Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #73 – Last Minute Things and a Merry (White) Christmas!

  

Wednesday, December 22^nd., 2021…… We needed to go to Arby’s in Albany some time today to pick up a gift card for Jamie. We’ll go later in the day.  First up - walking the dogs. We got up and out but made a little shorter trip of it today because it was starting to rain a bit. I am so used to the rain that I don’t think too much about going out in it anymore. As long as I remember to take the time to change out my wet shoes or wet pants or whatever is too wet to wear for the day, I’m good to go!  We headed to Albany and ran some errands and hit Harbor Freight and Home Depot and used the drive thru at Arby’s (no inside service), to get that gift card.  Problem was, when I got up to the window, I found they do not sell Arby’s gift cards!  But I managed to back out, thanks to the guy behind me having a big truck and gave me enough room to get out. Thank you, sir!

Thursday, December 23^rd., 2021……  Another drop in temps today. BUT we had some glorious sunshine for most of the day!  It was just cold. Temps all day in the low 40s. All of the news today has been about maybe a white Christmas. We’ll see… We had Aimee (my realtor friend) come by and meet Cathye today. We took her over for a tour of the trailer just to get an idea of its value. We’re still trying to figure out our best options for the property. We had a nice visit and she took a few pics. Later, Cathye took off for some errands. She had to run to the store for some ingredients for a cake and to drop off a few gifts to friends at the trailer park. That done, she came home to get me. It was time to head off to her doctor’s appointment. This was her yearly physical. I drove and waited in the car and rested. No worries. She is very healthy. We got back home and then headed over to Walmart for some last-minute stuff for Christmas dinner. Tv until bedtime.        

Friday, December 24^th., 2021……  The storms and the humongous cold front that is coming in from Alaska is still on track to hit the Northwest so we are all getting ready for it. I only have one or two outside water spigots that needed to be covered and I did those. Cathye got a note in her mail at the trailer reminding her to do the same. She went over and took care of hers. Then we settled in at the house and got ready for tomorrow. We pre-cooked some stuff for Christmas. Cathye made a chocolate cake and I made the deviled eggs this time.  We were ready! I did manage to catch this little elf on the shelf taking a break!...

The only thing left was midnight mass. But, as it turned out, most of the churches cancelled services due to the weather. So, we had an early night and settled in.  

Saturday, December 25^th., 2021…… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  We will have Cherrelyn, Butch, Penny, Britany, Corey, Brandon, and Jamie here for dinner. But each of us will open gifts beforehand and then the shared ones when they all get here. Cathye and I took the dogs out for a really short walk. It was 33° and not expected to get any warmer throughout the day. But no rain or snow so we just had the cold to deal with. I used to think I would hate the cold, but I guess my blood is used to it by now. So, temps in the 40s don’t bother me (shorts weather!) anymore. I don’t think anyone can ever get used to highs in the 30s, so I can say it was cold today!  Snow is still expected today. Anyway, we opened our gifts to one another (and the dogs got theirs too), then got ready for the family. Everyone showed up at once (around 11:30) and we opened gifts. We also had several phone calls and a couple of facetime calls with family and friends. Dinner was spectacular!  

Dessert was awesome, although we ate it way later in the day because we were stuffed. Later, when everything was cleaned up and everyone was gone, we settled in and relaxed and enjoyed a quiet evening watching tv. Rylee was pooped out, surrounded herself with her guarded toys!

As we were sitting there, we looked out and saw the first snow falling! This is a shot from the front porch.

It was the end to a nice day!    

Sunday, December 26^th., 2021…… Here’s what we woke up to this morning. Shot from the back porch...

It wasn’t a lot of snow but it wasn’t done yet!  It continued to snow off and on all day. Our discussion about Christmas decorations had been going on for some time now. Cathye wants them up until January. I want them down the day after.  We compromised. The tree and my village will go today or tomorrow. The outside lights and the snowflake lights in the windows stay up. The snowmen decorations (and we have tons of them!) will also stay up around the house. The rest will be boxed up. Not too much going on today though. Her church service was cancelled. We were both content to just hang around the house and not do too much. We did go over to Penny’s house to give Cherrelyn her gifts. She didn’t come yesterday, and we wanted to get out in the snow anyway, so this was perfect!  We took Cathye’s 4x4 truck but the roads were fine and we made it there with no issues. We had a nice visit. Later, when we got back home, I drug out the boxes and bins and we started with the tree and got the decorations down and put away and the tree boxed up and out on the porch. That was about it for the day…

Monday, December 27^th., 2021……  More snow last night. The main roads had been sanded yesterday but not today. They were icy!  I know because we went out for breakfast and, even though I was driving the 4x4, I managed to lose traction and slid it a bit. It was fun watching people watch me as I corrected the wheel to avoid hitting anything. But I put it in 4-wheel drive and we were good to go.  Cathye managed to have a few laughs at my behalf! We ate and headed back home and finished putting away the Christmas stuff. The boxes only made it to the back porch but at least we had everything in the house cleaned up. Only the snowmen (and the outside lights) remain!    

Tuesday, December 28^th., 2021…… Cathye headed off to take down her decorations at the trailer and hit Walmart while I concentrated on getting everything off the porch and stashed in the shop garage. We will wait until all of the bins are there before we stack and store on the racks. I took pics where everything was but we have purged a lot of the old brittle bins and replaced them with bigger ones. But I think we’ll have no problem putting everything away. The snow is still on the ground but it’s starting to melt. I think by tomorrow, it will all be gone – at least on our flat property. Those folks up the hill to our south have tons of trees and don’t get a lot of direct sunlight.  

 

 

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #72 – A Snowy Leavenworth & Prepping for a Party!

 

Wednesday, December 15^th., 2021…… We slept well last night. We were up and showered and out before 9:00am. We made the short walk to the main village area and looked for a place for breakfast. Some places didn’t open until 10:00am but we found a coffee kiosk that said try Louie’s, it was the place the locals go. It was just up the street and we got in and seated with no problem. I enjoyed the meal and especially the German sausage gravy! We still had some time before the shops opened so we headed back to the inn so Cathye could swap out her shoes for some with a little more traction. Later, we headed back to town and spent quite a long time just walking in and out of the local shops. We found a place for lunch called the Soup Cellar. It was really good! We hit the Nutcracker Museum. We decided to do that tour and it was really interesting! They say they have the largest nutcracker collection in the world!  And we believe them!  Cases and cases on two floors were crammed with nutcrackers in various themes and shapes and sizes.

It was very interesting. We watched a movie and learned that some of these guys can go for some serious coin! MY favorite was the Hilary model, complete with the nutcracker between her legs! Hilarious!

After that, we headed back home to rest before our walk back to town on the way to the event we had tickets for. We wanted to find a place for dinner but discovered that neither of us were hungry, so we spent some more time just looking around some more.  We even went to a thrift shop. We stopped at the local market and got some milk and then went to the bakery next door and got some pastries for a snack and also some for the train trip tomorrow morning. We made our way to the local high school, taking pics along the way. This town really does a great job in decorating for the holidays! Lots of snow and there were kids sledding around the town square gazebo.

We got to the school before most of everyone else, since we didn’t want to walk around in the snow.  We were going to see the local Leavenworth Village Chorus in concert. Cathye had found this online and booked us tickets for the 7:00pm show. I had already called and scheduled a shuttle/taxi to pick us up afterward, because it was going to be late and we didn’t trust the weather.  Since it was just starting to snow when we went into the auditorium, we thought it was a good choice. The show was pretty good. They had a guest chorus from the school do a few songs plus they had a couple of guest singers.

 

It let out around 9:00pm and we only had to wait a few minutes for the driver to come get us. And yes, it was snowing when we went outside. Good call!  Next up was another shuttle for the early morning pickup back to the train depot. I sure hope that one works out as well as this one was!    

Thursday, December 16^th., 2021……  This morning, we were scheduled to catch the same Empire Builder headed back from Chicago to Seattle. It was due in at 6:08am. Our shuttle driver called when he was across the street. We were next on his schedule and got standing room only on the bus but at least we got on and would make our train! Whew!  Once we got there, we only had a few minutes to wait before the train got to us. Again, our car was for mid-range riders, so we easily found good seats. The ride back was really nice. Leavenworth is only 1200 ft. elevation, but it’s on the eastern side of the Cascades, so they get snow at lower elevations than we do here in Oregon.  We went up and over Stevens Pass (4,061 ft) and by the time we got back to Seattle, the snow was long gone. We made that really long 200 ft. walk across the street and dropped off our bags again. It was only 10:30am so we knew we would need to go find breakfast before we could check in. We walked next door and had an excellent breakfast at the 13 Coins. Much better than dinner the other night!  Nadya was there to meet us and said she had our room ready!  Boy, she really came through!  She gave us a corner room on the 15^th floor, overlooking the city and the sound!  We left the curtains open all day (and all night) just to see it all. 

We rested for a while and actually napped!  We weren’t really hungry but wanted to go back to Sluggers again.  It turns out that when we made the walk over there, we found we worked up an appetite so we each had linner. We walked back to the hotel and stopped at 13 Coins to get dessert (chocolate cake) and took it back to our room.  Later, we went down to the reception area and had a beer and some chips. After that, we went back and changed into our swimsuits and hit the spa. This time we had it to ourselves. It was the perfect end to a nice trip! 

But we weren’t done yet….   

Friday, December 17^th., 2021……  Our train back to Albany today was the Coast Starlight. This train begins in Seattle and ends up in Los Angeles!  So, it was another long-distance train with plenty of amenities. This time we were given a seat assignment. Still good seats. We settled in for the 5-hour ride back to Albany. This time the train was running behind and ended up 36 minutes late to get us back to our stop. But sis was there and we loaded up and headed home. I think it was closer to 5:30pm when we drove into the driveway. The dogs were sure happy to see us!  We came in and unpacked and stacked laundry for tomorrow. What a nice trip!  Cathye kept track on her FitBit and discovered that in the 6 days we were out, we averaged over 11,000 steps each day. And we rode a train four times!  But I doubt we lost weight because we took advantage of the food and drink everywhere we went. Hey, we’re on vacation!    

Saturday, December 18^th., 2021…… Laundry day.  We slept in but once we were up and ready, we went out with the dogs. Even though the weather was cold and damp, it was still fun to be with them again!  After breakfast, we had a few things on our to-do lists. Cathye had some shopping to do. I did some more shopping online but I still needed to get my appointment for my second shingles shot. I had had the first shot at the Walgreens in Albany, but when I went online, I found they were able to schedule me at the Lebanon store (about a mile away). Plus, they had an opening today at 2:30.  I took it!   We headed off to get the mail at the trailer and Cathye wanted to straighten up before Heather and Charlie get here on Monday. I left her there and went to Walgreens. I had to wait in the normal prescription order/pickup line but it went pretty quickly and they got me signed in and the rest only took 10 minutes and I was out of there. We went to Hangry Solutions food truck and split a chicken ranch wrap and went home to eat. Later, and so far, other than some minor soreness, no issues with this shot. But I did go to bed early and tossed and turned for a bit until I could find a comfortable position to sleep.   

Sunday, December 19^th., 2021…… I managed to get a little sleep last night but I was awake every time I rolled over. No worries, today is Sunday and I have no plans so I can rest. The weather is getting colder here lately. They say if the next front coming in stays a cold front, we could get low-elevation snowfall. We are at about 340’ so that means us!  But right now, it’s just raining. Today’s rain was light enough for us to get out with minimal rain gear to walk the dogs. It did come down pretty hard later in the morning. Cathye was able to get out and drive to church and I hung around the house for the day.  

Monday, December 20^th., 2021……  We both slept well last night. No more sore shoulder from the shot. I am good to go! We had taken our single blow-up bed over to the trailer the other day for Charlie to use and made sure it was operational. We went back later today and found it was down!  But I checked and found the escape valve wasn’t quite tight and it should be ok for one night. Heather’s dad and the rest of that side of the family is in Sweet Home. They are coming down to visit them so we won’t see them on this short of a trip.  Heather’s mother (Mary) is Cathye’s sister and lives in Benson AZ. They will be going there later in the year. We also needed to get the place ready for Cathye’s party tonight. She’s having the girls over for a party/gift exchange. I got the task of making dinner!  Not really. She said she needed to make a casserole and I had shared one my family liked since way back when. We called it “squiggly noodle casserole” and it’s easy to make, so I volunteered to make it for them. She had gone shopping already and got all of the ingredients. It was easy to assemble and I had it in and out of the oven and ready right on time. The girls (Lona, Misty, Robin, Cherrelyn, Penny, and Judy) all got here and started partying. I stayed in my office and worked on the previous blog and stayed away! They had a fun night – some of it at my expense as I heard from them later!  Good times!     

Tuesday, December 21^st., 2021…… Cathye went to her church for a morning of volunteer work boxing up for the needy. But no one was there!  She called her friend and was told they were now working out of the SHEM (Sweet Home Emergency Ministries) foodbank store in town, so she met up with them there and worked for a few hours. Once she got home, we went over and picked up the blow-up bed and brought it back here. We made plans for Christmas dinner and present exchange. That set, we were good to go. I think we only need one more item and our gift lists will be complete.  I have all of my stuff wrapped but Cathye has several to go. So, she went off to her workspace in the office for that.  Leftover casserole for dinner and relaxing time with tv until bed.  

 

 

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #71 – A Train Ride or Two

  

Wednesday, December 8^th., 2021…… I had acupuncture and Cathye had her volunteer session at SHEM this morning so we both headed off to those. It also gave me some time to get back and get boxes for some of Cathye’s gifts. We did more laundry to get clothes prepped for the upcoming trip on Sunday. Penny will be taking us to the train depot so we don’t have to leave a car.  We have been checking the weather and are delighted to hear that they will be getting some snow at Leavenworth this week. Not so much when we are there (22% chance) but we are hoping to get that some will remain while we are there. 

Thursday, December 9^th., 2021……  I had my list today. Cathye had hers. I needed to get the second ladder out for the roof. I needed to also put the truckster on the battery charger. Cory and his friend are coming over tomorrow morning to do some work for us around the house. They will be using the lawn vehicle to move most of the large rocks out of Cathye’s island. They will go out to the front flower beds and I also needed to put markers in the ground out there where I wanted them to go. The ladders are needed because we’re having the guys go up to clean out the gutters. I had noticed when I was hanging the Christmas lights that there was moss building up and it was time to get that cleaned out. One more thing I can have them do!

Friday, December 10^th., 2021…… Interesting day!  Cathye was scheduled to go to look at a bridal dress today and the girls were going to join her. The guys would be here to work. Aimee was supposed to come by before that to go look at the appraisal for the trailer. She cancelled for today. I had to get out the truckster and air up one of the tires plus get the second ladder out for them for the gutter cleaning. The guys got here and got the larger rocks that were in the island area out and moved to the flowerbeds and dropped in my marked areas. They then headed over to the trailer in my truck to pick up the rocks that Cathye has in her flowerbeds. These are smaller and came from her son in MO so she wanted to make use of them here. The problem started when I told the guys to just drive out and unload them behind the island. That didn’t work too well. They only got about 10 feet into the mucky wet grass before they got stuck!  I had to use Cathye’s 4x4 to pull them out.  She says it took a REAL truck to get my little one out!  Yeah, haha! 

Anyway, they transferred everything to the truckster and got it all unloaded. The girls took off a little later and the guys had lunch then went on to get the gutters done. That went pretty well, just kind of slow because my ladders are old and need to be replaced. I need to put that on my Christmas list. They got done and left and I rested for a while and worked on the blog for a bit. The girls got back and were worn out from their day of shopping.      

Saturday, December 11^th., 2021…… We spent most of the day getting ready for our trip tomorrow. We each had a small overhead suitcase and I had the requisite carry bag with meds and chargers and the tickets and such. I think we are ready. Once Cathye suggested we go to the German village of Leavenworth, WA, I was in 100%!  I didn’t particularly want to drive in the snow and we came up with the idea to take the train up there. So, I went to work planning for the whole trip. I had to make individual reservations for 1) the train from Albany to Seattle, 2) the hotel in Seattle before Leavenworth, 3) the train to Leavenworth, 4) a hotel/motel in Leavenworth, 5) the train back from Leavenworth to Seattle, 6) a hotel in Seattle, and 7) the train back to Albany. It took some planning but I got it all arranged and the reservations made. Cathye had called her niece and told her we were planning a trip up. She lives in Seattle so they made plans to get together the first day/evening.  Penny would be staying here to babysit the fur babies. We were set! We went to bed early tonight because we had an early day.   

Sunday, December 12^th., 2021…… We were up at 4:30am and on the road to Albany. We changed plans and would be driving ourselves. We managed to make coffee before we walked out the door and would eat something on the train. We parked at the train depot and I texted Penny where the car was. She and Cherrelyn would come get it later today.  We had coach seats on the Amtrak Cascades train, which (we think) started from Eugene. There was plenty of room and we settled in and relaxed as it headed north. It was dark and we couldn’t see much but we knew the area so we just ok. We made several stops and arrived in Portland about the time the sun came out.  We saw folks getting on and off as we made our way north to Seattle. We were only 1 minute late as we pulled in. That was impressive!  I remember a trip we took several years ago on the train with Bill and Treasa. We left the Oakland area on the California Zephyr headed on the 1 ½ day trip to Denver CO. That train started out late and never caught up on the schedule!  So, I was surprised, and very impressed that this one was so efficient. I had booked us in the Embassy Suites, which was literally right across the street from the depot! We had a room on the 20^th floor (not much of a view though – just another building next door!) but it was beautiful none the less. Cathye called Heather and they arranged to meet us at the hotel. We wanted them to be our tour guides around the Seattle area.  They took a bus in and we walked down to meet them outside. Heather has a 12-year-old daughter, Charleigh, who is going through a transition to be Charlie. We noticed that Heather always referred to Charlie as Charlie, not him or her, so we tried to follow suit. No worries, though, we all had a great time!  We walked to the underground metro train depot (Sound Transit) and took that to Westlake station, closest to the famous Pike Place Market. 

We explored around there and shopped a bit and also watched them throw the fish around. Then we headed down to the docks and went to The Crab Pot for dinner. Heather and Charlie had salad and burgers, but Cathye and I shared The Westport Seafeast. They came and dumped dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp, steamed clams, mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob, and red potatoes on our table and handed us bibs and a mallet and we dug in! 

It was truly a feast and was delicious!  After dinner, we walked up the docks and got on The Seattle Great Wheel, a huge ferris wheel. The weather wasn’t the best and it was raining, but we still had a great view of the Seattle skyline and Puget Sound. After that, we made our way back to the hotel, walking in the rain. I had my warm rain jacket on and Cathye had her warm coat on but turns out it wasn’t waterproof!  So, she got soaked on the walk back to the hotel!  We will be shopping tomorrow for sure! We said our goodbyes and headed up to our room. Later, we walked down to the second-floor reception area, where they had complimentary snacks and drinks, and had a nice relaxing time and a few drinks.

I don’t think we were awake too much after we hit the bed. It was a long day!             

Monday, December 13^th., 2021……  Heather had mentioned underground Seattle tours in our area around Pioneer Square, which is where the city began, so I looked that up last night and booked us for the Beneath the Streets tour at 10:30 this morning. We went down to the hotel’s complimentary breakfast and had cook-to-order omelets (yummy!), coffee, juice, yogurt and more, 

and then walked the ¼ mile to the address. We found it ok and were the first to arrive for our tour. It was very interesting!  We learned that the Seattle we know today was actually built on top of the original city, founded back in the late 1800s. 

Between flood and fire, they built over the existing buildings and foundations. The tour was about an hour and also took us outside to see highlights in the Pioneer Square downtown area. Weyerhaeuser’s corporate headquarters is here, UPS was started here too. It is highly recommended if you’re in the area and have the time to take this tour.  Next on our list was Chinatown, which was just across the street from the train station we were at yesterday. We stopped at the Pinball Museum, which we had also heard about from locals.

For one price ($17. for seniors), you could play any/all of the 50+ pinball machines they have operational. You can start from the oldest they have (1961) and work your way up to the latest 2021 Godzilla model. I think we were there over an hour and played at least one game on probably 30 of them each. It was well worth the price of admission. I remember playing these older ones when I was growing up and going to bowling alleys in SoCal and in Illinois. I even managed to win some free games just like I did then! After that, we walked up the street and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant (don’t remember the name offhand but it was ok). We walked back to the room and rested for a few minutes, then headed out again and took the train again, this time past the Westlake station and all the way to Northgate, end of the line. We (ok I) thought that the Seattle Center and the space needle were at the last stop on the train. I was mistaken!  But it worked out ok because we saw a Nordstrom Rack right across the street and Cathye found a nice raincoat. We also bought some inexpensive swimwear for the pool/spa we saw in the hotel. We stopped back at Westlake station and found the monorail from the Westlake mall west out to the Space needle. It was actually too late to take any tours but we took some pics of the needle at dusk.

We will be back tomorrow because our train to Leavenworth doesn’t leave until 4:40pm tomorrow afternoon. We had dinner at 13 Coins, next door (but not affiliated with) the Embassy Suites. It was just ok but super convenient. We went back up to the room and changed into our swimsuits and hit the spa.

I guess most people don’t think about swimming in the wintertime but we did!  It was nice and there was only one other couple in there with us. It was on the 8th. floor, overlooking the football stadium.                  

Tuesday, December 14^th., 2021…… We went back down to another amazing breakfast and then went back up and packed. We had asked at the desk if we could leave our luggage there for the day and they were very accommodating. Nadya, who was working each morning, was very nice and asked about our stay and how we liked the room. We gave her a great review but mentioned that even though we were on the 20^th floor, we could only see the building next door so we were disappointed in not having a view. She felt bad and when we told her we would be back on Thursday, she said she would give us a better view!  We’ll see..

We headed back on the train to the monorail and back to the Seattle Center.  Our goal today was to tour The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit. Senior tickets were $28.00 ea. But we still went in. It was way cool and almost worth the money!  Dale Chihuly is world renown for his glass sculptures and this exhibit shows his talent!  Just look at these pics…

The last one is from his collections area. I thought I'd seen accordions before, but not like these! The next stop was the Amazon Spheres. These are also called Bezo’s Balls! They are from Jeff Bezo’s imagination and house a hybrid greenhouse and botanical gardens, as well as offices for Amazon. There is also a huge office complex next door, with a toy yard in the middle, complete with teeter totters. We were there for the tour but it turns out that this space is only for Amazon employees. They told us at the door that on certain days they do tours but haven’t been since covid. Bummer!  So, we took some pics of the building and then played on the musical teeter totters 

before we headed back to the train and back to our hotel. We decided to go find the Asian mega store called Uwajimaya. We were looking for another duffle bag to carry souvenirs home in. This place was huge! It had every restaurant item known to the Asian community!  But no bags that would work for us! We’ll pick one up in Leavenworth. We walked back past our hotel and down the street to a little bar and grill (Sluggers) that was just across the street from Lumen Field, home of the Seahawks, for dinner. 

The owner was very nice and took good care of us and shared some great info about life in the bar business across from an NFL stadium!  We met his new puppy and had a nice meal and a few beers and then walked back to our hotel and retrieved our bags and went across the street to await our train. For this trip we would be on the Empire Builder, bound for Chicago. So, this train was more than a commuter. It had sleeper cars and a lounge car and dining cars. We didn’t have assigned seats, just assigned cars, and we were among the first to board, so we were able to get the seats we wanted. We had a nice a view and plenty of legroom. I mentioned that this train was leaving Seattle at 4:40pm and was only a few minutes late. We were scheduled to get into Leavenworth, about 8:09pm. And when we got there at 8:10, there was a tram waiting to shuttle folks to town. Now this was something we completely overlooked! We saw the map of the town and everyone said the whole thing was basically only about 3 blocks long. Assuming that the train stopped in town was my mistake!  The station was at the other end of town, basically about two miles out and Der Ritterhof Inn was even further the other way. But our driver knew every stop and got us to our place with no worries. They were expecting us. There was snow on the ground as they had their first snowfall of the season just yesterday. It was very clean and quaint. We walked down the street and looked around the area and decided we would go back to our room and settle in for the night. I'll take pics of the Inn tomorrow.        

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #70 – A Nice Overnighter & Mailing Out for Christmas

 

Posted a day ago so be sure to read that first.....

Wednesday, December 1^st., 2021…… We are ready to go!  Our reservation is for one night at The Oregon Garden Resort. Both of us have been there several times for the Christmas lights. We talked about it and discovered that we may even have been there at the same time!  But neither of us have ever stayed at the resort, which we were looking forward to. I had booked a room and found out we would be in a cottage building!  We thought these were out of our reach but that’s what we got!  Score!  But first up was a stop at her trailer for the washer part install. The (same) guys texted that they were ahead of schedule and could be there ½ hour early so we got the dogs walked and fed and headed over at 8:30am. Penny would be by later to let them out and would come back later to spend the afternoon and night there as well. Once they showed up at the trailer, Cathye headed out to get us breakfast, and I stayed and hung lights outside and got them wired up while the guys did the install. They were done pretty quickly and were on their way. We left around 9:30 or so and made the drive north through the backroads. Check-in time was 3:00pm so I thought it would be a good time to go hike the Silver Falls area. We made the detour and drove to the parking lot and paid the meter fee ($5.00). We had bought Cathye a telescopic hiking stick and she was anxious to try it out. The weather was really nice – no rain in the forecast for the next few days – and the sun was out and warm. We dressed accordingly and headed out the trail. There were only a few people out today and we had the trail pretty much to ourselves. We started down from the rim of the trail and walked to the falls. The water was flowing and the falls were spectacular!  I got a couple of shots in the mist and then some down by and under the falls themselves. Pretty nice hike!  And Cathye liked her ‘walkin stick’!

We left there and went to lunch in Silverton. The place we wanted to try was no longer in business so we went to a Thai food place downtown. Eeh!  We drove around town after that for a few minutes then headed to check in. No worries, they had our room ready. It was super nice and even had a fireplace. We laid around and relaxed for an hour or so, then headed off to the restaurant bar to have a drink before our 5:00pm dinner reservation. I have to stop here and tell you that this was dinner #2 or #3 of my all-time favorites!  I chose the Coulotte Steak (no, I don’t know what it is either!) & Mushroom Ravioli entrée. She got the Grilled 12 oz. Ribeye & Shrimp entrée. OMG! It was delicious!  We left there and walked around the corner to the entrance to the Christmas Market and light. We had a wristband so we went right in. As I said, both of us had been before. We both thought it was very nice, but more compacted this year. They have nice level paths to walk, with different vignettes, and it was well organized. I think both of us preferred the old layout, which was more spread out. You’d think, with covid, that they would want it more open to all. But it was still very nice.  The one-way path took us back out close to our cottage, but we continued on to have another drink at the fireside lounge before heading back to our room and ending a wonderful relaxing evening.      

Thursday, December 2^nd., 2021……  We slept in and showered and packed and headed off to breakfast. Now this wasn’t as nice as the dinner last night. But it was included in our package so we took advantage of it. After that, we checked out and headed back home, stopping at Costco on the way. Penny called as we were driving and said that Jama was sick to her stomach. I won’t elaborate on the details. Let’s just say Penny had some cleanup in aisle two!  We thought about it and decided it must have been the new food that she got for Jama that wasn’t agreeing with her. When we got back home, I dumped most of it, but did put several handfuls in Rylee’s food as a mixer for her. We did laundry and went off to get some more shopping done. We did ok and got a few items but still have more on our shopping list for friends and family. Cathye is mailing three boxes out to the kids in MO, AZ and NH, and needs to get those in the mail asap. Later in the evening, we headed out to go see the Nativity displays at Kirk’s church rectory in Corvallis. I had been before and I was anxious to show Cathye. We both enjoyed the experience. I’m not sure what the count was, but it had to be in the several hundreds, each one set up and shared by their respective owners.

After that, we drove over to the fairgrounds to see the Pastega Family light display. These are local (Corvallis) business owners and have had this volunteer drive-thru display here in the area for many, many years. It was what I had seen before but we were still impressed by what they put together. They only ask for canned food donations for charity and we dropped off a big bag!     

Friday, December 3^rd., 2021…… Weather here is changing again!  They say it will be a little colder next week but just rain is expected. Temps expected in the low 50s and then moving to the high 40s. When we went out to walk the dogs, it was just beginning to sprinkle, but we have raincoats so we were good to go!  We got the NH box done and shipped today. Two to go! We had bought mushroom ravioli at Costco last week and we had pasta sauce so that was dinner. Tv until bedtime.

Saturday, December 4^th., 2021…… We ordered the wedding invitations today. I thought it might be a little too soon but Cathye says it’s ok because we already have the date booked. We went online and designed them and also ordered rsvp and thank you cards. She was rather intimidated by the design process so I was happy to help out! That done, she went to work on boxing up the MO package. Today was Rylee’s turn to go through the stomach thing. I’m convinced it was Jama’s new dog food. Remember, I had mixed it in with butthead’s. She had a rough day to say the least!  I dumped everything from Rylee’s bin and we started back with their old food again. So, needless to say, we didn’t make it to the post office or UPS before they closed and now it will be Monday before we can ship. Cathye made some homemade mac and cheese that I like and we watched some of our taped programs before calling it a night.  We stayed up later than usual to keep an eye on Rylee and saw she was feeling better and was settling in and sleeping, so we headed off to bed.      

Sunday, December 5^th., 2021…… Not much on the agenda today.  Oh yeah, my ring came in!  We made the drive up to Woodburn (53 miles) to pick it up. We had a break in the weather so we enjoyed some nice sunshine on the drive up and back so it was a nice day. I even got off the main highway so we could take our time and check out the scenery. Ok, back to the ring - she had it engraved and had to pay for that but I wasn’t allowed to see it when I tried it on!  No worries. It was fine so now she can keep it safely stored away until April. When we got back home, we rested for the day and watched tv. My auctions were back on and I had several hours to watch. She likes her Hallmark Christmas movies so we split up for the afternoon.  We had leftovers for dinner. I chose the ravioli and she ate the mac and cheese. I’m happy to share that both dogs are back to normal again. Yaay!

Monday, December 6^th., 2021…… Once we had the dogs walked and fed, we hit Appletree for breakfast and then went to the post office first thing for the MO box. We’re now working to get things arranged for our next adventure!  We leave on Sunday for a 6-day excursion. We’ll be taking the train to Seattle and then going east to Leavenworth, WA.  Leavenworth is in the Cascades and there is expected snow (thus the train) so we are thinking about a warmer wardrobe. More details on that later. Cathye and the girls headed over to Albany for a shopping trip. Today was my day to work on the furnace door at her trailer. I needed to cut the door to fit the new frame that the contractor had installed so I took measurements and brought it home to work on in my shop. I got it cut and sanded and we went back to fit it after Cathye got back. It worked fine and only needs a magnetic latch and some touchup paint. The only item remaining on my list for her place is the icemaker.   We needed to make a run to Walmart and get a few things for lunch. Aimee was coming over and then we are going to go look at her trailer. Aimee is my realtor and we are asking her to check it out and give us an idea of what it’s worth and what the market is doing now. We will be making a decision about what to do with it going forward. As I have mentioned, she is here now and the $600.00 + space rent and the internet, and a few utilities are being paid but going unused. Sure wish we could rent it out but that’s not allowed at this time. The park has recently been sold and we are waiting to see if things change. But at least we’ll have a head start with Aimee’s help.

Tuesday, December 7^th., 2021…… We had a few items on the agenda for today.  Aimee texted and asked if we could postpone. She is still under the weather.  But Lilly and Brandon are coming over for dinner and to make Christmas cookies with us. We will take them to the other Christmas display in Albany this year. They do a Christmas Storytime display every year at the Linn Benton Fairgrounds.  This year it will be a drive-thru so we’re going to check that out. Cory dropped them off and came back later to eat with us and go to Albany. We loaded up in the Acadia and got in line for the 6:30pm opening. It was smoothly orchestrated for the entry and drive-thru, but it quickly slowed to a stop because the indoor display area was super packed with scenery every inch of the way! 

It was fun but it’s not made for driving. It’s got to be experienced by walking it at your own pace. Hopefully, next year…

We got back and the kids headed home tired and happy. We were pooped out and went to sleep quickly after an evening of tv!