lake(which my whole family went to watch) !
We also went on "treasure hunts" by the factory at the end of our block. I don't even know what they made- maybe asphalt??? But anyway they produced a by-product of Rosin that looked like gold rocks to us. So we would sneak under the fence and hunt for these golden rocks!! Fun fun!! Later when i was older and in grade school my NEIGHBORHOOD FRIENDS would come over to pantomime songs to our 45 records, or play "street tennis" or baseball (while dodging the cars that drove down our block). I also loved "playing school" with the little kids on my block, teaching them on my front porch- the neighbors loved it as free babysitting of sorts!
These are the things I remember as most fun in my childhood.....I guess we all could go on and on...but some things really remain as fondest memories!
Funny the things we remember about our childhoods...it is fun to reminisce about those times gone by. Many of the people mentioned above are no longer with us ,so it is with fond memories I share this with you all.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Long Ride Home
It sounds like I am complaining...but not really. I drove home from W Island yesterday.
Yes with a few stops it's about a six hour drive from ferry to home, but ahhhhhh... that silent journey is an oasis sometimes. I was by myself as Dave flew home, but I had to bring the car home for repairs.There is something I like about driving by oneself. I gather my thoughts, write creatively in my head , listen to lots of great music, and of course have a few stops to stretch my back and for treats...like free popcorn at Uncle Tom's and cheese danish and coffee with my gas stop,...hehe.
It was a beautiful sunny, cool, Fall day as I sat in the ferry line eating my sub for lunch from the pizza place at the ferry dock. I was tired as Dave and I had spent a full 12 hrs closing down our island house for the winter the afternoon and evening we arrived and in the morning- part of the maintenance of owning a summer home. Dave winterized the boat, the well, drained all the outside hoses and the inside plumbing pipes in the house, moved all the outside furniture to the garage, and cut back the outside gardens( whew!!). I did about four loads of laundry, vacuumed or moped all the floors,scoured the sinks,removed all the appliances from the electrical outlets, cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer and put all the extra blankets and pillows away in the closets for winter storage. So as I sat there waiting for the next ferry feeling pretty tired, I began to notice the lovely Fall day that as unfolding in front of me, now that I paused to appreciate and enjoy it.
While on the ferry ,the sun was warmly beating through my window and glistened beautifully off the water of Lake Michigan. So I hopped out of my car and sat up on my hood to enjoy the sunshine and the view for most of the ride across the bay to North Port. I could not resist enjoying this lovely fresh air and warm Fall sunshine. The view was so peaceful as the lake was dead calm and all I could hear was the humm of the ferry engine. Most everyone else was sitting snug in their cars or up on the second deck of the ferry, so it was just me enjoying the view in silence. As i sat there, Dave flew overhead and tipped his wings to say hello ,as he knew i must be on that ferry. After a big wave I sent back to him, I watched him fly away till he disappeared in the clouds in the distance over North Port. It was a beautiful day to fly as well. We have taken some of our best photography from the plane, especially in Fall over the upper peninsula of Michigan- just gorgeous with abundant color.
On my drive home I took my two usual short cuts and stayed on 57 to keep traffic to a minimum on the quieter side of Door County. The tree lined road was curvy and pretty with some trees just starting to turn color, field grasses all browning up,the feed corn turning golden on the stalk,and one really beautiful field grass that was feathery white on top and plumed as though a bird feather( not bear grass.. this was much more defined and roadside pretty). I saw roadsigns for plums, apples and pumpkins all at "honor system" farm stands of help yourself and leave your money in the can( in true farm style tradition), as well as the usual roadside stores selling pies, jams and apples. Each small town I had to slow down for seemed less of a nuisance to the drive today, as i enjoyed the less busy Fall side of each one, with only a few walkers and cars now as half of the shops and restaurants are now "closed for the season". "Colorama" is just a few weeks away though, so the stores and restaurants still open will surely get their abundance of "Fall gazer visitors" who come for the color in the forest, apples and fall walks in the woods.This will soon become be one of the busiest times of the year in Door County as the colors take hold in early October.
There was an abundance of interesting music to listen to as I drove along the pretty roadsides and through small towns along the way. I started out with a CD that had been left in the car that was a lovely rendition of traditional hymns done to the sound of Enya. (Dave surprisingly loves her relaxing music, perhaps because of all the time he spends in stressful Chicago traffic, checking job sites for his work.) I listened to it for what seemed like the first few hours without any interest in changing to a radio station. It was so lovely to drive along the tree line roads and be engulfed in the beauty of this world our Creator has given us, humbled by the view and fully appreciating the great blessing this is in our lives. A while later, I found a radio station with traditional Irish music( a special program on WUWM- my alumni radio station), still later some news about the Packers football game, folk music from the 60's, and ending with a country western station. The time flew by until I reached Racine (my last usual hour of driving), where apparently there had been a car accident and the freeway went from 65mph to a slow turtle pace of driving for about 45 min. But then... off to home I go I go.
All in all an enjoyable journey though....a little time spent with myself, we all need that sometimes.
Yes with a few stops it's about a six hour drive from ferry to home, but ahhhhhh... that silent journey is an oasis sometimes. I was by myself as Dave flew home, but I had to bring the car home for repairs.There is something I like about driving by oneself. I gather my thoughts, write creatively in my head , listen to lots of great music, and of course have a few stops to stretch my back and for treats...like free popcorn at Uncle Tom's and cheese danish and coffee with my gas stop,...hehe.
It was a beautiful sunny, cool, Fall day as I sat in the ferry line eating my sub for lunch from the pizza place at the ferry dock. I was tired as Dave and I had spent a full 12 hrs closing down our island house for the winter the afternoon and evening we arrived and in the morning- part of the maintenance of owning a summer home. Dave winterized the boat, the well, drained all the outside hoses and the inside plumbing pipes in the house, moved all the outside furniture to the garage, and cut back the outside gardens( whew!!). I did about four loads of laundry, vacuumed or moped all the floors,scoured the sinks,removed all the appliances from the electrical outlets, cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer and put all the extra blankets and pillows away in the closets for winter storage. So as I sat there waiting for the next ferry feeling pretty tired, I began to notice the lovely Fall day that as unfolding in front of me, now that I paused to appreciate and enjoy it.
While on the ferry ,the sun was warmly beating through my window and glistened beautifully off the water of Lake Michigan. So I hopped out of my car and sat up on my hood to enjoy the sunshine and the view for most of the ride across the bay to North Port. I could not resist enjoying this lovely fresh air and warm Fall sunshine. The view was so peaceful as the lake was dead calm and all I could hear was the humm of the ferry engine. Most everyone else was sitting snug in their cars or up on the second deck of the ferry, so it was just me enjoying the view in silence. As i sat there, Dave flew overhead and tipped his wings to say hello ,as he knew i must be on that ferry. After a big wave I sent back to him, I watched him fly away till he disappeared in the clouds in the distance over North Port. It was a beautiful day to fly as well. We have taken some of our best photography from the plane, especially in Fall over the upper peninsula of Michigan- just gorgeous with abundant color.
On my drive home I took my two usual short cuts and stayed on 57 to keep traffic to a minimum on the quieter side of Door County. The tree lined road was curvy and pretty with some trees just starting to turn color, field grasses all browning up,the feed corn turning golden on the stalk,and one really beautiful field grass that was feathery white on top and plumed as though a bird feather( not bear grass.. this was much more defined and roadside pretty). I saw roadsigns for plums, apples and pumpkins all at "honor system" farm stands of help yourself and leave your money in the can( in true farm style tradition), as well as the usual roadside stores selling pies, jams and apples. Each small town I had to slow down for seemed less of a nuisance to the drive today, as i enjoyed the less busy Fall side of each one, with only a few walkers and cars now as half of the shops and restaurants are now "closed for the season". "Colorama" is just a few weeks away though, so the stores and restaurants still open will surely get their abundance of "Fall gazer visitors" who come for the color in the forest, apples and fall walks in the woods.This will soon become be one of the busiest times of the year in Door County as the colors take hold in early October.
There was an abundance of interesting music to listen to as I drove along the pretty roadsides and through small towns along the way. I started out with a CD that had been left in the car that was a lovely rendition of traditional hymns done to the sound of Enya. (Dave surprisingly loves her relaxing music, perhaps because of all the time he spends in stressful Chicago traffic, checking job sites for his work.) I listened to it for what seemed like the first few hours without any interest in changing to a radio station. It was so lovely to drive along the tree line roads and be engulfed in the beauty of this world our Creator has given us, humbled by the view and fully appreciating the great blessing this is in our lives. A while later, I found a radio station with traditional Irish music( a special program on WUWM- my alumni radio station), still later some news about the Packers football game, folk music from the 60's, and ending with a country western station. The time flew by until I reached Racine (my last usual hour of driving), where apparently there had been a car accident and the freeway went from 65mph to a slow turtle pace of driving for about 45 min. But then... off to home I go I go.
All in all an enjoyable journey though....a little time spent with myself, we all need that sometimes.
Friday, September 10, 2010
LAST HURRAH OF SUMMER
We had a lovely Labor day weekend on Washington Island with my daughter Liz and her husband Andy ,that flew into Milwaukee from Portland, Oregon. It was probably the "last hurrah of summer" as the weather is turning cooler and boating on Lake Michigan is starting to wind down for the year. Although there were flight delays in Detroit we made it to the 6pm ferry on Friday evening, after a fun stop at a farm market on the way to break up the 4 hr drive from Milwaukee.
We had a nice relaxing weekend of family time- game playing inside in the cool evening hours and an outside horseshoe competition with Dave and Andy(they are getting pretty good and came in just as it was starting to get dark outside). We grilled out some Salmon for Liz (that we had caught a few weeks earlier this summer) and of course steak for Andy who loves getting his red meat( as Liz is a vegetarian). We also had a few meals at island restaurants- one run by an islander that does commercial fishing( great local fish) and another at the marina( great pasta and ribs!!).Liz mixed up some gluten-free breadsticks I bought at our local health food store but they were a bit odd and not too tasty and she is a good cook( the clerk recommended them as tasty... i guess not ?). I cooked up some french toast with ligonberries for breakfast , baked homemade carrot muffins and had ice cream sundaes with local fresh frozen cherries for dessert for treats. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!
Liz enjoyed some closet treasure hunting looking for fun things she may want to take home from all the years of spending summer weeks on the island when she was younger. She found a pair of beige jeans that fit her like a glove, some art prints, photos. and a big wrap around wool sweater I had inherited from Dave's sister Anne (who passed away a number of years ago). She wore that cozy sweater for the rest of the weekend! She even talked me into cleaning my clothes closet( i think she was still looking for treasure-he he). I also went through and my pot and Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen which I really wanted to clean as overflowing since Dave put in our mini dishwasher and took my large pot cabinet to do so. She took some of my antique canning jars I had displayed on top my kitchen cabinets( as I have alot more), as she is starting to can local produce in Portland now. She also took some camping equipment we offered( and had sorted out in our garage on the island the weekend before they came)- a camp lantern, some camp cook pots and dishes and a small green dome tent that i think belonged to my brother Dale (Dale passed away in 1979 and was an avid camper , biker and hiker). I had also brought up some luggage from home that Liz wanted . So this worked nicely to just check 2 bags with the airlines when returning home to get the luggage and other things back to Portland, as they only brought two carry on backpacks. And I love living with less ....so hurrah for more things gone from our house!! We also took a nice batch of things to the "Twice Around Shop"- the island resale store housed in an old farmhouse( all proceeds benefit the Island Medical Clinic).
While Liz and I went to the TAShop, Dave and Andy also took a big batch of things we had cleaned out of the garage the weekend before to the "Island landfill. There is no garbage pick up on the island ,so you have to haul your garbage or discards to the landfill during the limited hours of wed or sat 10-3. The Island landfill also recycles items discarded by some but of use to others.( I love this idea!). There is also a huge pile of discarded metal items, most of which need repair or are not usable, but at least are not part of the garbage that has to be taken off island. Some people come to pick through this for things to repair or parts for other things they have but most of it is just discards and unusable as broken beyond repair. One elderly man we knew on the island( and passed away this year) always came to the landfill to pick up broken lawn chairs , took them home, repaired and sold them. It became his side business to earn income in his retirement. That's creative!! The landfill now requires that you use clear plastic bags to throw away garbage perhaps to put an end to non- garbage items getting put into the compacted garbage to reduce the amount and cost of garbage taken by expense off island for disposal. There is also a fish guts composting area and a building materials discard pile...all separate from the compacted garbage. They do recycle plastic/glass, , alum cans and cardboard. It is an interesting process,as when you live on a small island you have to learn to thoughtfully discard of things for the best environmental reuse or discard.
We also went for a nice bike ride to Sand Dune Beach and some lovely afternoon boating and beach combing on Poverty Island in Lake Michigan. Poverty Island used to be an active coast guard lighthouse, so it is fun to explore the coast around it as well as the old lighthouse buildings. We climbed to the top to the lighthouse among the dismantled buildings. The view is glorious...you can see for miles in all directions and the water sparkles in the Sept. sunshine. There is always some treasure to be found on the beaches and area around the coast guard buildings- pcs of driftwood, old commercial fishing net floats, pieces of metal from ships or dismantled machines. Most of all it is just a glorious afternoon of fresh air and coastal hiking.
The Poverty Island pier no longer exists so the only way to get ashore with the rocky coastline and shallow shoals is to anchor our boat in deeper water off shore and take a large rubber raft with tiny motor to reach the shore.We have done this on many different islands near W Island over the years and it is one of my most favorite Island pastimes as so very beautiful and relaxing to be out on the lake and coastlines for hours plus great photography!! It was fine going into Poverty but larger waves developed while we were on the island, so we got a bit wet on the raft trip back to the boat . We were also met by much larger waves for our motorboat to handle on the way back to Washington Island, but we made it in about an hour of driving through the 3 ft waves. Dave's a great boat navigator and since we have done this many many times, he is pro at driving the boat at just the right angle to keep the wet splash of most waves out of the boat (but our raincoats felt nice and warm anyway with the late afternoon sun starting to diminish).
All in all we had a nice holiday family weekend and even managed to miss alot of the holiday traffic by driving back to Milwaukee by taking the first ferry off the island on Monday at 7am (getting in line by 6am to be sure of this). It did rain all the way back but a light rain so not too much of a nuisance. We even got back early enough to pick up Dave's mom for a quick lunch so Liz could see her aging grandmother before their trip back to Portland. We missed Katie but know we will get to spend time with her this fall and at Christmas time so had to settle for some phone calls to her for now. It is always a blessing to spend time with family...these are treasured times when family members live so far away from each other!!
We had a nice relaxing weekend of family time- game playing inside in the cool evening hours and an outside horseshoe competition with Dave and Andy(they are getting pretty good and came in just as it was starting to get dark outside). We grilled out some Salmon for Liz (that we had caught a few weeks earlier this summer) and of course steak for Andy who loves getting his red meat( as Liz is a vegetarian). We also had a few meals at island restaurants- one run by an islander that does commercial fishing( great local fish) and another at the marina( great pasta and ribs!!).Liz mixed up some gluten-free breadsticks I bought at our local health food store but they were a bit odd and not too tasty and she is a good cook( the clerk recommended them as tasty... i guess not ?). I cooked up some french toast with ligonberries for breakfast , baked homemade carrot muffins and had ice cream sundaes with local fresh frozen cherries for dessert for treats. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!
Liz enjoyed some closet treasure hunting looking for fun things she may want to take home from all the years of spending summer weeks on the island when she was younger. She found a pair of beige jeans that fit her like a glove, some art prints, photos. and a big wrap around wool sweater I had inherited from Dave's sister Anne (who passed away a number of years ago). She wore that cozy sweater for the rest of the weekend! She even talked me into cleaning my clothes closet( i think she was still looking for treasure-he he). I also went through and my pot and Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen which I really wanted to clean as overflowing since Dave put in our mini dishwasher and took my large pot cabinet to do so. She took some of my antique canning jars I had displayed on top my kitchen cabinets( as I have alot more), as she is starting to can local produce in Portland now. She also took some camping equipment we offered( and had sorted out in our garage on the island the weekend before they came)- a camp lantern, some camp cook pots and dishes and a small green dome tent that i think belonged to my brother Dale (Dale passed away in 1979 and was an avid camper , biker and hiker). I had also brought up some luggage from home that Liz wanted . So this worked nicely to just check 2 bags with the airlines when returning home to get the luggage and other things back to Portland, as they only brought two carry on backpacks. And I love living with less ....so hurrah for more things gone from our house!! We also took a nice batch of things to the "Twice Around Shop"- the island resale store housed in an old farmhouse( all proceeds benefit the Island Medical Clinic).
While Liz and I went to the TAShop, Dave and Andy also took a big batch of things we had cleaned out of the garage the weekend before to the "Island landfill. There is no garbage pick up on the island ,so you have to haul your garbage or discards to the landfill during the limited hours of wed or sat 10-3. The Island landfill also recycles items discarded by some but of use to others.( I love this idea!). There is also a huge pile of discarded metal items, most of which need repair or are not usable, but at least are not part of the garbage that has to be taken off island. Some people come to pick through this for things to repair or parts for other things they have but most of it is just discards and unusable as broken beyond repair. One elderly man we knew on the island( and passed away this year) always came to the landfill to pick up broken lawn chairs , took them home, repaired and sold them. It became his side business to earn income in his retirement. That's creative!! The landfill now requires that you use clear plastic bags to throw away garbage perhaps to put an end to non- garbage items getting put into the compacted garbage to reduce the amount and cost of garbage taken by expense off island for disposal. There is also a fish guts composting area and a building materials discard pile...all separate from the compacted garbage. They do recycle plastic/glass, , alum cans and cardboard. It is an interesting process,as when you live on a small island you have to learn to thoughtfully discard of things for the best environmental reuse or discard.
We also went for a nice bike ride to Sand Dune Beach and some lovely afternoon boating and beach combing on Poverty Island in Lake Michigan. Poverty Island used to be an active coast guard lighthouse, so it is fun to explore the coast around it as well as the old lighthouse buildings. We climbed to the top to the lighthouse among the dismantled buildings. The view is glorious...you can see for miles in all directions and the water sparkles in the Sept. sunshine. There is always some treasure to be found on the beaches and area around the coast guard buildings- pcs of driftwood, old commercial fishing net floats, pieces of metal from ships or dismantled machines. Most of all it is just a glorious afternoon of fresh air and coastal hiking.
The Poverty Island pier no longer exists so the only way to get ashore with the rocky coastline and shallow shoals is to anchor our boat in deeper water off shore and take a large rubber raft with tiny motor to reach the shore.We have done this on many different islands near W Island over the years and it is one of my most favorite Island pastimes as so very beautiful and relaxing to be out on the lake and coastlines for hours plus great photography!! It was fine going into Poverty but larger waves developed while we were on the island, so we got a bit wet on the raft trip back to the boat . We were also met by much larger waves for our motorboat to handle on the way back to Washington Island, but we made it in about an hour of driving through the 3 ft waves. Dave's a great boat navigator and since we have done this many many times, he is pro at driving the boat at just the right angle to keep the wet splash of most waves out of the boat (but our raincoats felt nice and warm anyway with the late afternoon sun starting to diminish).
All in all we had a nice holiday family weekend and even managed to miss alot of the holiday traffic by driving back to Milwaukee by taking the first ferry off the island on Monday at 7am (getting in line by 6am to be sure of this). It did rain all the way back but a light rain so not too much of a nuisance. We even got back early enough to pick up Dave's mom for a quick lunch so Liz could see her aging grandmother before their trip back to Portland. We missed Katie but know we will get to spend time with her this fall and at Christmas time so had to settle for some phone calls to her for now. It is always a blessing to spend time with family...these are treasured times when family members live so far away from each other!!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
THE COMPANY PICNIC
I don't know if you have any childhood memories of employee picnics in your family, but i do!!
They are picnics with the whole family( or whoever is home that day), kids paying games, adults in random conversations, and food for all!!
We attended Dave's company picnic a few Saturdays ago and it brought back alot of memories.
Dave's company used to do a "Hawaiian Shirt Chili-Cook off Tailgate" picnic at a Brewers Game in Milwaukee every summer in the 70's as an alternative to the usual Company summer picnic. It was great fun! Everybody (who wanted to participate) brought their version of Chili and the company supplied the Brewers tickets, chili fixins & french bread, and prizes and everyone brought their own drinks in usual tailgate style. There were prizes for the best and worst chili as well as the best Haywain shirt outfit- fun fun. Top chili prize was $, best Hawaiian shirt was a company sweatshirt and worst chili was a can of Hormel chili( he he).I was 8 mo pregnant with at one of the last tailgates i attended in a giant pg Hawaiian sundress! I learned some fun new ingredients for chili making- wow was there variety from white bean chili to chili with noodles, some with steak, some very spicy and some not. I now add BBQ sauce and bacon to my regular chili recipe from this tailgate influence( oops... i just gave away my secret ingredients!!).
As the years went on it was harder and harder to figure out who could actually attend( correct # of tickets to buy) as so many conflicts in summer with summer family vacations, weddings etc...,so after a few years of tickets not being used they decided to switch back to a less expensive summer picnic at a forest preserve park.
At this picnic the company supplies the paper goods, meat and buns and soda and then everyone brought homemade side sides/salads and desserts to share. They always have kids activities- some years they had games with prizes. As there are so many young children now ( toddlers, preschoolers) this year they had a neat blow up jumping house (which the kids of all ages loved), a hay pile with coins and candy to find,and water balloons to play with and of course the cute mini company logo shirts for each child attending. This year they even threw in a cute nylon company logo carry bag too.The traditional continuing games for the adults are in teams: Bag-O , tug of war, and my favorite the "raw egg toss".The egg toss is where you line up across from your partner and throw the egg, then take a step backward increasing the distance for each throw until you miss. The only prize for adult games is a traveling Bag-o trophy. Such fun!! The food is amazing and usually the president of the company does the grilling of all the meat! It really is a nice family event and as we grow older in the process we now meet many grandchildren of our company friends, as our children are all grown up.It is hard to save that few hours and stay home on a a summer weekend but it is nice to see everybody in such a fun relaxed family format.
When I was young, the company my Dad worked for had a great annual summer company picnic at a park in Milwaukee. What I remember is the kids games- sack race, three legged race( tie inside legs together and hop to finish line),wheelbarrow race( hold legs of partner and they walk on their hands), egg- spoon carry,and candy pinata and all the kids got extra ice cream tickets for prizes.The ice cream was those fun cups you eat with a wooden tongue depressor type spoon- my favorite of the picnic treats. And i remember getting a helium balloon too when we left for home. After the games we ate lunch( provided by the company- hot dogs and hamburgers and usual trimmings and dad talked with his friends and introduced us kids to his truck driving co-workers.Dad worked for REA Express, a company that delivered packages too large for the postal system or UPS that came in on the trains. Ironically years later ( in the 60's)the UPS system got greedy and took larger and larger packages and ultimately put REA out of business so my dad was forced into early retirement at age 62 with little notice. My dad used to bring home great "seconds"( slightly damaged goods that employees could buy). He bought us some fun giant 3 wheel bikes, a cute glass top dressing table for me one Christmas and other stuff. When REA went out of business my dad bought the Milwaukee RRoad station master's desk from the railroad station in downtown Milwaukee.and some neat large wooden trunks which my brother still has.
My mom's company Lakeside Bridge and Steel in Milwaukee did not have a summer company picnic for families, instead they had a family kids Christmas party that employees could bring their children or grandchildren to and all would receive really nice gifts- like dolls or board games. I do not remember going to this as a child, but i remember my mom and I taking my girls( the grandchildren) to it a number of years. It was fun and of course there was an appearance by the company Santa Claus to give out all the gifts by Name( as employees registered the children coming by name and age before hand so the company knew how many gifts to buy and what ages to buy for - very thoughtful i thought! All the grandparents got to show off the cute grand kids in their Christmas pretty dresses and outfits.Mom really enjoyed this.
Today as the economy takes a dive, companies may indeed come back to this once a year inexpensive type of get together for families of employees vs the more expensive employee only Christmas parties. I know my husband's company cancelled their Christmas party last Dec for the first time in 37 yrs in lieu of all the layoffs occurring- they simply could not afford or justify the expense. In this economy downfall we will all have to learn to do things simpler and with less expense.Perhaps it is not a bad life lesson after all, as Americans have been living beyond their means for many years and this is just a wake up call to reality.Lets hope the Company Picnic makes a comeback..... it is such a fun family event!!
They are picnics with the whole family( or whoever is home that day), kids paying games, adults in random conversations, and food for all!!
We attended Dave's company picnic a few Saturdays ago and it brought back alot of memories.
Dave's company used to do a "Hawaiian Shirt Chili-Cook off Tailgate" picnic at a Brewers Game in Milwaukee every summer in the 70's as an alternative to the usual Company summer picnic. It was great fun! Everybody (who wanted to participate) brought their version of Chili and the company supplied the Brewers tickets, chili fixins & french bread, and prizes and everyone brought their own drinks in usual tailgate style. There were prizes for the best and worst chili as well as the best Haywain shirt outfit- fun fun. Top chili prize was $, best Hawaiian shirt was a company sweatshirt and worst chili was a can of Hormel chili( he he).I was 8 mo pregnant with at one of the last tailgates i attended in a giant pg Hawaiian sundress! I learned some fun new ingredients for chili making- wow was there variety from white bean chili to chili with noodles, some with steak, some very spicy and some not. I now add BBQ sauce and bacon to my regular chili recipe from this tailgate influence( oops... i just gave away my secret ingredients!!).
As the years went on it was harder and harder to figure out who could actually attend( correct # of tickets to buy) as so many conflicts in summer with summer family vacations, weddings etc...,so after a few years of tickets not being used they decided to switch back to a less expensive summer picnic at a forest preserve park.
At this picnic the company supplies the paper goods, meat and buns and soda and then everyone brought homemade side sides/salads and desserts to share. They always have kids activities- some years they had games with prizes. As there are so many young children now ( toddlers, preschoolers) this year they had a neat blow up jumping house (which the kids of all ages loved), a hay pile with coins and candy to find,and water balloons to play with and of course the cute mini company logo shirts for each child attending. This year they even threw in a cute nylon company logo carry bag too.The traditional continuing games for the adults are in teams: Bag-O , tug of war, and my favorite the "raw egg toss".The egg toss is where you line up across from your partner and throw the egg, then take a step backward increasing the distance for each throw until you miss. The only prize for adult games is a traveling Bag-o trophy. Such fun!! The food is amazing and usually the president of the company does the grilling of all the meat! It really is a nice family event and as we grow older in the process we now meet many grandchildren of our company friends, as our children are all grown up.It is hard to save that few hours and stay home on a a summer weekend but it is nice to see everybody in such a fun relaxed family format.
When I was young, the company my Dad worked for had a great annual summer company picnic at a park in Milwaukee. What I remember is the kids games- sack race, three legged race( tie inside legs together and hop to finish line),wheelbarrow race( hold legs of partner and they walk on their hands), egg- spoon carry,and candy pinata and all the kids got extra ice cream tickets for prizes.The ice cream was those fun cups you eat with a wooden tongue depressor type spoon- my favorite of the picnic treats. And i remember getting a helium balloon too when we left for home. After the games we ate lunch( provided by the company- hot dogs and hamburgers and usual trimmings and dad talked with his friends and introduced us kids to his truck driving co-workers.Dad worked for REA Express, a company that delivered packages too large for the postal system or UPS that came in on the trains. Ironically years later ( in the 60's)the UPS system got greedy and took larger and larger packages and ultimately put REA out of business so my dad was forced into early retirement at age 62 with little notice. My dad used to bring home great "seconds"( slightly damaged goods that employees could buy). He bought us some fun giant 3 wheel bikes, a cute glass top dressing table for me one Christmas and other stuff. When REA went out of business my dad bought the Milwaukee RRoad station master's desk from the railroad station in downtown Milwaukee.and some neat large wooden trunks which my brother still has.
My mom's company Lakeside Bridge and Steel in Milwaukee did not have a summer company picnic for families, instead they had a family kids Christmas party that employees could bring their children or grandchildren to and all would receive really nice gifts- like dolls or board games. I do not remember going to this as a child, but i remember my mom and I taking my girls( the grandchildren) to it a number of years. It was fun and of course there was an appearance by the company Santa Claus to give out all the gifts by Name( as employees registered the children coming by name and age before hand so the company knew how many gifts to buy and what ages to buy for - very thoughtful i thought! All the grandparents got to show off the cute grand kids in their Christmas pretty dresses and outfits.Mom really enjoyed this.
Today as the economy takes a dive, companies may indeed come back to this once a year inexpensive type of get together for families of employees vs the more expensive employee only Christmas parties. I know my husband's company cancelled their Christmas party last Dec for the first time in 37 yrs in lieu of all the layoffs occurring- they simply could not afford or justify the expense. In this economy downfall we will all have to learn to do things simpler and with less expense.Perhaps it is not a bad life lesson after all, as Americans have been living beyond their means for many years and this is just a wake up call to reality.Lets hope the Company Picnic makes a comeback..... it is such a fun family event!!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Summer Birthday Visit in Portland- August 2010
This summer was a special year as my girls turned 25 and 27 and their birthdays are only three weeks apart in the summer. They called and asked me to come out to Portland for the weekend to help celebrate with them. When my girls want to get together I would be the last person to say no! So off i went. I flew in on a Wed. night and left Monday morning and Liz was able to take some time off that she had worked in overtime. Katie came for the whole week and two weekends for her summer vacation. We had such a fun long weekend together!!
It started out with camping at the Zigzag River at the base of Mt. Hood. The weather was beautiful- sunny, 70's and NO bugs!! Who said Portland is always rainy and cloudy all the time, not in summer?! We just camped for one night as they had other things they wanted to do too. I had not been tent camping in many years and it was such fun! Andy made a great evening campfire and Liz cooked us up a great camp breakfast right over the campfire( no campstove!).We also had supper at Timberline Lodge at the top of Mt. Hood.
We ate at a number of other fun restaurants too while there: BBQ, Southern cooking, Thai and of course the famous Voodoo Donuts. Portland has great variety of places to eat!! We also had Liz's birthday breakfast at Bob's Red Mill, a well known whole grains store and restaurant. We all took some home some groceries and kitchen gadgets from this visit- what a fun place and only 30 min away from where they live. Katie, Liz and I went to sing and dance to Karaoke one evening with some of Liz's church girlfreinds- very fun!! Katie and Liz also got matching birthday tatoos on their feet while Andy and I checked out Portland's oldest and largest used book store.
We stayed at Liz and Andy's cute new apt. It is an upper flat of a brick house in a nice neighborhood in Portland and walking distance to Western Seminary where Andy attends. It is all knotty pine with alot of fun built- in bookcases& dressing tables(bedroom and bathroom) and lots of closets and kitchen cabinets and it came furnished! So they gave away, sold and have put in closets some of their furnishings( Liz even took a few of their lamps and end tables for her office at work). I was really impressed with their simple and cozy living space.Their landlaord is an 80yr old widower who has never had to rent his apt thru ads as it is always passed on by word of mouth at the seminary. In fact Liz and Andy's pastor once lived there!! They also have so many great friends through their church , some of which we met at church on sunday service.!!
Portland really seems to fit Liz and Andy, as it is very beautiful (close to the coast and mountains as less than an hour away), has many interesting neighborhoods and restaurants, and one of the fastest growing cities in the US with alot of young people moving there. It is also a very environmental minded city that has a lot of bikers, and many restaurants featuring locally grown produce . It also is a very art oriented, so Andy gets to show his paintings in alot of restaurants, coffee shops and even stores (like Whole Foods and even a Snowboard shop).Portland also has "Last Thursday", an all summer street festival with artists displaying their work, live music and food.
All in all Portland is a wonderful city and a great place to live , so I cannot be to melancholy about how far away Liz and Andy live from us. It is a beautiful, and fun place to visit for our whole family. It was so nice to spend time with both of my girls as they both live so far away. Katie lives in Boulder, Colorado- another beautiful place to live and visit as right at the base of the Rocky Mts and only 20 min from Denver! But most of all we had a barrel of fun together of family time and a lovely birthday weekend in Portland!!
It started out with camping at the Zigzag River at the base of Mt. Hood. The weather was beautiful- sunny, 70's and NO bugs!! Who said Portland is always rainy and cloudy all the time, not in summer?! We just camped for one night as they had other things they wanted to do too. I had not been tent camping in many years and it was such fun! Andy made a great evening campfire and Liz cooked us up a great camp breakfast right over the campfire( no campstove!).We also had supper at Timberline Lodge at the top of Mt. Hood.
We ate at a number of other fun restaurants too while there: BBQ, Southern cooking, Thai and of course the famous Voodoo Donuts. Portland has great variety of places to eat!! We also had Liz's birthday breakfast at Bob's Red Mill, a well known whole grains store and restaurant. We all took some home some groceries and kitchen gadgets from this visit- what a fun place and only 30 min away from where they live. Katie, Liz and I went to sing and dance to Karaoke one evening with some of Liz's church girlfreinds- very fun!! Katie and Liz also got matching birthday tatoos on their feet while Andy and I checked out Portland's oldest and largest used book store.
We stayed at Liz and Andy's cute new apt. It is an upper flat of a brick house in a nice neighborhood in Portland and walking distance to Western Seminary where Andy attends. It is all knotty pine with alot of fun built- in bookcases& dressing tables(bedroom and bathroom) and lots of closets and kitchen cabinets and it came furnished! So they gave away, sold and have put in closets some of their furnishings( Liz even took a few of their lamps and end tables for her office at work). I was really impressed with their simple and cozy living space.Their landlaord is an 80yr old widower who has never had to rent his apt thru ads as it is always passed on by word of mouth at the seminary. In fact Liz and Andy's pastor once lived there!! They also have so many great friends through their church , some of which we met at church on sunday service.!!
Portland really seems to fit Liz and Andy, as it is very beautiful (close to the coast and mountains as less than an hour away), has many interesting neighborhoods and restaurants, and one of the fastest growing cities in the US with alot of young people moving there. It is also a very environmental minded city that has a lot of bikers, and many restaurants featuring locally grown produce . It also is a very art oriented, so Andy gets to show his paintings in alot of restaurants, coffee shops and even stores (like Whole Foods and even a Snowboard shop).Portland also has "Last Thursday", an all summer street festival with artists displaying their work, live music and food.
All in all Portland is a wonderful city and a great place to live , so I cannot be to melancholy about how far away Liz and Andy live from us. It is a beautiful, and fun place to visit for our whole family. It was so nice to spend time with both of my girls as they both live so far away. Katie lives in Boulder, Colorado- another beautiful place to live and visit as right at the base of the Rocky Mts and only 20 min from Denver! But most of all we had a barrel of fun together of family time and a lovely birthday weekend in Portland!!
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