2018
Well, after the three week trip with Linda and Tully that actually overlapped into 2018, the year started off rather slowly. Sad to say, I can't remember anything particularly memorable for the first few months of the year. I did win some money on the football pool - that's always good.
I thought I'd have a Superbowl party this year, but no one responded to my emails, so I cancelled it and instead went to watch the Superbowl and celebrate Kara's birthday at the same time as it happened to be on Superbowl Sunday this year. Can't remember who was playing let alone who won but it feels like it was a good game. Huh.
I celebrated my birthday with Kara and Laura and Laura made a scrumptious chocolate pie that I picked out of her cookbook.
A few weeks later we all went to a painting party at a local artist's establishment and tried our hand at some birds on the wire.
March began our ORVW rallies for the year. We were in Newport at the Marina and RV park and we celebrated St. Patty's Day with green pancakes.
Some of us went to Marine Hatfield Science Center to watch them feed the octopus. They are quite intelligent creatures and it was fun to watch this one interact with the keeper.
And Gayle, Sandy and I went to check out the aquarium village.
In April, we went to Woodburn and were able to go see the beautiful tulips. It was on the chilly side and it rained that weekend, but that didn't deter us from seeing the beautiful tulip gardens at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm.
In May, we went to Bandon and, for the first time, stayed at a state park - Bullards Beach. Bandon is always a fun town and finally, I got to see the exhibit of sculptures from the debris that washes onshore at Washed Ashore. Beautiful, but sad at the same time.
We also saw the sculpture in the sand. It washes away at every high tide but is replaced the next day by the dedicated artists.
And of course there was a trip to the wildlife park south of Bandon.
I skipped the June rally which was in Lakeview. Instead, Debb and I went on some day trips including the annual pilrimage to the Chainsaw Carving Festival.
We also took a trip up to Depoe Bay to go whale watching. The outfit we chose had steep stairs down to where their boats dock. Oh my - that was a hike! But, we did see some whales.
We also hiked up to Gold and Silver Falls one afternoon when we got shut out of the Washed Ashore exhibit in Bandon.
It was hot in July, especially around Eugene, but we braved the heat and went to see the Oregon Country Fair. It's been going on for something like 40 years and was originally a Renaissance Faire. It's evolved over the years but there are still folks who use it as an excuse to parade around in various states of undress. For example, I thought the gal next to the man had a halter top on. Nope - painted boobs! And how about the high-heeled stilts the bearded lady is on!
In August, I went on my long awaited trip to New York to attend my 50th high school reunion plus spending about 2 weeks driving around NY to visit friends. The reunion was much better than I thought it might be since none of my close friends from high school were in attendance. I guess, after 50 years, the cliques are mostly gone and people were just genuinely glad to see one another and catch up.
I got to spend the weekend with a gal who I didn't know that well in high school. We have become FB friends and play Words w Friends online and I ended up sharing an AirBnB with her. We went over to Seneca Falls on Friday and visited the Women's Suffrage Museum - very enlightening!
And seeing everyone else was the bonus in spite of my "Rent a Wreck" where the AC didn't work and the cigarette lighter was gone which made my Garmin useless. I managed with my phone. Thank goodness there was a USB port and it could see my phone!
September and October brought two more ORVW rallies - the first in Westfir, the latter in Sutherlin. I had never been to Westfir before. It's on a fork of the Willamette River south and west of Eugene. It was still on the hot side in that part of Oregon but we had cool nights and nice days. I joined some other gals to get a look at Salt Creek Falls and I also had a chance to play some golf with friends Gayle and Jean. The course was on the top of a mountain but very dried out. Only the tees, greens and approaches to the greens were watered and that made for some interesting shots as you hit the ball to one spot and it rolled down the side of the hill to a very different location. We had a good time though.
The Sutherlin Rally was the last for the year. Fall was finally upon us with the trees changing to their beautiful fall colors. There's not a lot to do in Sutherlin, but our hosts arranged for us to have a chance to make butter and cheese as well as enjoy some wine tasting on Sunday afternoon. The park is built on an old Drive-In Movie theater and there is still a screen so the park shows DVDs on the weekend if the weather cooperates.
I almost forgot! In mid September I took a drive south to CA near Sacramento with my friend, Kara, to pick up her new Shar-Pei puppy, Neo. He rode all the way home - 6 1/2 hours - on my lap. He's growing like a weed now but is such a cute puppy and adorable doggie that everyone loves him at first sight.
In October, right after the last ORVW rally, I went with Kara and Laura to Kara's hometown in Ohio to make apple butter. It's a big deal back there though it only happens every couple of years with good reason - it takes two days! About 25 people gathered over the two day event and brought food to share and made it a folksy, fun event. On Friday we peeled and chopped the apples. Several men used automatic peelers that cored the apples and cut them into spirals. A bunch of us ladies took off any extra peel and chopped the apples into small pieces. It took about 2 1/2 hours to do 8 bushels. The next morning, a couple of early risers got up and scrubbed out the huge copper kettles to cook the apple butter. They were placed over open, hard wood fires and to start off a gallon of apple cider was poured in each. When that was heated sufficiently, the apples started to be added. Then they are stirred with big wooden paddles constantly, constantly stirring. More cider and apples are added as they cook down. After about 6 1/2 hours the apple butter was deemed ready. Everyone involved who wanted some brought their own containers. When all was done, there were 240 pints of apple butter in various sized jars. People paid for the ingredients and then took their jars home. In addition to the apples, 45 gallons of cider were used and cinnamon. Nothing else.
Monday we went to Cleveland to see the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the West End Market. The market is like a permanent farmer's market with all kinds of fresh produce outside but other goodies inside what used to be an old train station by the looks of the building. We sampled a huge crepe filled with veggies as well as other delectables.
Kara and Laura flew back to Coos Bay on Tuesday and I flew on to Tulsa, OK. My original intent was to go visit Jeanne and Jerry, Janet's sister and her husband, for four days. But after I made my reservations, Jeanne became ill and spent the next 2 months in the hospital. At this time she was home under Hospice care so instead of staying there, I went up one day to visit and spent the rest of the time in Tulsa. Sadly Jeanne passed away 2 weeks after I visited, but I was glad to get a chance to see her and Jerry as it had been quite a few years.
In Tulsa I played tourist. The first day I was there I went to the zoo. They have a beautiful facility though some of the animals chose not to be where you could see them. The second day, I went to the planetarium which, as it turned out, was very near the zoo. I saw three shows there - all very well done. Of course when you put me in a darkened room with nice music a little dozing went on too - especially since i was there 3 hours. That afternoon I decided to run the risk of driving downtown to go to the Woody Gutherie Center. It was well worth it. I knew he wrote "This Land is Your Land" but I knew little else about him. He was truly a Renaissance man in many ways and politically - boy could we use the likes of him today! I'm really glad I got to see the Center. But boy, people around there drive like maniacs! The speed limit outside the city on the 4 lane roads is 75 and it's 65 going through the city area. Luckily the GPS on my phone did a good job and people were patient with me changing lanes - well mostly.
Life has calmed down since my trip to Ohio and Oklahoma. The week before Thanksgiving I painted my bathroom and also got a new quilt for my bed. I thought about painting my bedroom, but the bathroom took care of my urge to redecorate for the time being.
Jim and Sherry came for Thanksgiving and I had the usual potluck but only 6 people were here this year. We still had a nice time. No photos though.
In early December Laura, Kara and I headed for Hollywood to visit some of the parks there. We drove to Eugene the night before for an early flight to Pasadena and arrived in the early afternoon. After dropping off our bags, we headed out for the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. I didn't even realize they had a Studio Tour! It was very good and we saw Harry Potter memorabilia as well as costumes from many of the action movies they create. We also all sat under the Sorting Hat. Kara and I were sorted into Gryffindor. Laura got Slytherin - oh my!
On Sunday we headed to Disneyland, an hour away and a $50 LYFT ride. When we got there, I discovered the tickets I had gotten didn't include Sunday! We were determined though and when we explained what happened to the ticket lady, she said "No problem" and got us all straightened out for an additional $17 per ticket. She said they included Fast Pass which I was surprised about since at Universal that was an additional $75 charge. Well, the way it works at Disney - you go over to a different ticket area for that ride and put your ticket in to get a Fast Pass time. Laura and I did it for the Star Wars ride. By the time we got out of there and wanted to try it for something else, the times they were putting out were in the afternoon! So we didn't bother. Since Kara can't do the video kinds of rides, we just went around and did those that didn't have such long lines and she could do. We also tasted a variety of food and headed back to the main area for the afternoon parade.
That was quite good. Then we found the train back over to the New Orleans area to go in the Haunted House. It was decorated from Tim Burton's Nightmare at Christmas. We waited in line over an hour for that! It was fun though. Then we headed back to Main Street to see the light show and after that headed for home. It was super crowded there and my original intent had been to go there on Monday when kids were in school, etc. But all in all, it was a good day.
On Monday we headed for Universal Studios and the Harry Potter ride! We got there in late morning and made our way back to Hogwarts. Unlike yesterday, it wasn't crowded yet and Laura and I made our way through the long path they have set up for when it is crowded. In fact, when we got to the ride, there were only the two of us on our car. I hadn't remembered it being quite so topsy turvey from Florida though I'm sure it was the same. Kara and Laura did the Hippogriff coaster which was really tame.
Then we went to see the animal show but misread the info. They were just showing the animals at the time we were there. The show was a couple of hours later. So we took the escalator to the lower level to do the studio tour. That was better than I had remembered. They still have the shark from Jaws though. He's looking a little sad and tired compared to all the computer animation they have today. Still a good ride though.
On our final day in Hollywood we went to the Museum of Natural History. They have very nice panoramas of various wildlife and also an impressive array of dinosaur skeletons. There were tons of school buses there, but we didn't run into any kids when we went down to the special wildlife photography exhibit. There was an extra cost for that. The photos were amazing but we were prohibited from taking any photos down there.
Our last evening there we went to the movies at the El Capitan Theater which was quite near our hotel. They were showing "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and had "special guests" to greet people. The theater is huge. It premieres all the Disney films now. The day we were there which was a weekday, it was almost empty. We were in the balcony.
The next day we flew home via Seattle. Because we had a layover, we used our United Club passes and got to relax in comfort even though we were flying on Alaska.
It was a fun vacation and a great way to bring in the holidays.
I had my usual Christmas brunch for people with the requisite sausage gravy and biscuits. This year I showed "Book Club" which was a much bigger hit than last year's film. In the afternoon I went over to Laura's and Kara's and had dinner with them and Laura's family. We played cards and had a nice time.
New Year's Eve was low key - at home watching TV with my critters. All in all, it was a great year with a lot of great trips. On to 2019.
