Christmas in PDX

Bet you can't guess where I spent my Christmas weekend! So much fun to snuggle and play with sweet little Tabor. Currently he's working on his fine motor skills - plays with tags and ribbon loops for hours, ok its really only a lot of minutes, on end. Give him a toy and he plays with the tag! Funny to watch him as his so intent as he manipulates the tags. His clever mommy even made his a tag blanket with great colorful loops of ribbon.

Speaking of his mommy and daddy, they are quite anxious for him to learn to crawl..... hmmm, that will be loads of fun! This weeked he did learn to deliberately roll over to his back and he's starting to sit up more.... still pretty wobbley as you can see in this great home video!....
A brief disclaimer..... granbabies make gramasans sound pretty silly so if you have a weak stomach, turn down the volume before you watch!!

While I was there I finally finished a brown knitted vest for Tabor and then failed to get a picture of him wearing it to Sunday morning meeting. Maybe he will wear it again and his mommy will get a picture for me. Now I need to finish a blue/green/white/grey sweater before he outgrows it - almost done - down to the button bands! Then I can start on something "pink" for little baby girl Wilson in Idaho!!

You think I am obnoxious now.... just wait until Gramasan has two little ones to brag about! I may be down right hard to live with!

The wimp has a new ride!

Well according to a son of ours..... you know, that oldest one who's initials start with Kevin Wilson......Gordon is a wimp (and a chicken) because he didn't keep on driving his Infiniti until the 300,000 mile mark. It only has 289,000 (too cold and snowy to go out and get the exact number) and runs well. Just starting to lose things like heater fan, dash lights, radio(Gordon says he checked the fuses) and it never did handle well in the snow. So.... for the second time in our 38 years of marriage we have purchased a new car. A few hints on buying a new car - do your homework first then go on a snowy day when they only have a few customers so not much prospect of a sale and then make them an offer that makes the dealer want to cry!

In case you can't tell from this snowy photo it is a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Turns out there is a steep learning curve to driving this - the first one being how to tell when is it really running and ready to go. The dealer forgot to tell us to look for the little green light on the dash - we sat at our mailbox last night perplexed and bewildered as it would not move. You can turn the key far enough for everything to look ready but of course the gas engine doesn't start up(that is a weird sensation to drive off without a sound)..... got turn the key just a little farther.

Here is why the poor new car is sharing the great outdoors with the other Wilson cars.... Snowing hard (again) even as we speak.

Great day to finally get cracking on some traditional holiday tasks. Just took my infamous fruitcake out of the oven. For those who don't know about this.... years ago I took Helen's (Gordon's mom) fruitcake recipe and morphed it. I just couldn't take the candied fruit and started substituting dried fruit. Quite a few years ago my recipe even made the Bend Bulletin -short article with the recipe and a photo! (must have been a slow week in the home and garden section). Anyway, it is a true fruit cake but not what you think.... although it is heavy enough to use as a door stop.

Just in case you are interested here is the recipe:

8 cups of assorted dried fruit: I usually use dried apricots, pineapple, dates, cranberries and papaya, except for this year I forgot the apricots (I was going to head to Costco and never got there) Be sure to cut up the largest fruit such as the pineapple and papaya and separate any pieces sticking together.
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
8 cups pecans

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Put dried fruit in a very large bowl - you need room to stir (also helps to have a strong arm and a sturdy spoon). Mix up the fruit and then add flour mixture and start stirring. Make sure you stir from the bottom up - you are trying to coat all the fruit.

Beat the eggs and sugar together, add to the fruit and flour mixture. Again stir and stir until now it is all a gooey mixture. At this point at the pecans and stir again. I suppose the pecans can go in earlier but the original reciped said to add at this point so I always have.

Be prepared to get your hands into the goo.... Press mix into 3 regular size loaf pans - lined with oiled parchment paper. You can skip the parchment paper but it really makes is so much easier to get these out of the pans!

Bake at 275 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Turn out and cool on rack.

Playing catch up for the last month!

Can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. Part of my problem is I sit at a computer 75% of my work day so sitting at a computer in the evening is not exactly high on my list. Give me a book or some yarn or a pillow and that makes a great evening.

I had hoped to get up to Portland to see Corey, Danica and Tabor (had a work meeting) but the passes were icky and we were pretty icy around here. Had to settle for calling into the meeting and looking at pictures of Tabor on my desk (and new ones on Danica's blog!) I plan to head their way for Christmas. Poor grandpasan has to work.

These are from the end of October when Tabor and I got to spend the day - just the two of us. Check out Danica's blog if you want to see anything current! Or to verify just how cute this little guy really is!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving!!
During the past month winter came upon us with a vengence. Of course Dave and Sandra and I headed over to Idaho to see Kevin and Shauna when it was the coldest. Hit Burley in the single digits and left Burley in howling wind, blowing snow across the road. But Dave is an intrepid driver and the whole trip was great! Had a wonderful time!

For those of you have been to Sandra's blog some of these Thanksgiving at Kevin and Shauna's will be repetitious and BORING.

We all took a turn or two at the lefse - a real learning curve here!

Shauna had this great plan - making snazzy watches for Sandra's birthday!

It was a bit overwhelming at first - mixing, matching, stringing, un-stringing.... until wah-lah, finished watches!

Pasta lessons from a 'lil ol' lady from Bend whose been to Italy once! Very authentic!?

Ready for the boiling water

Scout just before she does her nodding, head bobbing, dozing off move. Sorry Bella, didn't get any pictures of you but so glad you and Scout decided to get along. And I really did enjoy having you as a lap blanket dog on the long ride home.


For those of you who have made it this far.... I have a vague recollection of another reason why I don't post very often.... I have uploaded several pictures several times as I accidently delete while trying to fix fonts, alignment - where oh where is the re-do/un-do button? If you know of one let me in on the secret, please! Until next year?!

Finally got our travel pix under control!

I cannot believe how long it took me to get to these pictures... I think the task was a bit daunting. Two cameras, two different sets of eyes, 1598 still shots....that is after weeding through prior to uploading to the computer.

Managed to get what I hope are 318 enjoyable photos to share. OK, there might be a few too many mosaics in the mix but I was quite taken with these. Of course photos don't quite give you the same feeling but you will get the idea and flavor of our trip.

Hope you enjoy and if 318 pictures just aren't enough come on over; we can put you to sleep with the rest of the stills. And we haven't even touched the video other than to find out they cause the computer to crash (high definition) but they do play quite nicely on a TV!

You might notice I have a pathetic little album of Tabor on Picasa. Danica keeps so many great pictures on Flickr that I just cruise over there on a regular basis. All the pictures I try to take turn out blurry or weird. I got to spend some time with Corey and Danica and Tabor this past weekend. I had to go to Portland for work and stayed over. Spent Friday with Tabor while mommy and daddy worked all day. What a great time! He is just so much fun. The wider you smile, the wider he smiles back. He's getting to where he likes to sit on your lap but he won't talk much in that position, lay him on his back and he starts to converse. Besides enjoying Tabor it was so good to see how much he is adored by both his parents. They are doing such an awesome job of being parents!

Speaking of parents... Kevin and Shauna are expecting. OK, I have been corrected on this already, Shauna is expecting next May. So more excitement and another grandchild to steal our hearts! I am counting the days to Thanksgiving which I will spend in Heyburn with Kevin and Shauna. Riding over with Dave and Sandra. Should be a really fun trip!

Back to reality

Have been home for 5 days now, and back to work for 3! But before we actually got home we stayed one night at our favorite park and fly...and got some Tabor time. Stole this pix from Danica's flickr site as I was a bit too tired to even consider trying to snag a picture of the little cutie.



I know I am gramasan but what an adorable baby! I was so privileged to be able to pack that little guy around and snuggle, coo and laugh with him. He is really quite social, watching your face for cues, trying so hard to imitate facial expressions and trying to make the same sounds you do. Was hard to put him down for his nap... can't we play just a little bit longer?

Jet lag is pretty much behind me, .... now. It is surprising how much you might think you have converted back to the right time zone, only to get tripped up in the early evening. Do not lay down for a short nap at dinner time...

I have been asked several times what was my favorite place on the trip.... what a tough question. Each place we went had its own special appeal. I would go back to pretty much any of them in a heart beat except for perhaps Mykonos. The water there was great and the town charming but a few days there would be plenty, and only when the beaches aren't packed. Rome deserves more time, Venice we only glanced at and Athens is much more than the Acropolis I suspect. Florence... well that beautiful city also deserves more time but I think really I would love to go back and spend a week or more in a smaller Italian town absorbing the culture and the great food.

Speaking of food, we came home and bought a pasta 'machine' and have made fresh pasta two nights already. It is an art but after a few flubs we managed to make some pretty great dishes, simple but yummy. Cooked some eggplant tonight, sort of following a recipe; turned out pretty good. Probably if I did follow the recipe it would have been really great.

Have managed to upload and rotate all 782 photos from my camera. Gordon has some pix on his that I would like to pull into a 'small' Picasa album. He took his camera to work to share some pix with his co-workers so... once he is back home I will get cracking on the small album. Otherwise, you will be sorry if you ask to see any of our travel photos!

Day 5 in Rome and starting to figure it out!

Well,not that you can really figure out Rome but we are getting the hang of the buses and metro, still being amazed at pretty much every corner. For all its chaos it is really a great place. Went to the National Museum [there are 3 major parts and we covered them all]. Explored a catherdal designed by Michelangelo but built out of, over, into... as essentially a remodel of Roman baths that could serve 30,000 people. The original structure covered blocks, we saw only a small part. Originally had a 30,000 sq ft pool, hot or cold? Not sure which but there were two pools.

Found a great place for lunch, packed with locals, waiter seemed to be ingoring us for seating but he had already figured out we needed a tavolo per due and was waiting for one to open for us. [don't be impatient, it does not help] Incredible, simple food but very, very yummy. Got our waiter to pose for a picture with me. Lots of benissimo's later, up the stairs to street level. Ate at 2,30 and its 8,30 pm [can you tell i can't find the colon symbol] and we are not hungry - could eat but really not hungry.

Last stop was part of the museum, three metro stops away, where we walked down 1000 years below the street. Across the street were more ruins where old Julius was stabbed. Also a charity home for cats and more cats.

Still think our biggest threat is getting hit by a scooter, a taxi or a bus. Pickpockets seem to be afraid of us and we're figuring out the food so the restaurants can't rip us off any more.... starting to fall in love with the crazy place!

Off to the Colesseo e Forum domani - that would be the Coliseum and Forum tomorrow. Whew!

Side trip to Naples and Pompei

Today we took the train south to Pompei to visit the ruins. That was a trip in itself. Had to change trains in Naples but couldn't find even the right set of tracks and then we did end up on the wrong train. With virtually no English we got help from a kind Italian who let us know to get off at the next station and wait for the next train that was behing us.
Spent almost 4 hours at Pompei and easily could spend 4 days. It was fascinating to say the least. Wanted to spend time in Naples at the Archeologic Museum so we headed back to Naples. Another adventure to find where to purchase Metro tickets and then which line, etc ... quite a bit different than Rome. You buy these in the magazine store.. anyway after all that I had failed to read the fine print, the museum is closed on Tuesdays! So we walked around Naples. It is quite a bit rougher than Rome, lots more graffiti and trash, narrower streets with more scooters. But all in all not as bad as everything we had read. We half expected to be robbed on every corner but we had absolutely no trouble. Had great authentic Naples pizza as Naples is where pizza originated. Very simple, thin chewy crust cooked in a wood burning pizza oven. Really yummy!

Tomorrow is a sleep in day and then the National Museum and ? - ahh, I found the ? mark ont this keyboard!

Day 2 in Rome

Back in Italy with a lot of notes to self!

No.1 when taking the vaparetto [waterbus] in Venice with a short period of time until your train leaves... make sure you know when exactly which vaparetto you need to get back on... cut it so close we were weaving and dodging and flat out running. I whacked my knee on something enroute - have the bruise to show it.

No. 2 -ask about the hotel internet. Been trying to find an internet cafe here in Rome without luck, checked at the hotel and it is complimentary, can have 30 minutes a day. The downside is we can't upload photos, so will be keeping our eyes open as we explore Rome.

No. 3 - even though using points, when hotel is across the street from Versace and there is a Rolex store two doors down, the restaurants are going to be expensive!

Staying at the Grand Flora Rome - Marriott. It is across a busy road from Villa Borghese which is a huge park where many Italians were enjoying the gorgeous Sunday afternoon. We lucked out and got right into the Borghese Gallery [supposed to need reservations several days in advanced] Very incredible place, a definite top 100 places to see if you get a chance. One of the top 100 things not to see is a homeless man wiping his bottom with newspaper on the sidewalk of a busy street. We are pretty sure we know what he was doing, yucky!!

Did a walk after dark from illuminated fountain to illuminated fountain. Streets were full of people doing the same thing or just hanging out in the various squares. We headed out earlier in the afternoon working our way to the first fountain, stopping and gawking at every turn as there seems to be even more photo ops in some parts of Rome than we had in Florence, and we thought we had a lot there!

On a more serious note, we have heard the travel warnings and are staying watchful, but what do you watch for. Also how do you avoid crowds and tourist areas and still see what we came to see. [can't find question mark on this key board!] We haven't changed any of our plans and the warnings are extremely vague so we are going forward and will see what happens!

Last port of call

Pulled up this photo of the roof of the Acropolis by mistake...... roof is reassembled on the ground (marble tiles and wooden rafters)



Yesterday was Mikonos. White washed walls with blue trim, winding narrow little streets in the town.





After we spent a little time in the town we found a beach where we dipped into the sea - it's not really the Mediterranean here and don't have my map - but close enough. Soaked up some Grecian sun. As we found our way back to town we passed several scooter rentals..... so off we went for 12 euro for the day, not that we had a day. Fun to get out to see more than the town. This island is very arid and I think it has been the dry season for awhile. Hilly with hand built rock terraces all over the place.

Today is Katakolon where we did our only guided tour of the cruise. Quick run through the original Olympic games site and archeologic museum, had more time on our own to shop than to view the ruins! This is just one of many crumbled temples- used to house a statue that was one of the original 7 wonders of the ancient world. They built with limestone and this is a seismic zone - say no more.



I think we are getting a little weary of having things fairly scheduled, although the two couples we share a table with for dinner have not gotten off the boat at all at several ports.

Here's our dinner partners - formal night at the King and I Restaurant. Both couples are from Ireland and quite a hoot. Have had some good laughs over dinner.



Tomorrow we are at sea all day heading back to Venice where we catch the train to Rome.

gotta learn how to post photos in one blog!!

sorry, the posts go on forever as I don't know how to get more than one picture on a post... will try it out next time??

Venice from the cruise ship as we headed out

Stairs in the Duomo

Pitti Palace, one of many summer homes of the Medici

Medusus bit the dust

Just another pretty face

Front door of the same cathedral - a block from our hotel in Florence

Couple of tourists blocking the view from the top of the Duomo

Just one of the views from the farm house where we learned to make pasta

Stairs up to the top of the Duomo - 463 steps up - Florence (sorry bout the tilt - can't figure out how to rotate yet)

Big, white ugly statue as titled by the locals in piazza full of tourists (Florence)

Front of the main cathedral in Florence

Ponte Vecchio in Florence

A photo at last - Venice from the vaporetto - took us 300 yards to the parking lot for the cruise

Athens by Fire

Note to self! 1/2 day in Athens just does not cut it!! Spent most of our time at the Acropolis. Very, very impressive especially when you think about we are just seeing what is still standing after centuries. Makes you stop and think about what it was in its splendour and filled with ancient Grecian tourists! Had to walk 30 minutes (hoping we were going in the right direction) to the electric train into Athens. Up on the Acropolis you would think we were away from the cruise ship but all of sudden, "you are on the Splendour of the Seas? I will take your picture", the cruise photographers seem to be everywhere. So far I think they've gotten 3 pictures of us - we keep escaping them.

After the Acropolis and the first theater in the world, box seats and all, we walked through some shops in the Plaka. One shop had a glass floor where we walked over 300 BC excavations. Walking along another place it looked at first like just a vacant lot but with remains of ancient (3rd century BC?) temple.

Today is Wednesday so it must be Mykonos. We got off the boat by 'tender', small local boat that came out to our ship to bring us into shore. Local fisherman at the dock, small pickups lining the edge of the street by the bay with eggplant, peppers, eggs, flowers, onions. We are at a self-service internet. If you print anything you go to the bar next door to pick up!! Tried my card reader for pictures and can't get it to work. Really we are taking a few pix! So sorry, just a boring blog again.

Sun in Corfu is making up for the rain!

It's a cloudy day but quite warm and when the sun comes out the hats go on! Walked all over the old town of Corfu, up to the top of the old fortress. Today is World Tourism Day so entry to the sites has been free. Found a great Asian Art museum in the old palace here in town. Some statues were from 4-5th century.

Lunch: Greek salad with the most incredible feta, spinach/cheese pie (wrapped in phyllo dough of course) followed by cappacino and baklava.

Got 45 minutes til we have to back on the boat. Took us 15 minutes to walk this far but with full tummies we might not break our record going back. Dinner in 4 hours... formal night. My 'cocktail' dress for tonight is about as fancy as what other women have been wearing on causal night. My casual dress has been sandals, mountain hardware skirt and a nice top!! So far they have let me eat!

After dinner last night there was a band that did MoTown music - they were fantastic. Place was packed with a bunch of us oldies bopping and hopping to the music. Actually we are some of the younger oldies, even for those who are our age!!

Tomorrow is Athens but we don't arrive until noon so I think we will set the alarm for 11:00 am. Our interior box, oh stateroom, is very dark (unless we turn on the lights) so will be good for sleeping in.

pouring rain in Split, Croatia

Best laid plans for touring Venice fell apart. Got a little worried about getting to the boat and actuallz (OK the keyboard is z where i am used to y) thought we might drop off our bags and then tour..... well long line for vaporetto (water bus) tickets before we found out could buz at magayine shop (oh it is y at the z kez. then found out we were probablz a 1/4 mile to the bus parking for the shuttle to the boat. anz waz it was quite a hassle, no signs, long waits and bz the time we were checked in there was not enough time to go back. Did cruise along the outer canal and had awesome views of Venice as we headed out to sea.

So far on the cruise it is sales pitches and food and then more food. Had a great dinner, eating at 8 pm with 2 couples from Ireland - thez will be our dinner companions for the week. Thought thez were quite stuffed shirts at first but turned out to be quite talkative.

Woke up to a torrential downpour in the port of Split and hung out on the boat waiting for it to abate. Gave up and dashed the 3/4 mile to the ancient Roman palace. Incredible scenerz, once again could just take photos everz 20 feet, 360 degrees. trzing to keep the cameras drz!!

Bancomat for 200 krohn, hesistated long enough (how much to get??) til machine was going to cancel us out! had to get krohn for Croatian pastrz (a bit heavz) and now internet cafe. Will head down a side street and trz to find a place with food whose names we can't pronounce. no english on the signs but some broken english in the shops so we are getting along OK!

PS to Florence

We have only been to this one sketchy internet place where I haven't been brave enough to down load photos. But photos we do have so if you are interested keep watching, might be October before they are up but..... sorry Kevin won't be too many of AMS and CDG!

Firenze, Italia

It's our last night in Florence. We have wandered and toured quite a bit of the city. First day was crammed, based on our neighbor's recommendation. We were wiped out but it was good in a way. Got a good feel for the general history and layout as well as some of the art. There are art museums everywhere and even a palace tour starts with room after room of special exhibits and then paintings on every wall. Glad we had a guide in the first museum (art historian) to give us the highlights! Stood and gauked at THE David. Pretty impressive chunk of marble!

Yesterday we walked to the old wall of the city and then found our way to a little park, where we weren't real sure we were in the right place, to meet Jessi from Phoenix, Arizona for our Italian cooking school! Took us out in the country about 30 minutes to the top of a gorgious hilltop with a very, very old farmhouse (800 years old) where we made pasta from special pasta flour, one egg and mix just so, knead, let it rest and then start running it through the handturned pasta machine. We made spinach ravioli with awesome ricotta and fresh nutmeg and also made flat noodles (tagliatelli). Christiani, the owner the house, was busy cooking up eggplant lasagna, zucchini frittata and pizza which we ate before OUR pasta. Ravioli cooked in 3 minutes and then served with sage butter and fresh parmesan- wow!The tagliatelli was cooked in 2 minutes with a very light tomato sauce over it. Finiti sin Christiani's tiramisu (translation: finished with). Stuffed pigs we were. In fact that is the name of the game here.

We went to the Central Market and thought we were ordering a small salad, an eggplant/egg dish, a pork roll thing and a cornmeal something and ended up with 3 huge plates. They told us what it was as we pointed but the names escape me. So guess we will have only gelato for dinner tonight! Actually we did climb the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo for great view of the city. Could almost see into our hotel room from there, just a block away! Coming down was a trick, tight space with people coming up and then around and around and around.

Hope to sleep well tonight but that is questionable - sleep has been not so great. The studenti party most of the notte and chose our window to hang out and hoot and holler at midnight. Plus, the little hotel is great but we question the foundation.... every truck, and these are small trucks, that rumbles by makes our floor shake!

Tomorrow we head for the train station (less than 15 minutes away) to go to Venice and our cruise. We missed a bunch of stuff here so we just may have to come back. While walking along a street I noticed a group on a cruise tour and asked how long it took to get to Florence as we are not on the coast. Over 1 1/2 hour bus ride, stopped in Pisa first and then Florence. Well they got the quick gloss over and guided by one individual for probably about 30 people. Glad we are not trying to get so far from the boat and doing most of our stops on our own!! ONLY down fall so far is there are sooo many tourists!

First Stab @ Blogging

Sitting here trying to figure out why I am doing this - guess I am thinking this would be a fun way to keep anyone who might interested up to date (well as up to date I keep this blog) on my wanderings and my musing about such wanderings. Disclaimer: there may be a post here and there about my staying puts as well.


Side bar but related: I just finished reading "Still Alice" a story (fiction) about a very brilliant woman who has early onset alzheimers so now I wonder about the title of my blog.... but not all who wander are lost. By the way the book was great - a bit unsettling and reduced me to tears occasionally but a good read.

As I write this I am fully packed and ready to fly to Portland (once I water a few plants and take my good friend out for breakfast who is taking me to the Redmond airport). I will spend the weekend getting some Tabor time, granpasan joins us on Sunday afternoon. Oh, and we'll spend time with Tabor's mommy and daddy - Corey and Danica!

On Monday morning Gordon and I will head to PDX and fly to FLR via AMS and CDG. Translation: we fly from Portland to Florence, Italy via Amsterdam and Paris. AMS and CDG are only brief layovers - only sightseeing will be in the airports there.

We start in Florence, take a train to Venice where we embark on a 7 day cruise with a stop in Croatia and stops in Greece, back to Venice. From Venice we are back on the train but go to Rome where we will stay for a week prior to heading back over the pond. So, with any luck I hope to get the hang of posting in internet cafes here and there. With lots of luck I will get the hang of uploading photos. I am sure the pictures will be the main attraction here!