30 Years and Still Going Strong!

Once upon a time, Warren helped start the Mid-Columbia Brass Quintet. Amazingly, they are still playing together! We decided to venture over to the Tri-Cities to attend their 30th Anniversary Concert. Of course, we had to make the trip fun! So, we visited wineries; touched base with a dear pal, Jo, and her beau George; visited wineries; and then attended the concert. We got home last night around 10 p.m. with some re-wine-ders of our trip (4 cases).

First, we had to set Greta Garmin because Warren always likes to know when he'll get somewhere - even though he's made the trip about 40 billion times.

Then, find Prosser and Desert Wind winery...

 

Call our long lost friend to make arrangements to meet for dinner. She told us about Terra Blanca - on the way...

  

Then, we checked into our hotel - room 234 - and got ready for dinner at Cedars. We were later reminded by Katharine that it is the restaurant where Brian proposed. I remembered it as the place where Jo and I, plus another friend, went to spend our moolah when we won the Trifecta at a horse race about 25 years ago! We both remembered being positively giggly over our treasure - and spending it ALL on one fantastic meal. Anyway, Jo and George met us for a delicious dinner and review of all that's happened over the past two years. The last time we'd talked with them was at Arianna & Tim's wedding on 8/8/08!

After a wonderful evening, we went back to the hotel to rest up for the next day. We slept in, had a nice breakfast, and then headed off for more wineries - the Tri-Cities is full of them now. Where were they 30 years ago? I do believe they've improved the atmosphere over there.

After a late lunch at Tagaris (yummy), we headed off for the church where the Mid-Columbia Brass Quintet concert was being held. Warren & I attended it in the 70's & 80's and Katharine & Brian attended in the '00's. If you look at the top picture in the program, Warren is on the far right. The Quintet had him stand to be recognized as the original tuba player. It was so nice of them to acknowledge him! They were quite surprised we showed up. It was a delightful concert.

Then, it was time to plug Greta in and wend our way homeward. All in all, a terrific adventure back to our past!

I seem to be running slightly behind...

So, last weekend, we were treated to such culinary delights that it put us into kind of a belated fog of food-dom! That's why this is almost a week late! Too much good food makes for a very slow blog. There's at least an 80% delay in the doing of a blog after too much excellent food over the course of a weekend. Research proves it...I'm sure...

Last Friday, we were invited to have hors d'oeuvres with WB's boss, L,  & her husband, F, who had gotten home a bit early. After apparently walking TOO fast, I'd tripped over the speed bump in my school's parking lot (yes - I was spread eagle & happy to still have all my teeth!), I was ready for something delicious to sooth my poor aching body. Oh my word! F had made a buffet fit for a queen!!!!! Multiple tasty snacks from all over the world followed by Thai salad and ravioli followed by poached pears - mmm mmm good! Washed down with the perfect libations. It was fantastic.

Then, we woke up on Saturday and drove down to see our great pals Jan & Randy. Randy & Warren had a date to make brewskis in Portland. Jan & I had a date to talk and laugh and solve the world's problems. They were kind enough to ask their 'kids' B, C, & J, to come and eat dinner with us. It was a hoot! Grandsons are just one of the best presents bestowed on the planet.

*Jan did make me exercise (she called it a 'stroll' around the park - but, like the proverbial big bad wolf, I was huffin' & puffin')* Jan has such a way with food - no recipes, just delicious and healthy food like the smoked salmon & curly noodles romaine salad for lunch and the mahogany rice (who even knew such a thing existed?) with those pesky pistachios that take about 7 hours to unshell...right, Randy??? Green beans with shallots and chicken kabobs that your daughter can put together without your help because you just sort of hang around with the grandman and ignore her pleas for help...

Their grandman is a delight! Lots of things to talk and laugh about. We were so happy to spend time with him and his Mom & Dad. A 2-year old has a lot of things to share and he was talkative and friendly all night long! That's quite a treat since he hasn't really ever spent any time with us. It was really fun to just hang out.

After all the visiting - which was really fun, we slept like babies. The next morning, we enjoyed another gourmet treat with coffee (using Devon's efficiency water hint), bacon, and an apple Dutch Baby pancake. Yummmmmm.

Sadly, the time had come to leave. The rain was really coming down at that point. We'd made a date with our good friends John and Diane to stop at their place on our way home - clever us - "how 'bout lunch, Diane?" We are not exactly subtle. We had a great conversation over a delicious meal of roast beef sandwiches and broccoli salad with accoutrements. Such a great time talking to them! They had some great travel stories to share.

After slogging through the rain storm, we arrived at our haven, which is still a holiday mess. So many things to put away or send off to various parts of the world! Most of the things got sent today. We'll get around to putting stuff away sometime soon!

All in all, a very enjoyable time with incredible friends!

Happy New Year in Southern Cal

Flying away seems to be the activity of the week. Tim & Arianna flew home on Friday from Maui. We flew home from San Diego yesterday. Katharine, Brian, and the boys fly home from Disneyland today. Today, our Timmy flies off to Japan! Arianna will fly to Japan on Wednesday. Yikes.

12/28: Before flying down to Disneyland, the boys kept busy while Daddy and Mommy packed up the MANY items received over the multiple Christmas celebrations throughout their visit to Washington. McColley continues to demonstrate a real talent for music - he knows the words to quite a few Christmas carols. When Grandma or Grandpa made a mistake singing with him, he'd say "No! Take it from the top!" Brady fit perfectly under the table!

That afternoon, Warren and I started our vacation in San Diego. Here are some of our adventures throughout the week. We stayed at the Loew's Resort on Coronado Bay and passed the Hotel del Coronado twice a day. We even had dinner there one night! Our room looked across a marina, some houseboats, and straight into Tijuana. The sun rose on our side of the hotel - it was gorgeous! It is so fun to travel over the holidays because the decorations are so great! The boats below our room were decorated to the hilt and included a musical Santa Claus. The Hotel del Coronado was outlined in white lights every night - fabulous!

12/29: We went to SeaWorld after picking up our brand new 2010 Chevy Impala, which only had 30 miles on it. We got to see the Shamu "Believe" show, view many aquatic animals, enjoy a Budweiser beer-tasting for lunch, and get completely soaked on the Atlantis roller coaster. We were front and center - a totally stupid place to sit in the winter time. I got really cold afterwards and didn't last too much longer in the park. So, in order to make up for making me SO cold (he swore we wouldn't get wet), Warren took me to dinner at the Sheerwater Restaurant in 'the Del'. Best lamb roast and root vegetables I've EVER had in my life.

 

12/30: We took a trolley trip around San Diego. It was really fun! The route was a bit delayed due to the Holiday Bowl, Balloon Parade, and Auto Show all starting. We spent a little while in Old San Diego. After the trolley trip, we got our car and went to the San Diego Zoo. Parking was the first challenge of the day! Probably should have taken the trolley. The second challenge was to find the elusive, yet beautiful, Snow Leopard. Success was achieved! The third challenge was to find a hot dog to eat. Finding ourselves starving with no dog in sight, we settled for some spicy soup. Upon exiting our snackerie, the dogs began to pop up everywhere we looked - they were in kiosks all over the park. It's sure a good thing we don't depend on our uncanny vision or sense of smell to survive...We ended the evening at Cafe Coyote in Old Town for a Mexican dinner. I was surprised to find that my preferred Mexican restaurant is still the one in our l'il ole arlington. However, we got serenaded in San Diego - not common at home!

 

Will I find him??????? Shhhhhhhhhh.........

12/31: New Year's Eve! We started the day with a gorgeous sailing trip. It was supposed to include whale watching, but as you can see, we were rather limited in that respect. However, the sailing was excellent and the trip most worthwhile. The owner is from Ballard and was excited to have Washingtonians visit - she also gave us a voucher for another trip, if we're able to come back. After a visit to the Cabrillo Monument, we drove out to Escondido to have lunch at the Stone Brewery. Quite an interesting place! When we returned to the hotel, we discovered that there was no place at the inn to eat. It was BUSY! We were fortune to find seats at the tiny bar next to where the bartender and the wait staff were gallantly trying to keep up with the demand. It was a terribly amusing place to be on New Year's Eve! We were very impressed with the efficiency, patience, and good humor of the staff.  After all the activity, we returned to our room to eat Red Velvet Cake and drink champagne. We tried to call our 29 year old daughter at 12:02 am, but neither she nor her husband's phones were taking calls...a mystery. Turns out, she was in the middle of Main Street Disneyland watching fireworks!

 

We weren't picky about the whales...'cuz this was the only one we saw. Very touchable.

 

01/01/10: New Year's Day and Katharine's birthday! We drove up to Disneyland to have breakfast at Goofy's Restaurant with our birthday girl and the entire Maguire clan. So nice to see them! After breakfast, Warren and I decided to take the hop on/hop off tour of LA. We drove through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and everywhere in-between. Although somewhat overcast, it was a nice enough day to sit up-top for most of the ride. After our LA adventure, we had a nice dinner in Coronado at the Brigantine.

 

 

 

 My foot next to John Wayne's print - small feet for such a big man!

01/02: Time to go! What a nice vacation! We left early on Saturday morning. After stopping at Southcenter for lunch and a new haircut for me (really really really short *and my natural color), I was tired, so took a lengthy nap on the couch under my new cozy blanket/robe. When I awoke, Warren said "We're going to a movie!" We saw Sherlock Holmes, which we'd considered seeing at Graumann's in LA, and both liked it.

01/03: Sleep in, unpack, wash clothes, celebrate Roberta's belated birthday, and start to de-decorate.

01/04: Back to real life for us tomorrow. Happy New Year!

Trip to Dover and beyond...

Mom (Great Grandma Marianne) and I arrived in Washington DC in the late afternoon on March 30th. Katharine and the kids met us at the gate. The boys warmed up to their grandmas pretty quickly! We were SO happy to be there. We did see Brian occasionally throughout our visit, but he was extremely busy at Dover AFB as they make changes in their media procedures. We are so proud of all the work he has done to help make things run smoothly. He's sure learned a lot in the short time he's been in the Air Force!

 Katharine took us to downtown Annapolis for dinner. It was surprisingly quaint. We had the most marvelous, huge crab cakes at a place called Buddy's. Then, we drove home to check out her rearranging and get the kids to bed!

  
The next day, we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. What a great place for kiddos! McColley loves riding the carousel, so got to ride at the beginning and the end of our visit. Unfortunately for me, I dropped my iPhone in the parking lot, so now have a lot of cracks running through my touch screen. Oy. McColley and I pretended to drive away on a coveted scooter. Maybe I'll have one for real one day.
 

On April 1st, we went to Longwood Gardens. What a gorgeous assortment of flowers and plants! We had quite a time finding the (scavenger hunt) butterflies and hummingbirds in the Children's Garden, but persisted until we did. We aren't sure we really found the bat, but gave ourselves credit for doing so.

On the 2nd, we drove in Washington DC and walked about...I'm guessing...3o,000,000 miles around town. Those blocks are HUGE! But, it was decent weather, which is a first for our family visits. Obama was in France, so we didn't get to see him. Brady fit right in at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian with his Mohawk hairdo. We tried some really interesting food at their cafe - not your everyday lunch menu! I had a watercress salad and another made with barley and mushrooms. Mom's salad had some interesting little asparagus looking things in it, which we later determined were probably alder buds. 

After the first museum, we walked another 24,000 miles to get to the Museum of Natural History where Mom found Dad's name on the Washington soil monolith. She was really happy to finally see it in person. Then, we went to visit the dinosaurs. Finally, Brady kept Great Grandma busy while McColley, Katharine, and I checked out the mammal exhibit. 

After our big day, we checked into our Arlington, VA hotel and enjoyed dinner with the kids. Finally, the time came for them to leave. We all cried and threw kisses as they drove away into the night. I sure miss my baby boys and my big baby girl! 

It was such a lovely visit. As great as blogs and video chats are, they cannot match the joy of hugging, holding, tickling, cooking with, reading to (again and again), and playing with the real persons. We can't wait to see them again in June!