Indian Blanket top done!

My goal was to have this top done by this weekend and I made it!  It turned out so lovely.  Soft and feminine.  Just for me.  

My hubby was outside playing with tree limbs and decided to make a tepee structure for our grand kids to play in the next time they come over.  He called me outside to take a look. After I graciously told  him how great it was, I then was like - this is perfect for taking pics of my Indian Blanket!!!   :)

Love that he humors me.  

Off the quilt topic - I have no idea why the light is so different in each pic. Photography is not my thing and it sure shows.  If I cared I'd take a class, huh?   :)

30 Years

Then:

Now:

Happy Anniversary to us!!!

Young Lovers

I was re-organizing some stuff yesterday and found this photo booth pic of hubby and I from high school.  Pretty sure it was taken in our senior year....so late 1978 or first half of 1979.    Too cute, huh?

Hiking and Circles

I am participating in a photo blog with my Yaya's....the one with weekly themes...I think I've mentioned it before.   Anyway, this week our theme is "Circle".   Hubby and I went for a nice long hike today to enjoy the sunshine.   I decided it would be fun to look for circles while we walked.....and it was!   

Here are a few I found:

Biking a Volcano

We are here.....on Maui.  

Today was special so I decided to do a quick blog post and share.   But to start I have to show you the view from the beach just in front of our hotel.   Isn't it gorgeous?   Yup.  Totally.

Haleakala is the volcano that dominates the island.   It's a bit over 10,000 feet.   We did one of the bike rides that goes down the volcano.   Instead of a group ride, we did it freestyle.....meaning the tour company provided us with all the gear and hauled us up, then left us to descend and return to their shop at our own pace.   The only way to do this, in my opinion!    It was so much fun.    Here we are at the start:

This is a view towards Kihea...the town we are staying in.....at the beginning of the ride.   The sky is so blue and the ocean so blue that you can hardly tell where one starts and stops.    We didn't get many pictures on the ride as we were going downhill to fast to take pics and I didn't really want to stop every two minutes to take them. 

We passed through a grove of eucalyptus trees.  Oh boy was the smell wonderful!   The trees were beautiful.

It only took us about an hour and a half to get down the volcano and back to Haiku where the shop was.  Pretty fast.  We're looking forward to going back to Haleakala to do some hiking in the crater later this week.   After returning our bikes we stopped in Paia.....hippy town as one sign said.   LOL!   Had a wonderful lunch and did some shopping. 

Once back to our hotel we did what we've been doing every evening.  Suits on....relax on the beach, watch the humpback whales in the distance and wait for the sun to set.  

Aloha!

Valentines fun in Picnik

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.  It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

- Judy Garland

Just cuz!    :)

River Search

Remember I told you about the Yaya's weekly themed photo challenge for this year?   Well, this weeks theme was "Book I'm Reading".
The book I'm reading is called "Yukon Lady: A Tale of Loyalty and Courage".   True story about a gal named Emma who moved to the Yukon in the early 1900's as a new bride.   There were lots of things I could have chosen as my picture(s) for the week:  cribbage, Husky dogs, sourdough, glaciers, etc.    They lived on the Stewart River and the river was central to life for them.  That's why I chose "river" as my pic for the week.

Getting a river picture meant a field trip for hubby and I.  So this morning we took off across the Hood Canal bridge in search of the Quilcene River.   We parked at Rainbow campground and hiked a short distance down to the river.

Dennis and Bonnie on the way down the trail.

Some mushrooms we saw.  Love how plentiful fungi are here in the NW.  For some reason they have always interested me.

And here she is, the mighty Quilcene River.

Dennis dinking at the rivers edge.

Me on the way back UP the trail...lots of stops to catch my breath.

We finished our little adventure with lunch at the Timber House in Quilcene.  Yummy, yummy food.  I highly recommend this place if you're in the area.

A Walk About Town

We have been having fabulous fall weather here in the Pacific Northwest. And since we all know the rains aren't far behind, we are taking advantage of this sunshine. Today after church hubby and I took a walk around town. It was perfect walking weather.....which for me means no sweating. :)

We were up on the hill as the ferry was pulling in.

Even though we have walked through town many many times, we discovered a short public trail that cut across many backyards. Better than the road.

Decided to grab lunch here. We've heard good things about this restaurant but had never stopped in. They make all kinds of burgers and yes, they were great. We'll definitely be eating here again. Though we'll need to triple the distance of our walks to burn off the burger and fries! LOL!




And I couldn't resit sharing a picture of a couple of sauces they had inside. Be sure to read all the print....you man need to click on the pic to enlarge it so you can read it all. I cracked up big time!

What does a good walk and good food equal? Napping. :)

Feet Friday and Happy Anniversary to Us!

Last day at the lake and our 29th wedding anniversary!

Surprise Vacation

Nothings more fun than a vacation......except maybe planning and pulling off a surprise one! :)

Which is what I did for my hubby's birthday this year. I managed to keep him in the dark about where we were going and what we'd be doing! Woo hoo!

Our destination was Portland.....for their International Beer Festival. My man loves his brews and I knew he'd enjoy a time of sampling. They gave you these little glasses and 15 tickets. Since I hate the stuff (though, I did try some...really I did....still icky!) he got my tickets. Then you go about sampling from over a hundred different beers. I stuck with water.....and eating.....and watching thousands of people. It was like being in a very huge bar.

After a couple of days in Portland we took off for the Oregon coast. Dennis hadn't been there since he was 10 and I never had. We stopped at Fort Clatsop for a little history. Then Seaside for time in the sun. I can't believe how few people were on the beach.


This was our B&B for our coast time. The Arch Cape Inn. Our room was at the top of that round tower. This is a beautiful place...with wonderful service....and incredible gourmet food. We weren't on the beach but we could see it from our room and it was just a 3 minute walk.

Cannon Beach icon. Another nice day for shopping and beach walking.
There were lots of birds nesting on the rocks...even Puffins (which we didn't see).



Hiking in Ecola State Park. Loved this place. I could have stayed here all day.

We headed to Tillamook for the day. Had to tour the factory, of course. Then spent time in Oceanside and went to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

The Oregon Coast is on our list of places to revisit.....even Portland. We had a great time and were sorry to see it end. Hummmm......wonder where I want to plan a surprise for next?

ABC Wednesday

T is for Theatre

Hubby and I met in high school via the speech team. I followed him around like a love sick puppy! And since he was in the drama club I had to join that too! My only drama background...if you can even call it that....was playing Lucy in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the third grade. Nonetheless, love is fearless, so I followed him into drama. Our first play together was called "The Imaginary Invalid"...in which I just played a servant girl who had to walk on stage carrying a tray of drinks and stand there...absolutely NO lines....but I was terrified anyway. Hubby is the exact opposite. He loved acting and did it till we had kids. Drama club did mean one other fun thing --- a senior trip to New York City where my love of musicals was born. My favorite one we saw? A Chorus Line!

I actually got to see it again a few years ago and it was interesting how differently I saw the show as a woman in her 40's than I did at 17.

We have maintained our love of theatre and once our kids were grown we got season tickets to Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. The last show we saw was Grease. Now we wait for a new season to open in the fall.

This is another hobby I expect we'll keep doing for quite a while.

Check out other ABC Wednesday fun.

Cruising

We are back from our first cruise. I -- we -- loved it! It's definitely something we would do again.

Here we are on board as we are leaving Seattle....already getting our first taste of free food and relaxation! It was a gorgeous day in the Northwest....but it would be the last of clear blue skies until we returned.

The porthole view from our room:

Glaciers were the theme to our sight seeing. We visited 3 of them. First (on the left) was Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. It rained like crazy that day but it was still beautiful. Second (middle) was Davidson Glacier on our day in Skagway.....via a great excursion that I'll tell ya about in a minute. Last (right) was Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. This glacier is humongous! The picture just doesn't do it justice. It makes the other two look itty-bitty. I think they said it is 250 feet high with another 100 feet under water. We got to see lots of pieces break off and fall...including that big "tower" on the top right (if you click to enlarge). Spectacular!


This is us in all our gear on the excursion to Davidson Glacier. We left Skagway via a catamaran....rode about 45 minutes to Glacier Point. Then it was a bus ride through the woods to camp where we suited up in rain gear. Then a hike through the woods to a river where we got in canoes. Then we canoed to the lake to see the Glacier. It never did rain but it was a good thing we were in gear cuz we were in the front of the boat and it was windy....waves, wind.....yeah....we got wet! The tour guides really made this a great day!

We had our best weather the day we were in Glacier Bay. This was the most blue sky we saw. The water was like glass, though, so I was able to get some gorgeous reflection shots.

And, what quilter doesn't look for and shop at quilt stores where ever she is!!! Skagway had a shop, but this one is Silver Thimbles in Ketchikan. I helped keep the quilt store economy in good shape! LOL!

And the best part about cruising?

Relaxation (lots of reading & napping), way too much food and nummy cocktails any time of day!

Love, love, loved it!

Sailing Away

This is the ship that will take us away for a week of relaxation, site seeing and I'm sure too much eating! We are off to Alaska on our very first cruise. I'm so excited. Everyone I talk to has loved their Alaska cruise...I've not heard one negative comment. We set sail around 4pm today...so if you see us sail by, wave!

Hello, Dolly!

"I went away from the lights of Fourteenth Street

And into my personal haze

But now that I'm back in the lights of l4th Street

Tomorrow will be brighter than the good old days"

-From Hello, Dolly

Hubby and I regularly go to Seattle to see musicals at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Seattle is, of course, famous for rain but we have never been rained on in the 7 years of going over for plays! That doesn't mean it hasn't rained...just that we don't get rained on. It rains during the play or during dinner but always has stopped during the times we are outside walking. True! That is until this time. It was miserable. Cold. Wet. Cold. Wet. Did I say cold & wet? Ugh!

Here we are on the ferry....smiling cuz it's early yet and maybe...just maybe the rain will stop on the way over!

Gray skies and more gray skies:

Once we got to the theatre the gloom of the day vanished. "Hello, Dolly!" is the perfect play to whisk away the gray! I had forgotten what fun this show is. And amidst the laughter it has a poignant message too......when tragedy enters our lives (for Dolly, her hubby dying) and we enter "our personal haze", eventually our "tomorrows will be brighter than the good old days." Yippy for our tomorrows.

We tried a new restaurant this trip. It's called Thao's and serves modern Vietnamese food. I loved our appetizer the best. It was soft shelled crab spring rolls. Oh boy, could have just eaten them all night.

Rain or no rain, it's always a good day when it's a play day. :)

ABC Wednesday

This was one of those weeks (of which I think there will be many!) when I wondered why I decided to have a theme for ABC Wednesday! It’s hard enough for me to even remember to do the posts, let alone have to come up with ideas under the theme of hobbies. I may not make it to Z! Anyway….here goes....late but done.

E is for Equestrian

We have never had horses, nor have horses been our hobby! But we have many friends who do. I have no pictures of them, though. But I have been on a horse and have pictures to prove it. :)
Hubby and I went to Glacier National Park in Montana for our honeymoon in 1980. We took a horse ride on one of our days there. We wanted to do the 6 hour ride but it was cancelled due to snow along the trail. All they were doing were 2 hour rides. We were thinking 2 hours was lame…but thank you Jesus the others were cancelled! We were sore, sore, sore. Who knew sitting in a saddle would be so hard on one's backside? What did we know at 19?!

Fast forward 26 years later. We are back in Glacier on vacation. Staying in the hotel we couldn’t afford on our honeymoon…so fun....and decide we *have* to ride horses again. There was no question about how long of a ride we’d go on….give us the shortest one! Age brings wisdom, huh?


Check out ABC Wednesday for more blogs participating. It’s fun!