Manzanita, Oregon

We flew into Oregon at midnight on Friday, October 2nd. We picked up our rental car and proceeded to Greg and Celeste's house. I had never met either. Doug and Greg have been friends since college days. When we arrived, I greeted Greg and then said "it is 4:30 a.m. in Bloomington." And Greg said "what is your point?" I was very tired and Doug and I fell into bed and got seven hours of sleep.

The next morning, we packed up and headed to the coast. Coastal Oregon
View from the condo

See? It was so lovely.

Celeste made tasty sandwiches and we went out to the shore for a walk.

Doug and I had never been to the ocean together, before.

Celeste and Greg

Sea grass and sunset

We went back indoors and Greg made his deliciously healthy Nicaraguan chowder. Everyone chopped and I was the photographer.

Doug chopping. He cried like a baby.

Celeste chops.

Greg chops.

Celeste chops some more.

Greg chops some more.

After dinner, Doug played and we sang. We schlepped Doug's guitar all the way from Indiana.

Gettin' ready.

Friends.

We had a wonderful time at the shore. It was sunny and clear. In fact, when we told everyone that we were vacationing at the northwest territory, everyone said "take your raincoat." We didn't have rain one time. Greg says it is never clear and sunny at the coast like that in October. I guess it is another sign that our lives are blessed.

Sweet sleep in the pacific northwest

Anyone who knows me very well knows how very much I love my sleep. That doesn't mean I am lazy, far from it. I just need quality sleep. If I don't get the sleep I need, I'm not worth much. (And not in a very good mood.) We were in the pacific northwest from October 2-12 and traveled round.

Nautical theme in the condo on the Oregon coast.

At the condo, the ocean was within view. We slept very peacefully with songs of the pines singing us to sleep.

Wonderful bed at Greg and Celeste's house in Portland.

The guest room was in the basement and it was extremely quiet and private. There was a down comforter with a duvet. Celeste bought brand new pillows for us to put our heads upon.

The night after we left Greg and Celeste's house, we met up with another of Doug's brothers, Paul, also from Indiana. He was in Portland for a conference. We slept on a houseboat that Paul had been given use of for the week. I failed to take any houseboat photos.

Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.

Timberline Lodge was built in 1937 and everything was either original, or restored to appear as it did in the '30's. The lodge ran the heat on an old boiler system and it was extremely warm. From the outside of the lodge, you could see many open windows. We slept with the window open and cool mountain air bathing over us.

Doug loved the lodge and wanted to stay a second night, but I was in dire need of a bathtub. I don't often take a bath, but as we were on vacation, I longed to linger in the tub. I also wanted to shave my legs and don't do well with shaving them while standing in a shower. Doug was able to secure a room at La Quinta Inn. It was extremely clean and I enjoyed a good soak in the tub and was able to finally shave my legs. (Disclaimer: La Quinta Inn did not give us a discount if I would mention them in my blog. We did get Doug's old fart AARP discount and an additional discount because the card key wouldn't work correctly.) And, I didn't take a photo of the bed at La Quinta because it was well, La Quinta.

Comfy bed on the farm in Idaho.

We went to Doug's brother's apple farm in Potlatch, Idaho to help with the apple harvest. It was cold. As cold as when one rakes leaves in the midwest. We had a wood fire in the fireplace for two evenings. And it was wonderful to retire to this comfy warm bed, again, to sleep beneath a down comforter in a duvet. I've never had a down comforter to put in a duvet but I may have to find one. Very comfy and warm. On the farm it was incredibly dark and quiet. Don't you love the way the light is dancing across the wall in this photo?

FILLED to the brim and overflowing

Do you ever feel as if you are so happy that you might just overflow? That is how I've been feeling. I don't cry often, but I think "if I get any happier I'm going to cry!" Does that make sense?

I have been extremely busy the past two weeks. I haven't even made time to pick up the paper. I had a huge assignment from the shop so I stayed up to get the cards made. Then, I wanted to make a little baby book for my friend Elisa, so I stayed up to do that. I has been close to midnight or twelve-thirty nearly every night!

Elisa had her daughter too soon. At thirty-one weeks. Her tiny little baby was only three pounds, four ounces at birth. I was able to meet her this week and she now weighs a whopping seven pounds and is twenty inches long and doing very well! She is now two months old.

Introducing Miss Audrey

The duggles and I are leaving on a jet plane this evening. We are flying to Portland, Oregon. Then we will drive out to a little hippie town called Manzanita. Then we will return to Portland and on Monday will do the famous Powell's book store. Then we will drive through the gorge and finally to dug's brother's apple farm where we are going to help with the apple harvest. I've never been to the pacific northwest but am very excited about our trip. I read Annie Dillard's book, The Living a few years ago. It is a very long book, spanning several generations, fiction based on historic fact. If you haven't read it, you might consider it. I was pulled in by the first sentence.

This very well may be the first vacation that Doug and I have done where we aren't out to challenge our bodies physically. We have backpacked in the Rocky Mountains and canoed in the Boundary Waters and last year, to celebrate my fiftieth birthday, we hiked down into the Grand Canyon ,(7 hours) stayed at Phantom Ranch, and hiked out (7.5 hours) on my birthday!

We will get some hiking in and we will be picking apples. One of my friends said "don't they have a machine to do that?"

My friends insist that I "unplug," so I am not taking my laptop. I'm not certain if I will be online at all, so you may not hear from me for awhile. I will return on the twelfth of October. Doug keeps saying "have you told her?" I haven't come right out and said "Chelsea, mommy and daddy will be gone for awhile, but we will be back." But she knows. My cat Milo had to be dead center on the bed as we packed and vocally protested each time Doug put her on the floor. Chelsea paced around, nosing at our feet. She knows something is up.

This was her face this morning.

She was so forlorn. She knows. Don't tell me that she doesn't.

So happy to be happy! I hope this find you happy, too. I will return. "Buh-bye."
(waving and smiling.)