Time's a Flying

 Mid April already!!  It's been a full spring - unfortunately, a lot of germs and bad weather.  We're hoping to finally celebrate Christmas this week with the Portland gang!

We had a great time on our spring trip down to Phoenix and Palm Spring's.  The Portland boys came down and joined us.  Remember, the we joined the girls in NYC last fall.  The boys went to Spring baseball games and we all enjoyed excellent food and laying by the pool.  We also took a tour of Embry Riddle Aeronautic University.  M is interested in their program.  It's pretty impressive and I think M would fit right in!

 

Spring Training Week!!  Go Teams!

After J and M headed back home we headed for 5 more days in Palm Springs.  The best food, wonderful weather and the food was divine!  Yes, the food was good enough to mention twice!!  Yum!

My private pool for Water Aerobics.  There was supposed to be a 9 am class - but never saw a teacher!

Street Art in Palm Springs, sentiment good to remember!  We highly recommend the Date Shakes!

We went to the Palm Springs Art Museum our last day.  Fantastic displays - we both highly recommend it.

This sculpture in the entry way stole the show.  I've included the artist's information and a close up looking inside.  Amazing!!

I spent hours sitting on our patio, finishing the hand quilting on this 9patch quilt I started back around 2017!!  Poor thing was in time out during all the moving we've done.  My hand quilting as deteriorated these last years.  It's a race between hand arthritis and eye sight!!  As my mom used to say, "Old age isn't for sissies!" 

Driving home on Good Friday was like driving in UO football traffic.  Everyone from Northern California was headed South and everyone from Southern California was headed North.  Holy Moley!

Outside of Stockton we were almost hit by a HUGE  tumbleweed.  It came into the traffic lane right beside us - and it was taller than our car!  Luckily, it paused to let us by and then swooped in behind us.  I was too busy gawking at it to grab the camera.

Saturday was normal traffic, the weather was trying to decide whether to snow on us.  But we kept ahead of it?  This was the look-out at the Shasta Lake Rest Stop.

Since we've gotten home I've been busy trying to get quilts done for the Azalea Quilt Festival over Memorial Day Weekend.  I'll add pictures of my entries next time.

Come on over and see us!!

We're BACK!

 But first I must show you the article I saw:

To be honest, it went on to give some really weird Jello salads to make.  None sounded good to me - but my cranberry salad is WAY BETTER than canned cranberries.  Just saying!

I was at the Bandon Quilt Retreat and had a blast!  With the Bayshore Babes anything is possible!!  The food is delicious and most days we had a 'chocolate smorgasbord' of assorted chocolates to keep up our energy and spirits!!

J kept bringing delicious snacks over telling me our room wasn't eating enough!  I almost always snuck them back and put them in front of her machine!  On the very first night R, for some reason, put Dawn Liquid dish soap in the dishwasher.  Its a good thing to do if you want to clean the floor at the same time!!  R has a great sense of humor and always helps clean up any mess.  Did you know that Dollar Tree stores have 5 different color mini bottles of Dawn?  It was truly meant to be - the next day when R left (finally) her sewing space we 'dolled' it up with 3 Dawns!  We all laughed about it all week!

P and I were pretty 'nose to the grindstone' when we were there.  Here's the selection of projects I worked on - on my design board.

Now don't get excited about how much I got done!  It was a 5 day retreat; we were cramped in the Subaru we were driving so I packed UFOs - almost all these blocks were already made.

Starting in upper left corner:  

Japanese Boro with fabrics and silk screens from Japan when P & I were there in January 2020.  I've been wanting to design this for years ...  add a triangular border or not?  You'll be the first to know!  

Across the top is a part of a kit that I got in a class at Portland Block Party in 2008(?)  I like the colors but not enough to make a quilt!  But I think it will look fabulous on my green dining room table!  I got the 3 blocks that were made together with the first of many borders.  Unfortunately, I thought the second border needed some pink in it - but didn't have any.  

Stripe Me Lucky is a pattern from Jen Kingwell's Posse - young designers that she sponsors!  I made this quilt last year for D, my grandson, one of the family quilts  to replace quilts that burned in the Almeda Fire while they were in Panama.  P and I loved it so much we cut and made blocks for each of us too!  Still love it and want to make a 70 x 90 couch quilt.

Along the right side:  Bonnie Hunter's Monkey Business.  It looks like a churn dash but isn't.  It's based on a 5 patch (not 9 patch like churn dash)  The corner blocks are twice as big as the middle rows are.  I loved BH's quilt but was not that happy with my fabric choices.  So I made it for our Hospice Charity quilts.  Ta-Da - just need to find a back and turn it in Tuesday to our chairwoman. Done-done.

Across the bottom almost "Annabelle's Quilt" pattern.  I tweaked it quite a bit! Very old UFO too.  I have all the blocks done and was sashing them together. And ran out of the beige-ings sashing.  Now I have bins and bins of "beige-ings" and wasn't going to buy any.  So - cut more sashings and Get 'R Dun!! is on my ToDo list!

The reason I hung them at home was - we left the day after we got home - and I didn't want to let them to be forgotten!!  Because DH whisked me away to Palm Springs for a week!  This year is our 50th wedding anniversary!! And a little get-away was needed after Covid, right?

We started with DD in Portland for 2 days.  Direct flight from there to PS!

We had a great time - especially at Sherman's Deli five out of the six days!!  It's our favorite, what can I say?    For Breakfast I recommend the Greek Omelette.  Lunch:  Pastrami sandwiches is always a must.  I swear there is a pound of meat on that sandwich!  

My second lunch was with my Newport friend who lives in the area now.  I ordered Stuffed Tomato with Chicken Salad.  And there was cups full of fresh fruit around the perimeter of the dish!  Cantaloupe, Musk Melon, Pineapple, Strawberries and Blueberries! Generally, I'm not a melon fan but I am now!!  Other customers even asked me what I ordered!!  It looked as good as it tasted!

After our 'light lunch' we walked around downtown and window shopped.  The Art Museum had some outdoor permanent displays.

  

Palm Springs' 28 foot Marilyn.  We saw a biker gang stopping by for selfies!!  And I was glad I did my toe nails before the trip - even the statues have painted toe nails!

Of course we did eat at other places too!  PF Chang's; a PD Mexican Restaurant and Castillo's.  Chang's is always good, the Mexican restaurant was so busy and loud - it was impossible to have a conversation.  And I have to admit, our food wasn't very good or hot!  

Oh, but, Castillo's was fabulous!  And old Italian restaurant with pictures of famous guests on the wall.  Just in our little corner we spotted Bob Hope, Florence Henderson, and a very young Joe Biden!  There was a piano bar that we could faintly hear.  They make their own Limoncello!  The food was out of this world!  We love Italian and on special occasions we almost always celebrate with Italian food.  Castillo's was a Top 10 restaurant and meal!!  And we've been doing this over 50 years!!!  I had Lobster Ravioli (oh my!)  and DH had Chilean Sea Bass with a side dish of very delicious grilled veggies.  

Our time was very low key - most afternoons were laying by the pool and reading.  I finished 4 books!!  It was marvelous!  And if you ever have a chance to fly into Palm Springs Airport - its a gem! Most of it is outdoors with Palm Trees welcoming you.

A sunset from our balcony in Palm Desert.

We are back home now - just in time to start a 7 day storm!  Sigh, but still good to be home!

And I've been having all the fun!

...with no time for blogging!

We got away to Southern California in January.  It was not the vacation of our dreams!  We got stuck for FIVE hours on top of the Grapevine.  6 inches of snow and it was crazy!  I wasn't sure my bladder could withstand 5 hours without a break.  When we finally got released, we stopped at a MacDonalds - but it was closed!  We begged the lovely man inside to let us in and -bless him- he did!


It definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been - we had excellent reception, no kids in the car.  Listened to NPR, 60s and practically everything else.  The new car was good on slick highways.  Got to Palm Springs later than expected, but 20 minutes before the hotel restaurant closed.  Dinner was served and it tasted mighty good!

BUT it was raining in Palm Springs!!!  The first rain they had for 18 months!!!  Lucky us!  But sitting around away from home is alright.  No chores calling you.  We went to see the "Green Book" movie and it was excellent.  DH and I grew up in the Midwest.  We didn't have the psychedelic 60s!  We definitely had the segregated 60s.  And they nailed that!  See it if you have the chance.  We've already qued up Don Shirley on Pandora!  Excellent music.

 My the pineapples are large in Mission Hills!

We did have a morning without rain!  DH looked up the weather the day before we were supposed to leave ... a sunny weekend!!  What the heck, we're retired, we booked a room at Cody's just off of downtown Palm  Springs and stayed 2 more days.  So glad we did.  A lot of Sherman's NY Deli was consumed!  I laid about the pool, reading.  It wasn't quite warm enough to get in, IMHO!

My view from the poolside.  Blue Skies!!!

We had a great time taking a Celebrity Homes Bus Tour in Palm Springs.  We had Annie - a /Real New Yorker tour guide.  She knew everything about those glory days.  It was very entertaining, she told stories, answered questions and managed to guide a giant tour bus around the narrow streets, past a wedding and the Woman's March.  All without incident!!  I highly recommend the tour!

The mountains in Palm Springs are different than our Oregon mountains.  These are certainly rock from the bottom up.  That's my hat on the hill starting behind the strip center.  Palm Springs has 3-5 earthquakes a day!!!!  But since they are built on the sand over an aquifer, they don't feel them unless they are over a '4'.

I made DH check the "Grapevine Road Conditions" before we left the desert - but it was smooth sailing all the way.

I got to spend time with a birth-sister in Tracy.  We had a great time talking and looking thru her family pictures.  Funny to hear the 'other' take of the stories.

We got home and had to make a quick trip up to Portland.  Boy, I'm too old for 'up and back in 2 days' trips!  But had to get back in time for our Guild Quilt Retreat!!!

We go up the coast 25 miles to a SureStay Hotel with a nice conference room we take over!  A rollicking good time was had.  There was plenty of chocolate, snacks, good food and late nights!  Who could ask for more??

I'm teaching a hand embroidery class at our local quilt shop.  It started this week.  The class was full and we had a good time, learned two stitches and they were sent home with homework on those stitches!  I think it went well, but we'll see if they come back for week two!!  LOL!

Then ... I was down and out for 2 days.  I still don't know if it was allergies, stress, or the good old fashioned cold.  But I'm still thinking allergies because a cold would have lasted longer, right??

Happy February!!

Part 2 of our trip - welcome to Palm Springs!!!

DH picked me up from the Quilt show on Sunday and off we went to beautiful downtown Palm Springs!  We were lucky enough to stay at Casa Cody.  It's a beautiful collection of old motels and houses that are grouped together.  I didn't realize how loud the Radisson was by the airport.  But at Casa Cody I could hear birds singing and surprisingly little traffic noise.

There was a delightful heated pool right outside our unit!  I was in it every day!  There were orange, grapefruit and lemon trees all around!  It was great fun.

We walked around downtown at will!  We had dinner at our favorite restaurants. 360 - a small jazz club that used to be Torme's.  Shermans - the best deli in the west!!  We ate there everyday!  Breakfast, lunch or just desserts!!

L, a good friend from Newport Oregon lives close by in the winter.  She came over for lunch at Sherman's and a little shopping.  It was great fun to see her and spend the afternoon with her.  Thanks again for making the drive!

After three glorious days in Paradise ... off we went to meet my daughter and her family back in LA for a surprise trip to Disneyland!!  The grandkids found out about it that morning.  Balloons in a box saying - "Go get dressed!  We're flying to Disneyland NOW!"

It wasn't quiet, but we walked everywhere.  It was very crowded, but we managed to hit all the roller coasters and almost everything we wanted to ride.  It was too much fun!

Goofy and me!!  (Goofy is on the left!)

Mr M on the Rocket ride.

We scored the front of the Monorail for a great ride!

Indiana Jones ride line was long - but worth it!

Even Flat Stanley enjoyed the entertainment!

Miss P loved meeting the princesses

We were able to sign up the kids for Jedi training - they really had fun.  Mr M fought Darth Vader!

Miss P fought too!

Almost everyone loved riding the "Screamer"  All but Mr M and me! We hung out together riding other rides in CA Adventure.  We loved Soaring and Cars land.

Two weeks after I left, we got back home.  I was up to my Mickey Mouse ears in laundry.  And there was just 3 days until our Guild Retreat started!!

We were on vacation ... can you guess where we've been?

Here's a hint!

!>


It's true, it's true - I got DH out of Oregon for 'basically the first time' since we moved here - almost 3 years ago!!

We had lovely weather along the coast in January - R was able to go golfing 10 times!! But we had the chance to go to Palm Springs and stay with Newport friends so we skedaddled out of here! The weather has turned B*A*D since we returned - causing R to start planning next year's trip - to stay LONGER!!

We drove South on I5 - delivering baby furniture to A&J2 and having lunch with R's golfing buddy in Ashland. Stayed in Redding with good friends B&D and then the long stretch to get to Palm Springs. We had our first In-N-Out Burger in Bakersfield. We got to Palm Springs to perfect weather - 70s, dry air and no wind!! Now that's what we're talking about!!

Sunday we took off to explore. We took the Aerial Tramway up the mountains 8500 feet above sealevel! - that's where you can sled in snow and find really big pine cones!! Then we went to my first 'new' 3D movie - The Hubble at IMAX. I was blown away! See it if you can!! Dinner was at an Italian restaurant. Our local Italian place closed when we moved to Brookings and we've been desperate for good Italian that we didn't have to cook ourselves!! That dinner was the first of lots of good Italian on this vacation!




I was great the first few days. We even went twice to Water Aerobics at the city pool. Pool's capacity was 680!! Yep, it was LARGE! Valentine's Day found us at Torme's Supper Club with a live band and dancing with my husband!! Very fun.




Then I got an 'allergic reaction of epic proportions' to something blooming in the desert! After a week in paradise (with a box of Puffs at my side) we headed to DISNEYLAND where I promptly picked up my "1st timer" button!!

>


L - a good friend from Newport went with us and she is the BEST Disneyland fan!! We had a blast with her as our guide. Loved California Adventure and "Soarin' Over California!" Second favorite was Mr PotatoHead's Arcade where I surprised my husband by having more-than-double his score!! Watch out! - I'm a mean, green, shooting machine!! The new California Adventure water-laser show "A World of Color" is simply unbelievable! When you're there - don't even think about leaving early!!

The next day R&I went to Disneyland by ourselves and we did well! Actually rode the Indiana Jones ride and Space Mountain before official opening! Magic Hour is!! Of course, we were pooped from the day before, didn't have L with us and it started raining at 2:15 ... but still, lots of fun! Scoped it out for our next visit with the grandkids!! Maybe to celebrate our 40th anniversary??? It's a thought!

Saturday it was still raining as we left LA. We made it to Santa Barbara where R attended half a year of kindergarten a l*o*n*g time ago! I toured my first mission and we stumbled across an awesome Italian restaurant downtown. They were cooking something garlic when we walked by - R immediately went in and made reservations for that night! The downtown is everything you'd want - great shopping, great food and many theaters. We saw a movie while hiding out from the rain before dinner.

Sunday saw us heading for Monterey. We had breakfast in Malibu and it was sunny and wonderful driving up Big Sur. We immediately drove the 17 mile loop around Pebble Beach. Stopped and bought sweatshirts and then had dinner at the slowest Big Bear Diner in the west!! It was comical - we advised new customers [under our breath] to order breakfast ... cuz they'd still be there!! Helpful in many ways, I'm sure!!




Monday morning we were at the Aquarium. I'm happy to say it was awesome, and also proved the little aquarium in Newport is very good too!! They had a seahorse display that was amazing. R fell in love with the Leafy Sea Dragon! Now that's a funky animal!!




On to San Francisco - and wow! We had clear weather and it was so much fun - my 1st time there and we triangulated that town!! The first thing we did after checking into our motel by Fisherman's Wharf was buy 'hop on and off sightseeing by bus' tickets good for two days! There were 4 tours and we took them all! Went around downtown several times; went out to Golden Gate Park where museums reside!; went to Saucilito over the Golden Gate Bridge and then took the night tour too!

And the food - let me tell you - it was not on our diets, but boy-oh-boy was it good!! The first night, Neptune's on Pier 39 - creamiest clam chowder we'd ever had and you know we have it every chance we get!! I'll dream of that chowder until we go back for more!

Lunch the next day was in Chinatown at R&G Lounge. R declared it was better than the food he had in Taiwan and Hong Kong! That night we went to Alioto's where I had some pasta that saved my life!! We'd just come off the night bus tour, where we were upstairs in the open air bus and we were frozen!!

The last day we bought day passes for the Muni-system. Cable cars all day long! What a blast!! The Powell and Mason line started a block from our hotel. We rode it downtown and then a different one back to the wharf. Then up to the top of Lombard street - the crooked street. We got off and walked down - trust me, it was better than walking up!! 31% grade!! Then we got on a bus to the Coit Tower. Toured the tower and then walked down Telegraph Hill hoping to see the wild parrots. [no luck] Caught our double decker tour bus and rode to North Bay - the Italian section.




We sat outside and had a wonderful late lunch in the sun. Back on the cable cars for more fun downtown! I shopped at Britex Fabrics!! They were even having a sale - I bought 1/2 yard of Japanese navy bunny-rabbit fabric!! And yes, I could have bought more, but I was able to stuff the half yard in my purse and not carry anything else cuz you need two hands to hang on the cable cars!

That night we ate at the Blue Mermaid down at the wharf. Award winning chowder ... need I say more? They drew us in and proved it! After our Italian lunch we weren't that hungry - but needed something! The crab sweet corn chowder was also yummy!!

We woke up Thursday morning to rain and forecast of really bad weather coming. So we high-tailed it home. Drove thru snow south of Crescent City - very unusual for the coast!! We had two days of cool but clear weather with whales entertaining us! And San Francisco had their first snow since 1980 the day after we left!! Someone posted ski run ratings of all the streets online - believe me - all would have been 'expert'! We were so glad we missed it!

Then the winter storm hit here - not cold enough for snow - but man 'o man - have we got wind and rain! Even so, it's good to be home - and out of the car!! I've been getting caught up on our TIVO and quilting on my "Holiday Challenge"! Yep, good to be home in any weather!