Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Friday, September 2, 2016

Friday night grateful list

This has been a most excellent week with my guys. Very peaceful. Very quiet. Daily walks (I missed one especially rainy day, but that's only because I got caught up in my calligraphy and didn't notice it getting dark. I was still planning to go out, however briefly.). Good food. Naps. Netflix. Wii bowling. What's not to love?


The weather was generally quite lovely. Below are my panoramas, from about the same spot in the beach, each day. We also tended to walk all together around sunset, which is a lovely time on the beach--and the tide was out!







This could be one of my favorite places on earth. Top 5, for sure. And to get to chill with the guys, have good talks--I think we solved at least one of the main challenges of the world this week--and dial up another episode of Stranger Things... pretty blissful.

This week I also found myself grateful for:

Great home help while we're away. The house, the dogs, the chickens--they are all in excellent hands. We couldn't do it without that extra set of hands!

Technology. As much as I didn't dial in to work very much--both Alan and I consciously made an effort to disconnect as much as possible--it was good to be able to check on things as needed. 

Graham crackers and milk. All these years later, graham crackers and milk is still THE quintessential snack.

Pens and paper. In spite of all the technology, I still loooooove pens and paper. And making lists. In a moment of silliness, I talked myself into two online challenges: #rockyourhandwriting and #planwithme, both part of the Bullet Journal community. Not sure why I thought doing both would work, but the handwriting one should sort of write itself, right? And the planner one, well, I've been working on making my daily planner really work for me for quite a while, and I thought this would kick it up a notch. Time will tell. Check me out on Instagram if you're curious about the posts, but of course, they'll pop into the top right column every time I post, too.

Bonus people. I have friends who are friends because of we forged a one-to-one relationship--we went to school together, or worked together, or we met sometime in the past. But then there are people I met because of those primary relationships, who have become important in my life--friends of friends who became friends. Those are bonus people. Bonus people are awesome. I had a lengthy online conversation with two such lovely ladies this week that reminded me of all the things we have in common, in spite of very different circumstances. I love (and am grateful for) commonalities.

Seth. What can I say about that young man that I haven't said a thousand times before? He's delightful and so good to both Alan and I, and his relatives from his many families, too. We get to see him a few times this fall, so I'm feeling great about that. And his independence grows with each new experience he tackles, and I'm feeling good about that too. So grateful for this summer, for our time together, and his joyful presence around the house.

Reminders. I love to put myself in the path of good reminders, and part of my #planwithme challenge is going to be even more intentional with reminders that put me in the right space for good work, and a good life. These few reminders have been especially poignant for me lately:


(Stumbling is not falling, in case that's hard to read!)


Wishing you a peaceful and picking-daisies kind of weekend.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Sept. 18: My happy place

Blog challenge for today: Show us your happy place.


If this picture is being taken it means:
1. I'm not driving.
2. Which means either my son or husband are driving.
3. Feet up = I'm on a road trip.
4. Which means vacation.
5. With my guys.

Truly my happiest place on earth is not a place at all, but wherever I can be with the two guys I am blessed to live with.


Jen and I (and occasionally my mom and Lisa too!) are blog challenging throughout September. You can catch her blog over at Stuff Jen Says. If you want to write along with us, give me a shout and I'll send you the blog prompts.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Sept. 9: Monday morning inspiration + blog challenge: Fantasy time!

The challenge for today is: what would you do with three months off as an escape from your current life?

This one is not hard in the slightest. Didn't have to think for more than one teeny tiny second.

I would travel. I would take husband, we would pack up a couple of bags apiece, and we would hit the road.

Month 1: Road trip around the USA.

I have always wanted to do this. Back and forth and all around. In an RV, one of those really big road-hogs that guzzles gas. With slide-outs and satellite TV and everything. I know, pretty gross (in a green/climate concerned sense), but also, how fun! Ha. And one month. What can one month hurt? I would want to zig zag around the country, hitting some well-known spots (Grand Canyon, ) and also some out of the way places I have always wanted to see (Florida Keys, Maine, etc.).

We could take this:



Or this:



Or--how fabulous, this beauty:


Month 2: Europe.

My mom and dad did a few weeks in Europe this summer, some by boat, some by land. Check out their blogs here: ...And the Livin' is Easy & Shower Wisdom. There's lots of inspiration there, in their July and August posts, about a variety of places around the Mediterranean.

My must-sees in my month abroad:








Instanbul (how could I resist this picture, really?)

Month 3: Beach time.

By this point, I think I'd be tired of traveling, to be honest, and ready to just park it on a beach for a while. I am flexible on where the beach is, but I do know that I have always wanted to spend some time in the Maldives.

So before the oceans rise and swamp all those beautiful huts over the water (I have been reading too much about climate change recently, it seems), I would spend a month looking at this:


I would occasionally hang out here:


On an especially energetic day, we might go for a helicopter ride and look down on our hut (it's the second one in on the right):


Or maybe a bit of a swim:


On a quiet night we might eat out on the dock:


I have a feeling we would come home very rested.

Right about now I feel like a selfish ninny for plotting three very ME ME ME months. Alas, that is what the challenge called for, and I responded!

What would you do with three months to do whatever you wanted? (I assumed that meant cost was not an issue, so you can play by that rule too!) Where would you go? What would you do?


Jen and I (and now my mom and Lisa too!) are blog challenging throughout September. You can catch her blog over at Stuff Jen Says. If you want to write along with us, give me a shout and I'll send you the blog prompts.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Adventures in Japanese cuisine

One of Corinne's favorite cuisines is Japanese. It's not something I have a ton of experience with, but I'm game for new stuff, right? I do frequent WW's local sushi joint, Aloha Sushi, which gets quizzical eyebrows from my oceanside friends--sushi in a land-locked town, really? I try to impress upon them the speed with which FedEx can arrive with the ice chest of fish, but I still get the quizzical eyebrows!

On C's birthday, she wanted to go to a local Japanese grill for lunch. Her sister-in-law and mother-in-law joined us and we got to perch up next to the grill and watch our meal (meat, in my case!) sizzle away. Corinne got sushi but the rest of us went with the fry-up. It was really good!


The sizzling grill!


The Oh So Delicious tempura. (No, this isn't on the nutritional plan, Kim. But it was Oh So Delicious!)



Our chef, working the fried rice.


C's tuna sushi. Num num.

When we took our day trip up to San Fran, our first stop was the Ferry Building, which houses all manner of edible delights, from crepes to chocolate to cheese to gelato. We settled on a Japanese eatery there as well, and the bento box lunch was beyond yummy. I am a new fan of all things (well, maybe not ALL things, but many more things than a week ago!) Japanese.

C's bento box: Wasabi potato salad, asparagus salad, rice and chicken dumplings.


My bento box: Rice, chicken dumplings, mushroom salad and asparagus salad.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Fun days in the sun

The sunshine in San Luis Obispo was terrific. I enjoyed it, sun up to sun down! While Corinne had a marketing meeting one morning, I took a lovely walk alongside a golf course down to the ocean... mighty fine. Thought I'd share a peek, as I know many are still stuck in the waning days of winter.



They don't show up so well in the picture, but there are three white cranes hanging out in the creek. White cranes are a sign of good luck, so that was my triple dose, theoretically! As I'm currently hanging out at Sea-Tac with yet another travel "situation," it appears I should have gotten a little closer to the cranes to get the actual luck to transfer from them to me...

I just had to take a picture of these African daisies, as they are a flower available to purchase in my garden zone as an annual... in SLO, they pretty much run rampant through the ditches as a perennial. Dagnabit. Lucky them.

These succulent flowers were just so sunny and cheerful. I'm not even sure I can grow these as annuals in Walla Walla...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Crazy day

I got up this morning, bright and early, and ready to go. Lovely husband offered to drive me out to the airport, and when we looked out the window.... there was more of the white stuff! Wow. Apologies to Aunty MJ for any perceived springtime snobbery in our phone conversation yesterday... obviously the weather gods were listening and thought, "Let's teach her a thing or two! Spring is not as close as Sher wants!" Alas.

So between mechanical issues, plowing the runway (seriously!), and de-icing the plane, I completely lost my 1.5-hour layover in Seattle. Upon landing I sprang from my seat (you're getting the mental image here, right?) and flew through the airport. Well, lumbered, anyway... I panted up to the empty gate at 9:40... departure time was 9:38. Sniff.

OK, so you don't need details on the whole day. Suffice it to say that I got rebooked and made it to San Luis Obispo at my original time (more sprinting through the SF airport to make up for lost time). Whew. Happy I'm here safe and sound, and there are fresh local strawberries abounding! We made a very happy supper of hummus and flatbread and these amazing Asian peanut chicken meatball skewers left over from C's shindig last night, and strawberries, strawberries, strawberries!

Oh, and this is the view where I am now! Viva la See Canyon!

 
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