Here are the rest of the pictures. We really didn’t get a chance to truly thaw out and warm up. There was more cold, rain, snow in the mountains than truly expected. We did get a couple of nice days that we got out and hiked. Crazy winter weather.
While in Tucson, many of the evenings we take turn preparing dinner. One night I decided to make a Chicken Pot Pie, weight watchers style. It took a little doing, but worth it, it was pretty darn good! I started WW last Sept (2009) to loose the extra weight I was carrying around. I wanted to be ready for my 35th HS reunion.
Some of the nights we go out for dinner, in this case, we had to go to a Tucson "legend", Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant. It was a great choice, loved the ambience, the wine, the food and definitely the friends.
With all the crazy weather, there was quite a bit of rain. The desert loved it, the bloom was exceptional this year. I didn’t go crazy with pictures, but I am including a picture of a Ocotillo in bloom. They are hard to photograph, so this isn’t the best, but when you see a "sea" of them across the desert, it is worth hiking to see them.
We left the GPNW the 2nd week of January, the latest we have after left the area. It was wonderful to spend time with the family over the holidays. As you saw before, we stopped at Yosemite along the way, so it has it’s own page, look for it in the previous posts if you haven’t already seen it.
From there, we headed over to Tucson to spend a week to warm up and hopefully thaw out after the cold of the north. We spent the time close to Jim & Allison at their winter hideaway. We traveled to one of our favorite AZ wineries, Callaghans (needed some wine that is LONG GONE), did some hiking and of course, relaxing.
Here are a few pictures, more coming in the next post
We took the time to have a few family photos taken in early January. My niece, Bethany, took them on a cold, clear, windy day in a park near my parents home. Bethany takes marvelous pictures, she has a website, Bethany Raelene Studio and also a blog, in [STUDIO]. Thanks Bethie for coming out and freezing with us while you took the pictures
As you can see, I am a day late and a few dollars short. Maybe I should have waited until July before trying to catch up with my posts, then it would be Christmas in July
Here are a few pictures from December that I wanted to share; Christmas presents and Christmas dinner, dinner with friends in Seattle, it snowed on the 29th of the month, we went to check out my niece’s wedding dress on the 31st (the group of girls).
It seemed like a very busy month! and then the year was over, where does the time go.
Jim and I left Oregon mid January. I had always wanted to go to Yosemite National Park, so we stopped along the way for a few days. It was cold! There had been snow! It was quite the trip just to drive the RV to the RV park, and then more driving to actually get to Yosemite. I am so glad that we stopped. As you look through the pictures, you will see the winding road to get to the RV Park, ice on the waterfalls, lots of rainbows from the moisture. I am so glad we stopped during the winter, now to see what it is like in the summer.
click on the picture, then click on individual pictures or the slideshow button. If you want to see the pictures full screen, click on the F11 button. Once you are done, use the back arrow to get back to the webpage. I will have to figure out how to make it much smoother, it’s been awhile.
I have missed you! Sorry that I haven’t updated in, like, forever, but life gets in the way. I am trying to get my act together and will get back to posting very soon. I have a lot to share since January! I truly missed you!
I blackmailed Jim into taking me to Walla Walla for the Holiday Barrel (Dec ’09) tasting for our 19th anniversary. It was definitely worth it. We had a great time, visiting with "old" friends and hopefully making new ones. I put the list of wineries together that we wanted/needed to taste at and it was long; too long to do in 2 days, so I had to pare it down. It was hard, I tell you! Those that we did get the chance to visit, thank you for such a great time. For those of you that we didn’t make the visit on this trip, sorry, no reflection on you, just a reflection of not enough time!
I love this saying on some of his bottles: This wine was produced, stared at, liberally sampled, blended, coddled and eventually bottled by Stephenson Cellars LLC.
So much wine, so little time. When we tasted wine in Walla Walla in May of 2005, there were about 80 bonded wineries (licenses), today, that number has doubled. I will keep coming back as long as there is wine to be tried
We are sitting here in the Portland area, enjoying family and friends, but the cold has been very interesting We haven’t been in the cold for 4 or 5 years, so it’s been a challenge to keep warm when we had below freezing for almost a week! Things are looking up, just freezing rain or snow for the next day or so, then just plain ol’ rain. We can deal with that.
We have had a great year; we left our winter home in Texas in the middle of March, stayed in other parts of Texas through the month so that I could do some genealogy. We then spent April in Arizona, May in Utah, June in Washington, July in Oregon, and August in Idaho/Montana. Then it was back to Washington and Oregon for the rest of the year! Yes, we will be here until after the first of January 2010. Then we head south to Arizona and finally back to Texas.
We have been keeping busy with my family while here in Portland. Both my mom and dad had a health scare in August, so it was fate that we had already planned on staying until the end of the year. They are doing great considering all the craziness of this summer/fall.
All the kids are doing fine, keeping very busy in their respective jobs. Mark & Sean are still in the Seattle area, Lisa and her family, are still in Idaho and Mike and his family are still in Texas. Jim is still working at Boeing which is good for both of us.
We had a great new adventure this last Halloween week-end; I was a non-voting judge at the Wine Press Northwest magazines Platinum Wine judging. What a great experience, one I would love to have the opportunity to do again. I got to spit out a lot of great wine while Jim got to actually drink his
As crazy as it may sound, we are still enjoying our vagabond lifestyle!
We hope this letter finds you and yours as blessed as we have been. From our home to yours, Merry Christmas and here is wishing you a wonderful New Year.
You can keep track of us "right here" and I am on Facebook & Twitter too! (I know, you just can’t get enough of me/us).
It was COLD driving to Walla Walla, it was COLD while there for the Barrel Tasting weekend, it was COLD driving back to Portland! RV’s are not the most weather-proofed home, so the heater runs a lot, and the propane is used up fast. We tuck a sheet under the bottom edge of the couch on the slideout to try and block some of the cold that comes in from there. It helps, but it’s not perfect. Luckily, I have an electric lap blanket and we have an electric blanket on the bed. Keeps us nice and cozy when it’s COLD out there!
These are ice crystals on the side window where I sit on the couch. They are on the inside of the window from the moisture inside the RV and the COLD outside! On Saturday and Sunday, we did see a few snowflakes falling from the sky, but it really was TOO COLD to snow!
More ice crystals, this is from the front windshield. We have a curtain that we keep up to help keep the warm in and as you can see, it must work. The COLD air got trapped between the curtain and the windshield, it’s a wonder it doesn’t snow inside the RV
More ice, this is the drivers side of the windshield. There was no warm air in that corner, nor did the sun ever hit it during the day. BRRRRRR
As we drove home, you could see where the irrigation was forgotten and not turned off. You would run into stripes of white that looked like snow. It was actually built up ice.
Depending on when they finally turned it off, some of the ice was inches thick and not melting, it was TOO COLD outside!
The quiet waters around the Columbia River had ice on them, here is a little ice built up along the Columbia.
As we drove west, Mt. Hood finally came into view. Clear, COLD, and lots of snow! The skiiers are in 7th heaven!
Another shot of Mt. Hood.
Well, it’s still COLD outside. I walked today, had to really bundle up as I did the same in Walla Walla. I just keep telling myself I am burning more calories to stay warm when walking when it is so COLD outside. I think I will have to keep telling myself that all week.
One can’t live by wine alone… On Tuesday, Dec. 1st, New Old Lompoc (or is that Old New Lompoc?) released their Holiday Brews! Jim and I, along with my sister Teresa & her hubby Al, decided to give the Holiday Seasonals a try before they were gone. We headed down to the brewery on 23rd in NW Portland. The party starts at 4:00pm and we are there…
We order a couple of tasters, the boys share one and the girls share the other. My two favorites were the Jolly Bock and the Holiday Cheer (vanilla porter). They were yummy! The Blitzen and Brewdolph were pretty dang good too. We enjoyed a little dinner and a glass of our favorite holiday beer until it was time to call it a night and for us, that is early it was a school night after all.
