Recent Travels

Well, not so recent now but in October I took a trip east and by my calculations I was in seven different airports in seven days - not counting four repeats!  In addition to seeing my lovely newest great-granddaughter in Virginia, I visited my Aunt in Escanaba and some cousins as well.  We had a great time even though I was only there two days thanks to Delta canceling my flight out of Oregon, the bastards.

Thanks to my cousin Mary Ann for (1) taking me to the gym with her
and (2) taking me for some blue moon ice cream

As usual when I visit Aunt Kathy, I make her let me go through her pictures, and I was able to score some pictures of family photos, such as:

My maternal grandmother's wedding portrait

My mom

My Aunt Kathy's wedding portrait

My mom wrestling with my Aunt Judy - can you tell
them apart?

Me, my Aunt Judy and my sister on a train
trip form Illinois to Michigan

And my beloved Aunt gave me one of my mother's paintings that had been a gift to her from my mom (sniff)

I also scored an evening with many of my cousins - well, actually my mom's cousins but I consider them mine too.  My thanks to each of them for making the time to visit with me, and to Tom and Chris for taking me out to lunch the next day!

My cousin Crash (if he has another name I've never heard it) brought a photo he had of my parents, grandmother and lots of other relatives sitting in a bar called the Denver back in the fifties.  I wish I had taken a photo of it, too, but alas, it was not to be.  A picture of my mother in a bar would be something unique (anyone else in the family, including myself, not so much).

I love my Aunt with all my heart, and will never forget how special she always made me feel as a little girl, even though I'm not the Catholic I'm sure she'd like me to be (she's my godmother, and says I'm a work in progress.  Seeing as how I'm atheist, it will continue to be a loooooong progress).

After two short days in Michigan, I was jetting off to Virginia Beach to visit my granddaughter, grandson-in-law and newest family member (read all about it here).  I went right from the airport to pick up my co-grandma, then to the hospital to see the baby for the first time.  What a doll!

Once everyone got a clean bill of health and was discharged, we headed over to their apartment.  By this time, it's dark and I'm a little tired, so co-grandma and I kissed everyone goodbye for the night and headed out to the parking lot, where….

…there was no rental car because the jerks at the apartment complex apparently require a visitors sticker despite the fact I had only been there two hours and had moved the car once already such jerks.

So poor Adam had to leave his wife and brand new baby to drive us to this lovely spot.

It was a chilly, long wait for the tow truck driver to show up and let me into the yard so I could fork over a lot of cash and get the rental car out of hock.  Not a good way to start the visit.

So I finally get to my hotel, wash my face and hit the hay, with dreams of Halloween candy dancing in my head.  Seriously, I dreamed someone kept yelling "Candy Corn!  Candy Corn!"  until I awoke, looked out my window and saw a race relief station just below my balcony where they were in fact handing out candy corn because "Your body needs the sugar!!"

If I had known about this race, I would have run it.  It turns out it was a 10K costume run, half of which ran right along the beach.  From my window at the breakfast joint I saw Ken and Barbie (in the boxes!), Shaggy, Scooby, Thelma, the other two AND the Mystery Machine, some trees, and some other really amazing costumes (amazing because some of those people were actually running in them).  I made a point of making a note in my phone of the fabulous costumes I saw, but now I'm damned if I can pull it up - grrr.

By the time I finished eating and got outside to take some pictures, I saw these:

This one was actually very clever - two people in a
roller coaster car - well done, crazy girls!

Awesome job on the baby strollers - and the dude
even managed to yell out "Yabba dabba doo!" as he trotted past.

Three blind mice

Again, the visit went by so quickly (unlike the time spent sitting around in airports).

Sunrise from my balcony

Big bag o'crochet

 All in all it was a great visit with all those I was able to see.

In other news, here's my new old lady car:

And my good old little green Prius, in which I had many fine adventures and which I sold the other day to a nice family from Portland.

It was a great car that never gave me a lick of trouble.  Let's hope the same will be true of the Avalon.

Finally, we had a great thanksgiving with turkey, pheasant, chukkar, lots of side dishes and wonderful family.  Unfortunately, I was so busy in the kitchen I didn't get to take any pictures.  Check out my Facebook page for pictures other people took, but here's one I already grabbed:

Schazi and Meg

In case I don't get back before Christmas, happy holidays, everyone!