The year started off slowly for us - not too much going on. We did go to Eugene
near the end of January to see the Pink Floyd Experience. Janet was a fan of Pink
Floyd from her days in San Diego. June was not familiar with them at all. The
concert was actually a group of musicians playing Pink Floyd music with rear screen
projection of various images and clips plus a light show. It was a very good concert.
February brought our 6th Annual Superbowl White Elephant Party. It was small - only 6 people - but we had fun and actually watched the game! It was one of the best games we can ever recall and everyone was glad that the Saints won.
Near the end of February we went to Eugene again. This time it was to see Avenue Q. We had seen it before in Portland and really enjoyed it -in part because a Coos Bay native, Jeff Whitty, wrote the book for it and won a Tony back in 2004. We had the chance to meet him at the Egyptian Theatre in December - what a nice young man! June posted a comment
to the Hult Center Facebook page about Avenue Q and since she was the first,
she received a goody box for the show. It came the day after we saw it, but had
a great tee shirt, hat, magnet and mouse pad. Great stuff!
Sadly, we had to put our kitty, Max, to sleep on the 25th. He had developed a
tumor on the side of his head and it was preventing him from opening his mouth
to eat or drink. We tried pureeing his food, but he wasn't real happy that way so
we said goodbye to our friend of 10 years. He was a great cat and will be
missed. We dare not get another with Buddy in the house but someday....
March rolled in like a lamb but quickly turned into a lion. We had a lovely day at the beginning
of the month and got out on the golf course for our first time following Janet's cataract surgery.
She is having a little trouble telling how far away the ball is since her surgery, but we will be
getting out there and working on that - practice, practice, practice.
The weather seemed to do an about face back to winter with some of the coldest weather of the season - there was snow in the hills outside Coos Bay on the 10th and the 11th rolled around with an inch of rain. That didn't deter us from celebrating June's 60th birthday. And this year, (unlike 2 years ago) it was not a surprise party so June actually attended the whole thing - YEAH!!!! That included a lovely luncheon at our favorite restaurant, The Coach House. This was followed by an afternoon of games, conversation and TWO decadent chocolate cakes. The cakes were so good we forgot to eat the ice cream! Luckily, KT, the baker, took pity on June and didn't put 60 candles on the cakes.
In April we attended the RVing Women Rally in Charleston. Since this was only about 8 miles from our house, we didn't camp - just went down for the potluck on Friday and a couple of the tours that the hosts, Gina and Shirley, had arranged. We saw the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and the Charleston Coast Guard Station. Both were very interesting. And - the weather cooperated with three nice days in a row.
Next we celebrated Janet's birthday with lunch at the Mill Casino followed by games and lemon meringue pie at our friends' Linda and Tully.
We went on a three week trip in May that started with a three day weekend in Warrenton/Astoria with RVing Women. From there we headed off to Canada with our goal being the West Edmonton Mall. The mountains were so beautiful that I've made a separate page for that trip. Click here.
After our huge trip we took a weekend trip up to Cannon Beach to see the sand sculpting contest. We stayed overnight in Seaside and then met Janet's family for the fun. Jim and Sherry had gone up earlier in the week to visit Tom and Lee. They all drove over and met us just outside of town so we could leave the dogs in a shady area. We drove 2 cars right onto the beach and then walked north to see the sand sculptures. We don't think they were as grand this year as they have been some, and one of the two professional teams lost half their entry to drying sand which collapsed on them shortly before the judging.
Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach
Before the collapse
June, Janet, Lee, Tom, Sherry, Jim
After the collapse from the opposite side
On the way home from Cannon Beach we stopped at the Chainsaw Carving Contest in Reedsport. Janet and I had stopped there on Thursday so we got "before" and "after" photos which was a neat way to do it. We'll probably do that in the future. Here's a sample of the year's best. There were many outstanding sculptures.
In July we went on our first RV trips with our new rig. First we went to Lakeside with Linda and Tully for a shakedown cruise. Good thing too as there were lots of things that weren't working. None required a major fix, but we were inconvenienced on that outing with things not working. A couple of days later we were off for Gold Beach and an RVing Women weekend. This time everything went very well and we had a good time showing off Jennifer. She got officially christened by the group. The weekend was one of great socializing - games of ladder golf during the day, card and board games at night. Lots of good food was shared and enjoyed and we played golf at Cedar Bend. We also went in search of and found the tree reported to be the largest Myrtlewood tree in Oregon. It has a 42 foot circumference, is 88 feet high and the canopy is 70 feet wide. The base is hollow and you can actually crawl inside it and stand upright or lie down. It's rather like being in a cavern.
Janet leaning on an old growth tree on the way to see the giant Myrtlewood tree.
Look close to see Janet
at the base of the tree.
Looking up from inside
the tree
Lying down inside the tree.
Christening the new rigs
Sandy and Buddy relaxing in the rig.
Joyce, Sandy, Gina and Marilyn at Cedar Bend
Janet letting one fly.
June keeping her head down.
And we all enjoyed going out to eat at the Riverview
The rest of the summer flew by and the next thing we knew, it was October and June's friend, Sue Savard, visited from Brockport, NY. We took in a number of local sights and then took the rig down to Klamath, CA to see the Redwoods.
One of our stops was at Shore Acres - always a hit with visitors.
One of the many drive through trees in the Redwoods. We didn't think our truck would fit but we did see a small car pass through without difficulty.
We also went to the Trees of Mystery. Here Sue is in front of the Brotherhood Tree which is 19 feet in diameter. As big as it is, the root system is fragile which is why they built the walkway around it.
A few days after Sue left, we took off on a five-week, ten-state RV trip. We left on October 15th, starting out with an RVing Women weekend in Grants Pass. From there we went to Las Vegas where Janet's niece joined us for 10 days. We went to most of the national parks in southern Utah. To read about the rest of the trip, click on Bryce Canyon.
We got home on Thursday, November 18th, five weeks after we left. Originally we thought we'd get home on November 23rd, but as we became more and more road weary we skipped a couple of planned stops. It was a good thing we got here early as Coos Bay experienced a mini-blizzard (2 inches) on November 23rd. If we had to drive through that snow to get home we would have really freaked out. We took the rig to the dealer for servicing in the afternoon after the snow melted even though our appointment wasn't until the next day. We were afraid we'd have another night of snow and not get her there. The weather just stayed cold - no more precip so we were able to pick her up at 4:00 on Wednesday and get her back to storage for the winter - phew!
Our RV trip to Utah - Oct 15 - Nov 18
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Before we knew it, the holidays were upon us. We went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving and enjoyed a small gathering including games. We contributed a turkey breast and stuffing. We brought home quite a bit and enjoyed the left overs for several days. We both really like turkey. We planned to go pretty low key for Christmas since our trip was really our gift. As it turned out, the biggest receiver of Christmas was Fiona, our truck. She ended up needing some major repairs to the brakes and transmission plus needing a new oil pan gasket. She spent Christmas at the transmission shop and as of this writing, is still there. We expect to get her home this week.
Christmas Eve we hosted a potluck for 10. That's about all we can fit in our house for a sit down dinner and still be able to move! We had roast pork and stuffing with the extra goodies supplied by our friends: an eggnog gelatin salad, sweet potatoe casserole, salad, three bean salad and green bean casserole, Christmas cookies and wonderful sparkling apple juice mixes. Everyone had a good time. We played a new game called Reminisce though we played by our own rules, not the ones in the game. Then we finished the evening with the Mannheim Steamroller video. It was a nice way to spend Christmas Eve.
As the year winds down to the end, we're getting lots of rain and wind while the Eastern Seaboard just had a blizzard. New York and New Jersey got between 20 and 30 inches. I sure don't miss those days!
