Chateau St. Michelle feast, wine tasting, and....J.T!!!

Outside concert under the stars, great food, fabulous deserts, wonderful wine and the music of James Taylor!
What a way to end our vacation!


We were given an exclusive tour of the winery by Dr. Keith Love. Here, Bob and Mary Sue are also family!

Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, Full Sail Microbrewery

Columbia River Gorge

Incredible vistas, vista house, mountains and waterfalls...

Hiking and sight-seeing, Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast camping...

Cape Lookout campsite

Willamette Valley-Oregon wine country

Champoeg State Park, near Newberg.

Sun set at the end of another great day..

Olympic mountains

Boat ride on Puget Sound-you bet!

Mountains, flowers, food and fun with family

Bay Hay and Feed store

One of the ten most recognized T-shirts in the world....great place to shop!

Arriving on Bainbridge Island as sun sets

Space needle

Photos taken from the ferry on our way over to Bainbridge Island

Looking back at Seattle from the ferry

Bainbridge Island Ferry

All traffic to and from the island goes by ferry-walkers, bikers, cars, trucks-everything.

cutest ever!

First day in Portland

Met up with Michele and her beautiful daughter Sierra, Sierra's friend Kimmie and the new man in her life (a real dog in my opinion) Tucker! He is sooooo adorable (see photos, if I don't mess this up and experience failure to attach!).

We had salads at a microbrewery, then the four of them were off to Wala Wala and Deb and I meandered on down to Powell's bookstore. As soon as I walked in the book that has been on my mind so much to get for Matthew screamed out my name! Propped up on a display in the 1/2 price section! Got it!

Also, since Deb has told me the story of the ancient nun who said "and now girls, it is time to read Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett...."which she did not do (little sinner!)picked up a cheap copy of that also. I see why a little girl would not get it. That nun was casting her pearls and not even a barbecue riblet to show for it!

Michael is also on our minds alot because Mt. Hood looms over our every view. Great skiing here, Michael! And Molly, because of the extreme bike friendliness of the city. And Matthew because of the highest number of Leeds certified green buildings in the country.

It would be great to be just three hours from Mary Sue and Bob, one hour from the Oregon coast , nearby to wine country and the Columbia River Gorge. Needless to say, we love Portland!

There are so many signs! We bought our first microplane at the Sir de le Tab and the person who waited on us is from Cincinnati! She doesn't think much of the weather here, though.

Mary Sue and Bob, remember when we were on Scott and Carol's boat singing along to Toby Keith? His tour bus was outside our hotel when we went for our run this morning!

Now we are off on our second day of adventure in the Portland area. We are heading to set up camp, hoping Michele will join us tomorrow. Photos on the way!

Mary Sue and Bob's new house!

Bainbridge Island Idyll

We arrived on this island paradise four days ago and since then have experienced the whirlwind of Mary Sue and Bob Silver. They have a new home with a view of the Olympics-inside and out- as the sun sets within sight of the mountains from their front porch and their daughter Emily is on her way to Beiging for the summer games! So both Olympics are in view!