11-24-2018 Thanksgiving at Sunset House

I love Thanksgiving.  I love the cooking and the family gathering from all over to share the holiday.  It is better than Christmas to me.  No worries about presents and such, and complexities of family commitments for different people can be easily handled by having our holiday on Saturday instead of Thursday. 

That works great for family members who live a bit distant, and need to deal with working schedules and such.  Also works for other family members who have other family celebrating on Thursday and it is hard for them to be in both places. 

Grandsons Axel and Xavier

We had just moved in to Sunset House last year when we had our first family Thanksgiving in the new house.  I thought maybe we would go somewhere else this year, but happily for me, that wasn’t to be and I got to do Thanksgiving two years in a row!

Melody and family drove south from Eugene early on Saturday morning.  Both grandsons Axel and Xavier were free from work and school that day.  Axel lives and works in Albany, and Xavier is attending college in Eugene.  Axel brought his roommate Oni along who has shared holidays with us over the last few years.

Grandson Matthew and Daughter Deborah

Mo and I also decided to invite the neighbors from across the street who have family in distant cities.  Karen and Glenn were so good to daughter Deborah when she lived in our little cottage back before we tore it down to build this house.  Deb has maintained her friendship with them and we enjoy inviting them over now and then, especially when Deb is here.

Daughter Deb and her son Matthew joined us as well, and Deb got to take her famous creamed veggies to two Thanksgiving celebrations this year.  Everyone agrees it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Deb’s creamed vegetables, and Melody’s apple pies.

I do so love the traditions that are made more wonderful by the years of repetition.  Melody sent a photo of Facebook of her apple pies that were ready for transport and said, “Here is an apple pie for Mo”.  Mo loves Melody’s apple pies.  Right around that same time I got a Facebook memory notification from 8 years ago with a photo of Melody’s apple pies and a note saying “Here are the apple pies for Mo”.  Traditions are such a sweet thing.

Left to right: Neighbor Karen, Grandson Axel, Grandson Xavier, friend Oni, Grandson Matt, Daughter Melody, Melody’s Robert, and Neighbor Glenn

We had a lovely day, good food, and instead of games and puzzles, we spent a long time sorting the gorgeous tumbled stones that Melody brought.  She lives in a small house, loves to collect and tumble rocks and has no place to put them.  Lucky us, we get a huge stash of tumbled stones from all over the northwest to grace our gardens here at Sunset house. 

Mattie loves it when the house if full of people, friends, family, workers, anyone.  She loves people to be around.  Of course she also loved it that most people will slip her a treat during big family meals.

None of the family could stay for the night this year as they sometimes do.  I bought a stash of plastic containers with the holiday shopping and made sure everyone had a good selection of leftovers to take home.  Everyone left in time to get home before darkness set in.

It was a long and lovely day, and once we were alone again, Mo and I settled into the quiet, enjoying the fire and sneaking a few bites of leftovers.  Perfect Thanksgiving.

11-13 through 11-18 2018 Quick Trip to Colorado

Tom and Edna Paul

I debated about blogging about this trip because the reason for going was a sad one.  Still, we had some wonderful times with family in the midst of it.  With the blog serving as my personal calendar and journal I didn’t want to miss writing about this important family gathering.

Mo’s sister Edna had a lovely husband, Tom.  They were a great pair, so it was with a lot of sadness that we learned of his passing.  Edna lives in Colorado, and there wasn’t enough time to plan a driving trip so we found some airline tickets and within a few days were on our way to the Denver area.  I think I had about 30 hours in between landing from my Missouri trip to visit my son before Mo and I boarded another flight to Denver.

Mo’s brothers chose to fly as well, and with one coming from Spokane and one from Portland, it was quite surprising that their flights arrived within minutes of our flight from Medford.  Edna made sure that we had a nice rental SUV to use for the trip, and the four of us met at the airport without incident.

We chose to arrive a day before the funeral, and Edna opened her house to all four of us for the week.  We went out to great dinners, took some lovely walks, and hosted some big meals for the family at Edna’s home. 

Tom was Roman Catholic, and the service was a traditional mass, with wonderful readings from Scripture, and beautiful music from the choir and soloists. Edna’s daughter Susan played the bass sang Amazing Grace so beautifully. The meal served after the service was wonderful, provided by the church volunteers.

Edna lives in a lovely neighborhood within walking distance of the Bear Creek Trail system, and Dan, Don, Mo and I took a nice long walk on a lovely sunny afternoon. 

Edna has two daughters, Susan and Marcie, and with their extended families, and the four Oukrop siblings and me, the family gatherings were full of fun and conversation.  One evening I put together a roast beef dinner, and thanks to Mo’s brother Don, we didn’t run out of meat.  He went shopping with me, and after I chose the two roasts, he gently reminded me that “You two eat like butterflies, and I don’t think that will be enough”.  So I increased the thickness of the roasts ordered to 4 inches and bought a lot more stuff.  It was, after all, a supper for 15.  It took 2 large crockpots for the roasts and veggies, and even though there were potatoes in the mix, I also cooked a giant pot of mashed potatoes as well.  These strapping young men eat a LOT.  There were barely any leftovers.

The next day we went to the home of Mo’s niece, Susan, to play family games and have another great meal that Susan put together. 

The weather had turned bitterly cold, typical Colorado style, and the frosty wind kept us moving along quickly on our afternoon walk that day.

Dan and Don had Sunday morning flights, but Mo and I weren’t scheduled to leave until later in the day.  Susan kindly offered to take the two of us to the airport that afternoon so that we wouldn’t have to wait around all day after Don returned the rental car.

The entire trip was fairly easy, with no flight delays, no mix-ups on scheduling, and good family interactions.  Sometimes when the Oukrop family has reunions farther west it is hard for all of the Colorado contingent to make it. 

This was a great opportunity to spend some time with Mo’s nieces and their families.  Tom’s death was not unexpected, but no matter, it is still hard to be alone again after so many years in a good marriage.  Edna, with great help from her daughters, is doing Ok, and we are glad we could be there as well.  

11-06 to 11-10 2018 Traveling to Missouri to Visit my Son

Somehow it is hard for us to get to Missouri.  Whenever Mo and I travel east, we will make an effort to angle north as we return west to see my son John and his family.  Often that visit is limited because we are on the road, and have to get back west before a certain time.  I decided that I needed to fly east to Missouri for no reason but to spend time with John. I had no distractions, nothing to interfere with the visit, and could simply focus on being there with him.

John has some limitations due to adult onset Type 1 Diabetes, a nasty killer of a disease.  Things are often a struggle for him and for his wife Shannon.  With a tiny home, they preferred that I stay nearby in a hotel.  That worked out great for me as well, since I had a space for some privacy and my own rental car to get around as needed.

Great room at the Downstream Casino Resort

I stayed for 5 days, and each day John would ride with Shannon to work and then meet me at the rather luxurious nearby Downstream Resort Casino where I had a great deal on a lovely room.  John and Shannon had a great coupon that reduced the cost of my visit by half. John and I would visit, laugh and talk about old times, cry together about how hard things can be for a person facing a disability.  It hurts terribly to see my son hurting, but I am so glad that I could be there with him for a time, at least.  Missouri is a very long way from Oregon.

Family Reunion in Rocky Point, 2007

The last time John visited me in Oregon was in 2007, when I had a big family reunion at Mo’s place in Rocky Point.  Prior to that, John managed to drive out to Oregon with his family in 2004.  I have visited him a few times during our MoHo travels since then, but quiet, one on one time with John was something I missed.

Our mornings were simple, visiting and having a meal at the restaurant together before we spent some time exploring John’s home town.  He has lived near Joplin, in the small town of Alba for many years now.  He loved taking me around the area and showing me homes he had owned and lived in, places where he had worked, beautiful landscaping jobs he completed during his working days.  There was lots to be proud of. 

My favorite day was a lovely sunny cool day when we drove into the country to discover the George Washington Carver National Monument. Located just outside Joplin, the hardwoods were still showing gorgeous leaf colors and the grounds were almost completely empty.  We wandered the museum, and walked the grounds, learning so much about this incredible person with an incredible history.  As a soil scientist, I was surprised that I hadn’t known about GWC’s influence on soil conservation.  It was a truly lovely day.

John also took me to the falls where he had taken his step kids to swim when they were growing up.  It was cold but lovely, and I could imagine that it might be a great place to be in the warm summertime.  Later that evening, his wife Shannon invited me to her father’s home for home made noodles in chicken soup with her family. 

It was a quiet trip, with good times with my son.  I have promised each of my adult kids a trip of their choosing, and with all the girls trips now completed, it is time to focus on John’s trip.  He told me with heartfelt sincerity that he would rather I simply come to visit him in Missouri.  So that is the plan. Rather than trying to see him in the midst of MoHo travels, I will fly there and spend a few days with him each year.

 

10-28-2018 How Will I Write About Italy?

UPDATE:  I finally finished writing all the posts about Italy on December 13, 2018, but will leave this one dated for October 28 when I first wrote it.  The rest of the posts have been backdated to reflect the actual dates that we traveled.

Current Location on October 28: Sunset House in Grants Pass Oregon Cloudy and rainy and 63 F

Our guests have departed. There is nowhere I have to be for at least another week.  Crashed on the loveseat on a only slightly drippy Sunday afternoon, I lifted my body from what daughter Melody calls “Landscape Mode”, and said to Mo, “It’s time to try to write the blog about my trip to Italy”.  She said, “How do you plan to do that? How many posts?  Where will you start?”  I said, “No clue, I won’t know till I get started”.

When I got home a week and a half ago, I was all ready to go.  Photos processed and uploaded while still in Italy, no less, notes kept on the calendar and even a few draft blog post days ready to be filled in and fleshed out.  But then, just a few hours after Mo picked me up from the airport, Mo’s sister-in-law Nancy came to visit for a few days.  It is fun having Nancy around, and we took things fairly easy while she was here.  In fact, I don’t remember much about her visit except that it was pleasant and we took her to Schmidt Vineyards for a glass of wine and wood fired pizza on the lovely grounds.  I guess I don’t remember because I was still caught up in a bit of jet lag, or maybe not even jet lag, but trip lag. 

Nancy left on Friday and on Saturday Mo and I packed up the car and the dog to go over the pass to Klamath Falls for a few days.  Not sure if my Italy suitcase was fully unpacked when I loaded it up again for the short trip.  I was looking forward to a day at Rocky Point at the annual Chili Feed where I had volunteered to be a cashier to help support the fire department. Long day, but still fun to see all the old Rocky Point friends and participate.  Instead of coming back to Grants Pass, we went home to the apartments to spend a few days doing maintenance things, Mo did outdoor stuff and I painted one of the bedrooms in the one apartment that we keep available for ourselves when we need it. 

We stayed only long enough for the EPA meeting to celebrate the final season of the cleanup of the Northridge Estates Area.  (You can check out the info here if you are interested, or don’t remember how this affected us).  Making a beeline back to Grants Pass, I knew that the next day it would be time to clean the house and rake some leaves, and sure enough we got a phone call from Nickie and Jimmy saying they would be heading our way the next day, and was that OK.  Of course that was OK, but I did have to rush a bit to get the rest of my stuff out of the Italy suitcase and the apartment suitcase and make sure the house looked spiffy again.  They haven’t visited since we finished building and moved in.

We had a great visit with them as well, 3 days and 2 nights of fun times, including a hike up into Cathedral Hills on what was supposed to be a rainy day and instead was quite nice.  Cool and a bit drippy, but pleasant.  Mattie was thrilled to have them here, she so loves company and of course more people around usually means a few more treats.  I told Nickie I couldn’t cook, and instead we went out to dinner at our new favorite little bistro, the Bohemian, in downtown Grants Pass, in the historic area.  Fabulous dinner!  The next evening we went to a crazy thing listed in the entertainment section of the paper, The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater, which is basically indescribable, but very funny, and a lot of fun, with a full house of kids young and old laughing a LOT.

We had simple tacos last night, watched the Streisand version of “A Star is Born”, and decided that the new Lady Gaga version was more well written and actually much better.  Never in a million years would have thought that this old diehard Streisand fan would say that.

I am here at long last, at the computer, with most everything caught up, and ready to start writing about my fabulous, incredible, magnificent, wonderful, amazing trip to Italy, with my fabulous, incredible, magnificent, wonderful, amazing daughter Deanna.  Three weeks of travel on our own without a glitch.  Well, I guess that is giving the story away, but tune in and the next few posts will tell the tale.  (I actually have no idea how many posts it will take, I will figure it out as I go).  Thank goodness I kept good notes during the trip, so some of the finer details and fun stuff won’t be lost. 

10-15-2018 Naples and Home

We woke on our last morning in Florence to a decent day, with no rain predicted for our return trip to Naples.  As always, when it is time for things to get a bit complicated, I was feeling stressed.  We needed to arrange a taxi to the train station, and yet we also needed to check out of our apartment.  Isabella was often less than responsive, and we were worried about how long the check out process would take, and how long it would take for a taxi to arrive.  Silly little travel details that seem quite inconsequential in retrospect, but at the time they made my stomach churn.

Finally, when Isabella hadn’t arrived at what we thought was the proper time for us to catch the train station, we texted her to tell her we were leaving and headed downstairs.  The Taxi app worked perfectly, and the taxi arrived within minutes, just as Isabella also arrived.  She was blustery and apologetic, and tried to carry on a cheery conversation, wishing us well.  With the taxi driver waiting, we were a bit less conversational, but the checking out process was simple.  We handed her the keys and said goodbye and thank you.

Later she gave us a stellar recommendation on Air BnB, saying we treated her apartment like our own home and were very communicative.  Hmmm.  I was glad that I hadn’t said too much about our frustration with her when I did a similar Air BnB review.

Within minutes we were at the Santa Novella train station.  By this time we were “experienced” train travelers, and knew just how to manage the system.  We had plenty of time for some lunch at a small cafe in the station while we waited for our train.

This trip south was a bit less exciting than our first experience three weeks ago.  Is it possible to get that jaded about a 200 mile per hour train after just one trip?  This time we knew not to order anything expensive, and spent the quick 2 3/4 hour trip reading, eating our own snacks and relaxing with the view that sped by.  Even the passing trains weren’t quite so thrilling this time.

Almost empty business class car on the Frecciarossa, do you think Deanna is bored?

Arriving in the Napoli Centrale (main train depot in Naples), we made sure all our baggage was locked and secured to our bodies and we navigated the crowded streets to our hotel.  I had done some extensive research regarding the hotel location, reading reviews that it was difficult to find and in a sketchy neighborhood.  I am glad it was early afternoon when we arrived and the sun was shining at least.

Our hotel is to the left, the train station is across the street straight ahead

The neighborhood did feel considerably different from the world we had left behind in Florence.  It was crowded and busy, and we saw what looked like drug deals going on all around us.  Not sure the people were homeless, but there were definitely some rather tattered and sketchy looking people hanging out all around our hotel, and the construction and graffiti didn’t help with the ambience.

Once we figured out the green gate, found the wall phone to contact the proprietor and climbed the stairs to another locked door, we were definitely wondering about our choice.  When the owner opened the door to the small hall that held his desk and a coffee station, and carefully locked the heavy door behind him, we felt better.  Then, as he showed us our room, we felt even better.  Turns out that the bed in that sketchy little hotel was the best bed we encountered on our entire trip!

I looked around for a safe since we planned to go out for dinner after we settled in.  Was happy to find one in the closet, but laughed out loud when I discovered it wasn’t attached to anything.  Not so sure this safe was a particularly safe one.

The owner was wonderfully accommodating when helping us to arrange a ride to the airport at 4:30 the next morning.  He gave us a name and a phone number, as well as a photo of the man who would be picking us up at that early hour.  Paying attention to safety seemed important to him, so we paid attention as well.

After settling in, we walked across the piazza as he suggested, avoiding the construction and the bus parking lot to walk along the opposite side where there were restaurants and shops and many people walking about.  With a bit of exploration, we decided that seafood was the meal of choice.  After all, we were in Naples, world famous port and most famous for its Italian seafood dishes.

With several restaurants along the walkway, all posting their menus for viewing, we finally settled on one that seemed to have not only good food, but available tables.  The evening was wonderfully warm, and the ambience was very Italian.  We definitely noticed a big difference between the friendliness of the people in this part of Italy compared to the cooler northern area around Florence.  As Luigi had told us when he drove us to the Napoli Centrale two weeks ago, Napolitano’s were the best people in all of Italy when it came to loving life and food and being open and friendly.

Our meal was excellent, although I am pretty sure that Deanna’s tuna from the Bay of Naples was better than my red shrimp.  I remember Deanna saying she thought it was her favorite meal in all of Italy, but that bustecca in Siena was definitely higher on my list than the rather ugly red shrimp on my plate.

The comfortable bed was nice, but with our early alarms set and thoughts of the trip home it was hard to really sleep well.  The 4:30 AM ride through the city of Naples to the airport was interesting.  Naples was a LOT dirtier in this part of the city than other areas we have visited in Italy.  There was a lot of garbage strewn about, and at that early hour with no traffic or people around it seemed much dingier.

Once we arrived at the airport everything seemed to slip into place.  I barely remember this part of the trip.  Our flight from Naples through Frankfurt and then on to Seattle was completely uneventful.  We managed our connections without incident, knew to be ready for the 4 different ID checkpoints in Frankfurt.  Our flight was long, almost 10 hours, and what I remember most is how entertaining it was to watch the Google Earth quality animated image of our airplane as it crossed over Europe and Greenland, and finally Canada. Once we arrived in Seattle, we were happy to use  mobilepassports.us on our phones.  We downloaded it while waiting in line, and bypassed a ton of folks and were through customs within minutes.  Slick.

Our wait in Seattle wasn’t long, and Deanna Alaska’s flight to Wenatchee was earlier than my flight to Medford.  I felt a stab of sadness as we parted, knowing that it would be a very long time before I would get to spend this much quality one on one time with my girl.

Once again we talked about how perfect the planning had been, how our time allotments were just about right.  We then talked about the few things in Florence we had missed.  Somehow we didn’t make it to the church at San Lorenzo, or the huge Market area, or the Medici Tombs, with more amazing Michelangelo sculptures.  As we said over and over, you can only do so much.  Also, as Nickie Wilkinson mentioned in her last comment, “Stick a Fork in Me, I am Done!”

I’ll leave you with a favorite view from the Alaska flight from Seattle to Medford, Mt St Helens in all her glory.