Friday, June 26, 2015

Whirlwind of Travel

We've been home for three days from our road trip. Suitcases are unpacked.  Laundry is washed.  House is clean.  I think I'm rested.  It's time to resume normal activities such as Friday Fave Fives--that time of the week when I review and recount with gratitude what has blessed me this week.

1.  Going from most recent to most distant-- today is The Professor's birthday!  Happy Birthday to my husband of almost forty-two years.  He still makes me coffee in the morning; he still makes me laugh every day.  And he's still cute.  Here we are with my brother and sister-in-law on the Columbia River in Oregon.


2.  Brother and his wife share a wedding anniversary with us.  So whenever we are together at any time near the date, we celebrate!  Happy Anniversary to us!  Our day included a visit to the End of the Oregon Trail exhibit, and drive up the Columbia River Gorge to Bonneville Dam and dinner at McMenamin's, a popular pub chain which buys and renovates awesome old buildings and sells awesome beer.

3.  Visits with friends.  On our 2,500 mile trip up the West Coast of the US, we connected with several people from our past.  Church friends, High school friends.  College friends. And family, of course.




4.  We managed to carve out one day to get out and hike.  I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and lived there for a dozen years as an adult.  But there are so many places I never knew existed.  Like Canema--a very early native American settlement and later a pioneer community just upstream from the Willamette Falls in Oregon City.  In fact, my sister-in-law's mother lived there as a child.  I never knew.  So we decided to explore the nature park there.


Look!  Water.  Lots of water!


And green stuff growing!


5.  What precipitated this trip?  It was the graduation of our son from Stanford University!
[If you scroll down, you will find more photos of this momentous occasion.]
PhD in Anthropology


Dr. Mike

And now, we are home for a bit and waiting expectantly for the imminent arrival of our PAL and her parents for a birthday visit to Bapa!  Happy Weekend!  Let us count our blessings--safety, friendship, beauty.

13 comments:

Faith said...

what a fun trip and yay to getting some hiking in! i hiked last weekend too! it must have been fun to reconnect with old friends and places. I read a nivel once set in Williamette Falls but for the life of me i cant remember the title.

a VERY Happy Anniversary to you and Happy birthday to the prof! ( my dave Nd I are gonna celebrate 25 yrs on Tuesday the 30th!!)
enjoy your weekend.

Deb J. in Utah said...

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday to the Professor! Also congrats to your son on his PhD. Sounds like a nice trip you had. Have a nice weekend.

Mereknits said...

Congrats to you and your entire family, how amazing for your son!!!! Love the photos of your beautiful trip.
Meredith

Gracie Saylor said...

Happy Anniversary! Happy Birthday to your husband as well! I'm glad you had a successful trip and am interested in the info you mentioned about a nearby site I have not seen...yet. :) Wishing you more happy days as you wait for your next big event!

Monica said...

Congratulations to your son! What an accomplishment! Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary! Wow! What a great trip you must of had. Glad you are home safe and back to "normal". :)

Susanne said...

Wow, lots of celebrating on your end this week. Happy Birthday to your hubby, Happy Anniversary to you both! 42 years is amazing!!! How nice to celebrate with dear ones also celebrating. And congratulations to your son! Driving the Oregon Coast is on our bucket list. It looks like such a beautiful place to be!

nikkipolani said...

Happy anniversary to the both of you -- how fun to share the date with your sib. Ah, green stuff and wet stuff. Glad it still exists somewhere in our world!

snoopydogknits said...

Happy Anniversary! Such beautiful landscape photos! Ros

ellen b said...

Glad you could make the whirlwind trip and it's fun that you could celebrate such great occasions together! We are getting a McMenamins in Bothell soon. Happy belated anniversary to you!

Gattina said...

I like such whirlwind trips, it's always nice to escape the daily routine even for only a short time. We have 45 years of marriage behind us, and I noticed that we became rare species ! Happy anniversary !

aspiritofsimplicity said...

Happy birthday to your husband and a happy anniversary to every one. I lived on the west coast of Washington and it is such a beautiful part of the country.

susan said...

Looks like a wonderful trip. Happy Anniversary to all of you!

Barbara H. said...

I missed this last week, but belated happy birthday to your husband and happy anniversary to you both! And congratulations to your son!