Sisters, Sisters, there were Never Such Devoted Sisters!

I have "Wild Rumpus II" written and almost ready to post, but since we up and went to the Oregon Coast on a whim I must digress. Last Thursday we googled the 7-day forecast for the Oregon coast in the middle of a mild conversation about where we wanted to go on our first retirement trip, and the coast was forecast at  "76 degrees and no wind?" Seriously? They should put a question mark by that on google weather because that never happens. Except I guess in September when everyone with kids and jobs and in the thick of making this world go 'round is back in school and so the coast can be serenely walked by a bunch of retirees with old lady hair like me and this lady and every single other person in every single boothe in every single restaurant. It was actually hilarious. Just know girls, when you turn 56 or so your hair turns against you. It must be hormones: imagine every person on the coast looked like this (including us):

It was mind-bogglingly fun. Almost as fun as the word "bogglingly" is to type. I instragrammed you all throughout, but wanted to put a few things on the blog today for 10 minutes this morning before I go to church, oh yikes, I have to get ready for church NOW I'm playing the organ..........

First of all "Sisters" as in my sister Julie. She treated us like royalty when we dropped into Vancouver to visit them. She and Tom were the King and Queen of welcoming us to the great Pacific Northwest. Their new home is charming and divine and oh just perfect. The back yard is a park. We sat on the patio and feasted on all the bounties of this earth and Costco. And she sent us on our way with bags of Costco candy that we ate throughout the whole trip. It was unforgettable. Salmon, fresh fruit, grilled vegetables, "moaner" corn grilled to perfection, gurgles of olive oil on everything, sinking into the white leather electronic recliners. Just glorious! We are so grateful and spoiled!

Julie's fingernail polished matched her blouse and her centerpiece AND she was heading up to Seattle to help with new baby Calvin and had to drive all the way up there that night after we left! Bless her heart.

She even made Dennis's funeral Jell-o. I don't want to even think about how late she had to stay up the night before to wait for the jello to partially set up before she added the whipping cream!

We said our good-byes and were off toward the coast and to Seaside. We were about 15 minutes underway when my cell phone rang and the nano-second I reached into my pocket to answer it and saw Julie's phone # I knew I'd left my purse there. Argggh. I was carrying the bag of candies in one hand and, oh, you know how it is, I don't know, and the thing of it is, for some reason I knew I might forget my purse the whole time we were there, and kept moving it around so I wouldn't forget it. Dennis was very nice about the U-turn. So glad we have the Garmin at times like this and that Julie noticed I'd left it behind when she did!

Oh Portlandia you are so beautiful. I kept trying to take pictures out the window at 75 mph because it's astonishingly beautiful. I was never able to get the sweep and scope and grandeur. But you've been there (except maybe Andrea and we'll get you there, for sure) and you know what I mean. And the smelllllssss....of packed pines.............

Also to continue with the "Sisters" theme (which I've been humming all day. And I start out with "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters." which is from "White Christmas" which Ethan and Elise did last year. But then I forget the words so I segue straight into a line from "Funny Girl" in the song "Second Hand Rose" and starting singing "....even Jake the plumber, he's the man that I adore, had the nerve to tell me he'd been married before." And then revert to the original "Caring, sharing, every little thing that we are wearing."

So, here are some shots of the end of the trip when we went through the quaint, supercalifragilisticexpialidious town of Sisters, Oregon which is oh my dears, it's Gardner Village on steroids with pine trees up in the ying yang. Really. Too much.  It was one of the only times on the trip I allowed myself to wallow in "I want all the kids and grandkids here" which I had to force myself NOT to do. But I wanted to unleash all the little girls in this one store sooooo bad. If I had $3,000 I would have bought every single piece of costume jewelry and polished gem in that store and brought it home for dress-ups and future fairy villages! So quickly, a couple shots of Sisters. Happy Sunday!

We bought some apple pie dusted almonds and some strawberry vinagrette at this store. I could gulp the whole bottle of vinagrette. I was stunned at how much I loved it.  The owner was so chatty and said he moved his family there 7 years ago so his three girls could grow up in a small town and stay young as long as possible and so far he said it's worked. These plates had green olives on them, see?

Jewelry and geods, are you kidding me? Was this store nirvana?

 Turqouise and pink....... I wanted all my girly girls with me!

They had a Farmer's Market gearing up in the square. Just looking at those carrots and this young maiden made me want to eat nothing but fresh delicious food for the rest of my life. So today for lunch I'm making a tortillini salad with artichoke hearts, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and dressing.

I took this photo in honor of my friend Marilyn Wyatt's husband Gerald Griffin who painted the famous carrot picture we had in our WVC house (and used to hide the pencil measurements we made on the wall as everyone grew up, that is until you grew too tall and the pencil marks were above it). He loved to paint vegetables in the early part of his career. These were stunning!

The town of Sisters hosts a humongous quilt show every year the second week of June and the quilts are lining the streets. It's a big little town too - streets of shops and going concerns.

I remember reading about the Oregon forest fires this summer and that they came close to Sisters and thinking it just missed the quilt show by a week. And wow, we drove through the aftermath of the devastation - acres and acres of charred mountains like this:

But mostly, acres and acres and mile after mile of this:

XO
Mom

P.S. - here's more!!

We stayed in La Grande the first night. La Grande is the center of the universe. Last time we were there it was winter and it seemed a little frayed around the edges, but this time it was vibrating with autumn splendor and I relished every minute. It begins when the color of the grasses start to change to that deep yellow color that's specific to Eastern Oregon. And then, boom, there's Mount Emily! 

(and I took a quick photo of Lime too just for old time's sake. Remember how scary that was when we'd drive past it at night? Wow I can see why grandma Hiatt would worry when we made trips in the winter because that canyon is a doozy!
Here's Lime as we sped by. Not half as scary without the darkness of night and the eerie factory lights glowing in the dark:

And now, back at the ranch, here is the "funny little house" where I spent my wonderful young childhood. The house itself is seen from the side view because the front part is in deep disrepair (I think it's being used for storage by the University) so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since the whole scenic view is so pastoral. I would jump out of the third window back (my bedroom) in the early mornings and run around in that little field next to the house. one time I ran smack dab into a big spider web with a garden spider in the middle of it. Julie mentioned she would love to buy it and renovate it. We could turn it into a summer cottage or something. I was thinking La Grande is so darn peaceful and beautiful that it would make the perfect place for a rehab clinic or spa. But then, what with no airport and all, oh well.

And here is another view of Gekeler Lane and the areas we roamed freely as little children. We rode horses bare back, licked salt licks, played in streams and collected rocks and explored.

A view of the valley from above Gekeler Lane where there are some lovely homes that have been built over the years. Everything looked perfectly divine.

 That night for old time's sake we had pizza at the Bear Mountain Pizza Co. We tried to put away a whole pizza like Grandpa Hiatt did back in the day and pretty much succeeded.

We also swung by "1005 L" and you know, it wasn't as appalling as last time. I think they're renting it to a family now. Nothing like when mom and dad kept it manicured with such love and care, but not as it was when it was full of college kids. I think they all left and went to Seaside (you'll see what I mean when you read further :-).

We went to the La Grande First Ward Sunday morning. Here is a picture of the early sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows into the chapel. These were salvaged from the "real" chapel when they tore it down. I was lamenting that they tore it down when I was talking with Afton and she said "Elmer Perry told me that nobody was sadder to see that building go than he was. Nobody had put more time and effort into keeping it in repair. But, you know, he said, when we moved to this new chapel the spirit came right along with us!" I thought that was sweet, but harrumph I still miss the old building.

I wonder if I can find a photo of it online? Be right back.....................
Here it is, thank you internet, here's the stately treasure! Vintage car parked in front of it and all.The windows you see were all stained glass like the one above. One had a stained glass all-seeing eye that seriously could see everything we were doing and kept us reverent. Murals of Joseph Smith and the Savior on each wall in the upper chapel where the balconies were and oh it was lovely.



When dad called Afton to see what time they met for sacrament meeting she told me I'd be able to spot her easily because she's the one with hair that looks like a dandilion gone to seed! She was looking fantastic and we sat next to her during the meeting. Gordon Westenskow and Barbara Perry bore their testimonies, as did Marie Baum. My High School boyfriend Ritchie Hibbert is in the bishopric but they were out of town. It would have been good to see him and his wife Debbie Colletti my former roommate at Ricks!

 

After church we drove on to Portland/Vancouver and saw Julie and then drove to Seaside for our first two nights on the coast. Here is the view out of our pretty Inn. Everything is called either an "Inn" or a "Resort" kind of like all colleges are now called Universities.They had old movies at the check-in. We watched "To Kill a Mockingbird" one night together. That was so memorable for some reason.

We didn't get to Seaside until after nightfall so checked in and then went for a walk up to the famous turnaround. I wasn't feeling the love as we started to walk. It was creepy. The sidewalks were dirty and the people we passed on the streets were unsavory and I was icked out big time. The biggest arcade on the Oregon coast is one of the attractions and that is the polar opposite of what you are looking for when you're on the Oregon coast and so were the creepy people that were hanging out there. And THEN, oh my gosh, there was the 50-year-old Seaside Aquarium down a side street. I have to find and quote what somebody wrote on TripAdvisor about the Seaside Aquarium. Granted, it was late at night and dark and closed up tight when we strolled by it, but it looked like something in a scary dream. Here is what one person wrote on TripAdvisor:

"ABSOLUTELY HEINOUS!  I have written to PETA and advise everyone to do the same!!"

Anyway, sorry about that, but it was pretty bad. There was also a big resort a few blocks from us, like a Wyndham Hotel condo or something that was 6 or 7 stories tall, three sides all facing into a courtyard with a central pool. It was filled with loud, screaming I don't know who they were, it was like kids on spring break from Haddes or moved down after trashing 1005 "L". I gaped at it. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. So NOT the Oregon Coast. Such bizarre behavior and a rocky start to what was an otherwise heavenly vacation.

When we got up in the morning, it was RAINING! The only thought that kept running through my head was "They lied! Those 7-day forecast people LIED!" We decided to drive up to Astoria and take a look around and then head back down the coast. Astoria is at the Northern tip of the Oregon coast and it's where they filmed the movie "Goonies."  I remember Grandma Ranquist made you kids a stack of VCR taped movies, back when you were growing up. Probably because she was appalled that "The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller" was standard fare for our three-year-old. Anyway, she hand-wrote the names of the movies on the edge of the VCR's and she wrote "Groomies" instead of "Goonies" do you remember that? Why do I remember that? 


We ate breakfast in Astoria at the Pig 'n Pancake (best part of the morning) and drove up their steep fog-shrouded "Streets of San Francisco-like streets" to their famous column where you can see a sweeping view of the Pacific but all we saw was clouds and rain. It's a bleak, industrial city. 
We started our drive down the coast. The day was foggy:

We stopped at our first beach and things weren't looking too promising.....

..........and then there was a gradual, almost imperceptible lightening of the sky....

....and everything was all right in the world framed within a patch of blue....

 .....it even brings out the painters and their easels.........

 and smiling husbands...............

 ...even though there were still patches of fog

.......the sunlight won out in the end and we were sailing along framed in blue skies and fluffy clouds.

 All of us lucky tourists were sharing a communal moment of joy; giving each other nods and broad smiles and happy glances as we'd climb the paths to these vistas and felt the the sun coming out and knew how lucky we were to be experiencing it individually and collectively.

The young couple that took these photos of us after we took photos of them together, were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. I felt so happy for them even though they were complete strangers. I shook their hands vigorously and said "CONGRATULATIONS YOU KIDS!""" I really meant it. Blue skies will do that to a person.

We spent our last three days at the Surfrider Resort in Depoe Bay (once again, it is a RESORT, not a common Hotel. Or back in the day they were all called a Motel!). It was recommended to us by our friends the Beesleys. They have been staying there for 20 years. And oh it was just perfect. It was in no way as charming as the many beach houses we've been able to stay in over the years, but it was just right for us.

Sunset, night #1:

 Sunset, night #2:

Sunset, night #3: I especially like Sunset night #3 because we were watching the BYU game at the same time!

What I spent large chunks of time doing every day:

The view from the deck:

Here is another view from the front deck (and it was 95 steps down to the beach. Dennis counted them. We hiked around and even gathered some agates. At least that's what the beach comber lady told me. She said if they were clear they're agates. We found some little tiny ones and I'll add them to one of my seashell dishes here in the house. And today when I was playing the organ Marilynn Beesley the one who recommended the Surfrider to us, came up to me and asked me how our vacation was and she said,  "did you walk the 95 steps down to the beach?" We got our exercise on this vacation, that's for sure. I used muscles I didn't even know I had. But that comes a little later.............off to bed for tonight. XO Mom