Great example of salmon and ahi (yellowfin tuna) sushi. All I can say is YUM-O!! We had a superior meal in Astoria, Oregon (quick trip but we still had alot of fun).

King Bed was very comfortable and enjoyed a great night's sleep...

Al spied a Suduko puzzle book and is trying to solve it....Cally is making herself at home and the family photographer (me) is doing my job!!

This is the 'kitchen' (oh, no, this is the Lou).

Our sweet Cally waiting behind the screen door on the patio of our 2nd floor room. She is such a wonderful dog and could not have asked for any better.

This is the fountain that comes up in later pictures, as well as the freighters in the River. On the right side (outside this picture) is the hot tub and on a nice sunny day I bet it is a marvelous place to sit, relax and enjoy the beautiful river and surrounding landscape.

Out our patio door are two freighters I would guess waiting for their turn up river in Longview, WA to pick up unprocessed logs. As you can see from this picture the Columbia River is very wide. The land on the far side is Washington State.

We had a marvelous sushi dinner at the Bridgewater Bistro in Astoria, Oregon with our good friends and neighbors from the beach where we lived for 12 years. Glen and Marie are really fun and great friends, the kind of people that would give you the shirt off their back. We miss them and the fun times we shared...

Sweet Marie. She was tremendous as a foux sister especially when my mother was alive. She and Glen would take mom out for a meal when Al and I were gone Campground hosting for Washington State Parks and was a wonderful friend to me. So much to share not enough space here.

Glen, Marie's adorable husband. Glen is himself a very talented chef, having been a strong study of James Beard and also both he and Marie traveled to Italy for Master level Italian cooking classes.

I remember one of many dinners they cooked for us was Shabu-Shabu a Japanese fondue-type meal with thin slices of Beef, Shrimp, Pork, Chicken, veggies.

Marie's California Roll which looked fabulous. Check out the next picture to read about all the sushi we had and it was marvelous. The Bridgewater Bistro serves sushi on the last Wednesday of the month through March and maybe April, as their summers are just too busy to serve this as their sushi is all hand rolled and very time consuming.. Definitely worth it...YUM-O!

Molly's sushi plus we had caviar, calamari, spicy tuna sushi, a fabulous ahi tuna sushi, soft shell crab sushi and lots of saki.. (my favorite).

Keep going to bottom as more there.

The Crest Motel in Astoria is where we stayed as a fair price ans has great views of not only the Columbia River but the Astoria-Megler Bridge which is a 4 mile span over the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington.

When we returned to our room we looked out our patio doors, and the courtyard's fountain was lit up and all ablaze with gorgeous color. This made a beautiful setting for the 3 freighters anchored out in the river with all their evening lights aglow. They were too far away for me to take a picture (too bad as it was really pretty).

I found this cute house just listed on the market located in a 55+ scenic hidden Washington State town, that was mentioned in the Feb. 2005 AARP Bulletin about best places to retire. The caption was "Welcome to Nowheresville"... This house has 1018 Sq. Ft., 2 bedrooms, 1 3/4 baths, built in 1980, and it includes a forced air furnace, heat pump, 2-car carport + a garage with a gazebo sheltering a hot tub/spa located in the partially fenced back yard. The town is surrounded by high tree covered mountains filled with elk, deer and numerous bald eagles. Squirrels, raccoons, along with various other wildlife visit and coyotes howl at night from the mountains surrounding the town. Beautiful lake, town park, community hall, library, post office, gift shop filled with beautiful articles made by the talented residents, and lots of activities, if wanted, are also available.. All this for only $112,900 + very low taxes. If interested get in touch with me and I will give you the web page to see more pictures and any more information needed.

My handsome husband... Wow he is really cute. He is visiting Jeffrey and Marty in Portland and will be back tomorrow. Jeffrey is his good old friend from way back. I am watching the crescent moon in the clear brisk sky tonight. Today our temps were 64* and one of the nicest February days I have seen (although Feb. here in Washington usually has about 2 weeks of nice weather.)

Jeffrey last summer when he and Marty came to visit.

Marty at our house last summer...

What a super couple these two people are...and they are really cute too!! Guy has been practicing playing his new harmonicas and Joanne is practicing a new unknown musical instrument too so they came over and shared dinner with us so they could play some Blues with Al... What a rippin' and rollin' evening we all had.

Guy is a great person and he and Joanne are wonderful neighbors. He grew up in Hawaii and has lots of 'story' to tell and we thoroughly enjoy each one he shares!!












Sweet Joanne is the person who turned us all on to the great wine we served and
is the master chef of the very YUM-O lasagne we ate tonight. She is one of a
kind and EVERYONE loves Joanne ~~~ she is just that type of person.

Joanne makes the most scrumptious Lasagna with all 'healthy' ingredients. YUM-O! The salad by Molly was just 'thrown' together (should have been tossed more). This was Guy's plate so I didn't feel it appropriate to re-position the salad with all the goodies in plain view. It included asparagus, apples, orange, red, , green peppers, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, green leaf lettuce and romaine. We also shared a loaf of fantastic garlic bread and Manage a Trois red wine from California.!