Christmas Joy

A magical time for sure.  Special to most all of us for different reasons.  Hope this one lived up to all your expectations. 


Louis continues to dazzle us.

We had a great day, ending up with the horses joining in at Travis & Kim's.

 Shadow, the devil cat dropped by.

It was raining, so we settled for photos in the barn.
 
Cousin Jordan & Louis after the gift opening and before the official feasting, which seemed to go on all day.

So now comes the quiet time before we get back on a plane to Florida.  For me, Christmas joy is when  it's over and the days get longer until June 21st.  But then Christmas is for the young; old fart atheists tend to view it differently.

Stay Merry

Small Town Boy in the Big City

Teri took Nina to Aunt Kim's to make cookies and Ryan went to work so I decided to get some errands done without a car.  After all, this is Portland and everyone either walks or rides a bike or the metro to get things done.  Since my travels would take me all over the city, I opted for the bus.

This would be a first for me and I was really looking forward to earning my "mass transit" merit badge.
I realize this will be boring for most, or you can follow along on google (see link below) and track our intrepid traveler, sort of.

So first I walked one block north and seven blocks west to the Fred Meyer store to get a bus pass and pick up the #75 north to the transit station north of Hwy 84.  Then it was walk two blocks north and seven west to the supposed location of my first stop.  Slight problem, business no longer exist.

So, back track to a Burger King (not a politically acceptable establishment here, with all the Mom & Pop stores available) to fire up the iPad and search for an engraver.  I was looking for an engraver to put "Louis" on the back of a bunny spoon.  Hand engravers are rare these days, but a few phone calls located one in downtown Portland.

So I hop on the #77 to Rose Quarter Transit Station, pick up the MAX Red line to down town, then over and down a few to the engraver.

The River from the MAX.

After the engraver's walk the tree blocks to the river.

The Morrison bridge.

Then I walked up to the Hawthorne and caught the #33 up and over a few to transfer to the #9 that would take me to the Ross Island Bridge so I could walk over to the east side and check out the construction of a new bridge between the Hawthorne and Ross Island.

Waiting for the #9 seemed like a good time for a bathroom break so I went into a high rise to ask if they had any public toilets.  The nice lady at the local bank branch office in the lobby said the nearest would be in the food court below us.  Food court!

So I go through two sets of giant glass doors and over to the escalator and proceed to descend into another world in the city's underground.

The escalator down to a magic land under the city.  Those are drooling lion heads in the left wall.

After confirming that it was indeed like all other malls, I went back up to the hum drum world at the surface and hopped on the #9.  It took me to the west side of the Ross Island so I could walk across and see the new construction.

This is the west side abutment and first columns in the river.  The new bank plantings have silhouettes of what looks like Coyotes all over.  Must be keeping something away.

The east side has a concrete batch plant just upstream.  This was the clean out site, I'm sure that no pollutants are making their way into the river.

About a mile from the west side I picked up the #70 in front of Classic Pianos and the Aladdin Theater.  At 12th & Powell. The rest is easy, just go up to Hawthorne, transfer to the #14 and go up to 44th and then it is walk over one and up two to home.

Here's the link to the map of the trek.  Google Maps

Didn't get very warm today but it sure was beautiful!

Stay safe and warm.

Rember, we all looked like this once!

Enjoy the season!

Transitions

Finished up the last of the grand kid visits and drove south to catch a flight from Orlando to Portland.

First was the Holiday program at Spencer's school.

A gathering of Christmas trees.

Then Molly came back to the trailer for the last sleep over.

TV viewing seems to bring out an urge to bridge the space between two recliners.

The next morning it was off to soccer practice.

Molly had last soccer practice before the first game which will be next year.

Spencer was practicing his heading technique.
Then, in Portland.........

Today I went wood shopping with Sara and Emil who were in town to stock up for Emil's new enterprise as Luthier Extraordinaire.

While plain on the outside........

There were treasures galore within.

As you can see, more TV viewing inspired contortions.

Newest addition (the one on the left).

Tomorrow Nina and Grandma visit Travis and Kim for some pre Christmas cookie making.

Enjoy family and stay warm.

last of the warm for a while

Getting the last of the grand kid visits in before we leave for Portland.

I call this the one hour nutcracker because that's how long it lasted before it broke.  In Spencer's defense, it wasn't designed as a children"s toy.

Spencer and I have been supervising the construction going on right in front of the RV park.  They are widening the road from two to four lanes on a four mile stretch.

 Sewer pipe makes a good place for a break.

 Every hole needs more rocks.

He got a thumbs up from the driver of the tracked back hoe.

Molly has just started soccer practice so maybe I'll get some photos.  We won't make any games until we get back in Feb.

Next Sunday we will move the fifth wheel to Venice and the next day we fly to Portland.  There for a fast two weeks and then back to Venice for a month and another month back here before we start the trek back to the west coast.  That takes us up to March.

Enjoy the Holidays.

Finally, by popular demand

Went to birthday party at Tallahassee's version of  a Children's Museum.

Woke at 6 AM to cow pissing on flat rock rain, 86% humidity and 68 degrees.  Tomorrow we are on the cold side of the front, low forecasted of 30.

I'm liking the desert more and more.

Some photos of Louis

We are heading up to Tuscaloosa for a weekend Washburne visit, then it will be goodbye Tallahassee for a while.  We will move the fifth wheel to Venice and fly to Portland for the holidays.  Then back to Venice for at least a month before we start the migration back.

Stay dry.