Author Archives: Ellen

FFF ~ The Kind That Grow On You…

So I’m chiming in with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story with my favorites from the past week!

 

My week started out with a 3 day road trip that included beautiful scenery, fabulous places to sleep, and lots of good food to eat! Next week I’ll have to tell you my favorite diet to take off all the pounds I’ve accumulated with joy.

So here’s my five in a nutshell…

1. Beautiful scenery and stops on our roadtrip.

2. Amazing food that I wouldn’t even try to duplicate.

3. A lovely hotel and fabulous Inn that we stayed in on our road trip.

 

 

4. Meeting up with a bloggy friend on our road trip.

 

5. The welcome home we received from our children and being with our children in our home in Washington.

 

And the most amazing thing that I’m still not used to is the fact that I get to stay home in my house in Washington.

I’m mowing the lawn today so if I don’t see you early I’ll be getting around to see your favorites after a good dose of Ibuprofen later in the day! Blessings on your weekend!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Finding Beauty ~ Pleasanton, California

Click on the badge above to join in the beauty with Claudia at Dipity Road.

We traveled 1200 miles over 3 days last weekend and we found lots of beauty along the way. We traveled from Camarillo, California north along Highway 101 stopping in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Gilroy, and then for our first overnight in Pleasanton, California.

 

Main Street in Pleasanton was a nice street with lots of great shops, wine tasting rooms and restaurants. The rain that fell on us for much of our journey subsided when we arrived in Pleasanton so we had a very nice walk before dinner. Our hotel was located on Main Street and I’ll publish a post about it soon.

 

This Veterans Memorial Building really stood out against the blue sky and clouds.

 

 

They changed the original verse from the Bible to read “for his country” instead of  “for his friends”. I’m including more of the context of this passage with the verses that follow. These are from the King James Version of the Bible.

John 15: 13-17

13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Thank you to Claudia for hosting “Finding Beauty” and I do hope you all have a beautiful Friday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Where’s the Garlic?

Gilroy, California…The Garlic Capital of the World!

After breakfast in Santa Barbara we continued north on Highway 101 till we got to Gilroy. We wanted to stop here specifically because we had made a stop here way back in December of 1974 on our Honeymoon.

On one of my Goodwill outings I found The Garlic Lovers’ Cookbook Volume II from Gilroy. This is where I found this information.

“The first annual Gilroy Garlic Festival was held in August 1979 and drew over 30,000 people. Now the crowds exceed 120,000 each year for the three-day event with many people returning again and again for the food and fun of a fair dedicated to the enjoyment of garlic.”

“The big doings- guaranteed to take your breath away – will include a Grand Garlic Cook-off…”

While in Gilroy last Saturday we decided on lunch at the Garlic City Cafe. It was a good choice. We were determined to have garlic in the garlic city.

We started with the Cream of Garlic Soup and I was tempted to lick the bowl.

Then we split the Garlic Chicken Sandwich special of the day.  It really was a wonderful taste treat. We felt sorry for anyone we would come in contact with the rest of the day because I’m sure we took the essence of Gilroy with us for miles north…

Thank you Gilroy for the trip down Memory Lane…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Day One ~ Highway 101 North…

I’m slowly getting organized here in Washington. Emphasis on slowly. It’s good to remind myself this is not one of my short trips here but I’m here for the long haul so I have time to get things in order at a slower pace. Today I’m going back to our first day on the road with two full cars headed North on Highway 101.

 

Traveling this route we were able to see rough surf which we think was caused partly by the earthquake in Chili. We stopped at The Boathouse Restaurant in Santa Barbara and were amazed at the force of the waves. Everything was brown from the force of the water stirring up the sand. If you are ever in Santa Barbara we would recommend The Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach for a meal and a nice view of the Pacific.

 

The rain stopped for a while after breakfast and I was able to get a couple shots of the area.

 

This river feeds into the Pacific at Hendry’s Beach.

Photo upload at the Homestead here in Washington is pretty dismal so my posts will be slow and easy till I get all caught up from our trip. My computer is slow and I am slow. I’ve had to double check to see what day of the week it is, too. So moving along in the slow theme I’ve got something cooking in the slow cooker for dinner! Hope your Wednesday is going well…yes, it’s Wednesday.

Oh I guess I’ll link up with Outdoor Wednesday at Susan The Southern DayDreamer since it’s Wednesday….all day…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blessed With Blogging Friends…

When I started blogging in 2007 I never expected to form so many friendships through my blog. What a sweet surprise it has been to develop these friendships. Some friendships have developed just with comments back and forth and some have had the added blessing of meeting face to face.

 

On our trip back to Washington from California Dear and I had dinner with Sandy from The Reluctant Entertainer and her husband. We had our fabulous meal and time of fellowship at the Winchester Inn in Ashland, Oregon. I knew Sandy lived close by and it worked out that she and her husband were available to meet us. We didn’t run out of things to talk about. Sandy shares my passion for food and fellowship around food. Her blog is about simple entertaining and creative hospitality. If you haven’t visited there yet click on over. This is Sandy’s photo that I asked for since my photo was blurry. Thank you Sandy! Look at those great salads! I’ll be posting more about this great Inn later…

 

Our dinner was worthy of a Top Chef episode. We even had an Amuse Bouche, that small cup of soup. Amuse Bouche loosely means fun in the mouth. Ours was served before the salad and main course. My salad was a work of art. The lamb was delicious.

The Monday before we left California Cori G! met me in San Marino for breakfast at Julienne. I was a distracted blogger that day and forgot to get a fresh photo of the two of us at Julienne.

 

I really love the graphics that Cori G! creates and she gifted me with this sweet little jar of Sugary Sprinkles with a beautiful example of her graphics on the gift/recipe card! Look at those little blue birds…

 

This was taken at our first meeting last year. Thanks for driving to San Marino and meeting me for breakfast Cori!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Our Welcome Home!

 

We arrived home to find our Kitchen/Dining Room all decorated with balloons,  streamers and flowers. Josh, Laura, and Katie collaborated in the choosing and decorating. We walked in and were pleasantly surprised and then I cried!

They even included some “Retirement” balloons!

 

This helium balloon says Chateau Celebration ~ For Vintage Good Times! Love it…

We’re so happy to be home safe and sound. After we rest up tonight we’ll have to unpack and clean up!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Another Day of Adventure Complete!

I’m looking forward to being home tomorrow and getting around to uploading and editing my photos to share later this week.  Dear and I had a wonderful meal tonight in Ashland with Sandy, The Reluctant Entertainer and her husband. I knew I’d love her before we met and it was great to see her face to face. For now I’m crawling into this comfortable bed and resting my traveling body…

 

Happy March to all of you!!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

O Christ, Who Hast Prepared A Place ~ Hymn

 

John 14: 1-6 ~ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answererd, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

O Christ, Who Hast Prepared A Place

O Christ, who hast prepared a place
For us around Thy throne of grace,
We pray Thee, lift our hearts above,
And draw them with the cords of love.

Source of all good, Thou, gracious Lord,
Art our exceeding great reward;
How transient is our present pain,
How boundless our eternal gain!

With open face and joyful heart,
We then shall see Thee as Thou art:
Our love shall never cease to glow,
Our praise shall never cease to flow.

Thy never-failing grace to prove,
A surety of Thine endless love,
Send down Thy Holy Ghost, to be
The raiser of our souls to Thee.

Words: Jean B. de San­teüil, in the Par­is Bre­vi­a­ry, 1686, p. 503 (No­bis, Olym­po red­di­tus); trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John Chandler, Hymns of the Prim­i­tive Church, 1837, p. 86.

ht: cyberhymnal

Safe at The Rose in Pleasanton…

…more to follow next week.

 

We saw huge beaking waves all along the coast of California today, stopped in the Garlic Capitol of the World and arrived safe and sound at our amazing hotel in Pleasanton, California. We walked the charming Main St. and now I’m running hot water for a jacuzzi bath…Calgon take me away!! More photos to come next week!

Blessings on your Sunday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Have A Little Sunshine…

 

I hope you find some sunshine today!

“…He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous…”

I’m tying up all the loose ends and packing my car for an early morning take-off on Saturday. We’re taking a few days to get home with some fun destinations and meetings along the way. I’ll share later next week when we get settled at home.

Congratulations to my Canadian friends and the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team for their win last night! That goalie deserved a shut-out!  I wanted our U.S. team to fair better but by the end of the game I told Dear that the Canadian Goalie earned the shut-out!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.