Category Archives: Travel

Wood or Stone…

…there were a lot of great old churches in Eastern Washington.

Tonasket, Washington

 

Republic, Washington

 

Colville, Washington

 

In The Middle of Nowhere, Washington

I’m happy to see that the symbol of the Cross of Christ can still be displayed on our houses of worship!

Galatians 6:14 ~ But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Jude 1:20-21 (The Message)

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Back in the Saddle Again…

…and if you had seen all the horses we saw you’d understand why I used that phrase after a very quick road trip to Eastern Washington and back!

We crossed the Cascade Mountain Range over Highway 2 and went through little sleepy towns like Sultan, Gold Bar, Skykomish before we reached Leavenworth on the east side of the range.

 

Leavenworth is a Bavarian town on the east slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range that attracts a lot of tourists throughout the year.

We haven’t had great experiences going to and from this little Bavarian town so we just stopped for a very short break before continuing east. We are happy to report this time we made it through the town going and coming without any major incident.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I forgot to show you the great little spot we stopped for breakfast before we crossed the mountains.

 

You’ll see this spot right on Highway 2 a little beyond Monroe, Washington. They bake their own bread and goodies.

 

Quite the tempting baked goods case!

 

We settled for a hearty breakfast. Look at the slices of that homemade bread!!

More from our trip later. Just wanted you to know we didn’t starve along the way. And here’s a little Gene Autry for you before you slip away…

I’m back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

Ridin’ the range once more
Totin’ my old .44
Where you sleep out every night
And the only law is right
Back in the saddle again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin’ to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

She is Strangely Silent…

 

I’m headed East over the mountains on an overnight with this cute guy. Don’t tell my husband! Oh wait…that is my husband.

 

 

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Cruising to Alaska…

…I’m not but my junior high and high school buddy was leaving today out of Seattle. She and her husband and 4 friends traveled from L.A. to board their Cruise ship at Pier 91 in Elliott Bay. I picked them up when they arrived at the cruise ship and we all went to lunch before they boarded the ship for their 7 day cruise. Another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest!

 

If you look closely you can see the Space Needle behind us in the distance!

It was fun to meet Nancy’s husband for the first time and her friends that have been by her side for many years.

We’re deciding where to go to church tomorrow. We still haven’t found a church home yet.  Now I’m going to go put my feet up and watch the Sounders play the Red Bulls. Hope you are enjoying your Saturday wherever you are…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Brunch at Mom & Pops

My mother went all out for us again. Katie and I were in the greater L.A. area on Saturday and Sunday and told my mom we’d pop in for breakfast. We weren’t surprised to be greeted with a morning feast. I’ve said before that my Mother’s Love Language is preparing food for people. I missed photographing the cantaloupe and strawberry plate that looked like a flower. She made Vareniki stuffed with potato this time and served them with asparagus with zest of orange and topped with grapefruit. My sister Vera and nephew Tim and his wife Jessica joined us. It was nice to enjoy a smaller group for a change.

Katie, Jessica and Tim

Katie with my mom and dad

From brunch Katie and I traveled north to the La Canada/Flintridge area of Los Angeles to meet up with other family members at Descanso Gardens. I’ll be sharing those photos soon. We packed so much into two days my head is still spinning.

Boxes, Boxes, Everywhere…

…I’m glad I had a place of retreat away from the Box Chaos…

And of course besides a nice retreat, good food with good company is comforting…

The condo was all emptied out by noon. Willow arrived with a hairdryer so I could speed dry the toothpaste I used to fill some holes. We went to the Panini Place in Camarillo for lunch then said our goodbyes. sniff sniff…

I headed to the Home Depot to pick up some super duper glue (clear) to fix some flooring issues and got a throw away paint brush to dab a little touch up here and there. I swept and cleaned up all I could without a vacuum. Before I left I lifted my hands in a prayer of gratitude to my great God who blessed me and Dear so richly during our stay in Camarillo. I didn’t lower those hands without asking that God would bring us a buyer for our condo soon.

I’m now in Fullerton at another hotel waiting till 9:30 to drive to LAX to pick up Katie. Tomorrow at 9:30 we’re headed to my mom and pop’s  for breakfast… Vareniki…yum. My Mennonite friends will know what those are! :0) After breakfast we’re meeting up with more family members to take a little trip to Descanso Gardens. The rest of the day we will play by ear.

Hope you all are having a great weekend wherever you are.

Goodbye Camarillo…

Today I supervise the movers loading the moving van. I’ll be meeting up with Willow for lunch and then I’m off to Orange County to spend the rest of the weekend with my family. I’ll be picking up my daughter Katie tonight from the airport so she can join in the family fun. We’ll have breakfast with my mom and dad on Saturday and then head to Descanso Gardens with some of my extended family. Fun times. We fly home Sunday night.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Left Coast Cloudy…

…from Seatac to LAX!

There was a pretty solid cloud cover from Seattle to Los Angeles on my flight this morning. I arrived safe and sound to Camarillo. The condo is in good shape and I’ve checked into my hotel. I’ll return to the condo later to clean out the refrigerator. The packers arrive tomorrow morning.

Willow and I are meeting at All Things Tea at 3:30. It will be good to catch up over a pot of Earl Grey!

Before I left home I put up this bird feeder on my apple tree so I could see it from my kitchen window. This is my first ever bird feeder. I was so pleased that I received some cute little visitors already!

I had to zoom pretty far to capture them so the clarity isn’t that great.

Reflecting…

…on the rest of the week.

~Considering what to pack for my 5 day trip to Southern California. The primary reason for the trip is to supervise the packers and movers at the Condo. All of our stuff will finally move north to Washington. Where we will put all that stuff is yet to be determined!

~Wondering if the packers will be cursing me under their breath when they see all those dishes!

~Looking forward to seeing my SoCal walking buddy Willow. We won’t be doing any walking but I’m sure we’ll fit in a cup of tea together so we can catch up on what’s been happening in our lives.

~Wondering what my daughter and I will be doing with our extended family after she arrives for the weekend down South.

~Wondering when the condo might be sold. Sooner then later I hope…

~Continually thankful for being back in my house in Washington. Last night I could hear the frogs croaking. When I look out windows I see huge trees. Windows! I have way more then 3 windows here and I like the view out of every one of them.

~Talked to my middle son yesterday and was thanking God again for His mercy and grace and protection on Dan’s life.

~Making sure I don’t forget I have jury duty bright and early the morning after I get back from California.

~Wondering if I’ll be posting anything the rest of the week. Knowing me…I’ll probably find something to post.

~Hoping the stuff from California doesn’t arrive during my Jury Duty obligation.

~Are you bored yet?

~Hoping I won’t feel too all alone or bored back in Camarillo by myself…

Have a wonderful week everyone and if you don’t see me on your blogs you’ll know why.

It Was So Much Fun…

…to laugh and talk with these girls!

 

6 of the 10 contributors on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog.

 

Julie, Bev K. , Betty R., and Charlotte were unable to join us.

 

It was my first face to face with all these ladies. You know these girls are even thinner in person. I forgot to ask them their secret on how they stay so slim while cooking all that great food!!  And for the record…Kathy, I think you are great!! I feel so blessed to have been adopted into the fold even though I’m not Mennonite. Many of our Russian recipes are similar to the Mennonite favorites.

 

Before eating we got a little shopping in. After lunch we parted ways. I headed South and they headed North with a stop at the Tulip Fields.

 

I brought home a food gift and the prize I won on Judy’s blog giveaway a while back.

My own Vancouver Olympic Mittens and a Canada Pin! Thank you MGCC for a wonderful day and thank you Judy for my prize. I love the mittens and the pin.

Before I met up with the girls I had a quick stop at the tulip fields and I’ll show more of those photos later.  Blessings!

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.