Cally & Ice

More Snow on New Year's Eve!

Another picture of our neighbors gorgeous fence and the recent snow addition.

More snow!!

Our neighbor's yard and it is beginning to look more like a Winter Wonderland all the time.  Excuse the bright flash but just think of it as 'the sun' that will be back in 5 months or so..

NEW SNOW YEAR'S EVE 2012

This is the same picture I posted to Facebook but without the green grass due to the fact it has snowed more.... YIPPEE

New Year's Eve SNOW

Happy New Year flag is out at our house.

We drove up to Council Crest and enjoyed the beautiful view of Portland, Oregon.

This is one of 2 apartments Al lived in back in the 60's.  Bottom picture is his apt building and his apartment was on the top floor and the upper left window was his bedroom and the middle window was his living room.  The top picture was also his apt but in a very large home on Vista Avenue in Southwest Portland and just part of our nostalgic trip to Portland, Oregon,  We sure had a great time....

Cotton plants new growth... Could this be Cotton?

This was just the beginning....of our latest Heat Wave.

 WHEW!!

WOW it was hot today.....102* on Aug 4th, around 4:20 p.m.... 

This is a scorcher for us in S. W. Washington State.  YIKES.

We left Washington State, traveled over this Bridge into Oregon at Astoria to have breakfast at Stephanie's Cabin, then south to Cannon Beach, famous for it's Haystack Rock, then on to Manzanita, where we had dinner and some pints at the San Dune Pub, known for not only their fine beer but also for the Blues musicians who come to play.  Cool Joint!!

Drove through our old neighborhood before meeting other friends at "The Depot" for dinner and found 3 deer enjoying the cool grass and some serenity. 
Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our wonderful friends Glen and Marie who we met for dinner, nor pictures of our awesome meal.  Al ordered "FIG GLAZED QUAIL MARSALA"; PAN SEARED, BACON WRAPPED QUAIL OVERSTUFFED WITH HOUSE MADE WILD BOAR SAUSAGE FINISHED WITH MARSALA FIG GLAZE ON CRANBERRY HAZELNUT WILD RICE PILAF.....and I ordered an awesome "MOROCCAN OSSO BUCO"; BRAISED LAMB SHANK IN A CURRY SAFFRON BROTH WITH CURRIED ISRAELI COUSCOUS, PINENUTS AND GOLDEN RAISINS ~ and we all enjoyed some fine Italian Chianti.
Check out The Depot Restaurant housed in the old train depot building in Seaview, Washington. Be sure to look at their awesome menu...  http://www.depotrestaurantdining.com/

We spent the night at the Seaview Motel and Cottages, a small, locally owned Motel right across the street from The Depot.
http://www.seaviewmotelandcottages.com/

Top picture is a very weird house built behind other homes with no apparent driveway or access to any road.  We drove around the whole block and never found any way to get to it! We lived in this area for about 13 years and NEVER saw this before.  It had many antennas extruding from the roof.  ET where are you? The next building is the new Oysterville Sea Farms retail building.

Top picture is Al with Gladys our next door neighbor in Surfside, Ocean Park and the bottom picture is our sweet, dear friend Lone (pronounced "Low-Nah" or "'Lone-Ah", she and her husband Ron were some of our Moose and Eagles Lodge friends and also lover's of the ocean.

We stopped at River View Dining for a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with Fries and Cole Slaw.  In seem to have a memory problem and forget to take a picture of my food before I 'dig in'. We have driven by many times before to see smoke streaming out of this Smoker and always wanted to stop and taste their food.  It was WONDERFUL.

We stopped in Ocean Park at the 'Lost Roo Restaurant and Bar' to have a beer and check this place out now that it has  new owners (from Australia) and has a new name!

Oh Dear Laura,  I tried to do it your way but the darn thing wanted to post my whole long file and not just the one picture I chose.  So here I am ~ back posting the old LONG waiting way.  I wonder if I paid Google some money if that might help? 

No wonder Al sometimes calls me "Short Stuff"!

A few nights ago we went to the Rutherglen Mansion to hear 2 wonderful music groups play some great ol' 60's and 70's music plus enjoyed some wine tasting and a nice Buffet.  This mansion was built for the owner of Long-Bell Lumber who basically built Longview and Ryderwood, WA. 




I also want to say Hello to Laura who is checking my Blog to see if she receives it OK. Hope so!

Howard & Marilyn came for a French dinner of Beef Bourguignonne dinner that I cooked  to welcome them home from their Cancun Mexico winter vacation.  Al's piano was one of the topics of conversation and they were checking out the working parts of this ol' lady....and the last picture is our beautiful new piano...we call her Mabel.

We started getting ready for the piano arrival by moving our living room Oriental rug enough to make room for the piano so it would rest on our hardwood floor and not the rug. (Thanks to our wonderful neighbor and helper, Russ).  Al guided them as backed up close enough to get the ramp onto the porch and then the piano came down the truck's ramp and over to our porch.  The hardest part was 'squeezing' it through our front door.  Once inside we re-hung my Grandmother's mirror above the piano and the piano looked absolutely perfect and like it had been there 'forever'. Both are from the same period, our house was built in 1923 and the piano 1904.