Most years we travel to Phoenix for the weekend to have Thanksgiving with the larger family. This year we did something different and returned home on Thursday after Thanksgiving lunch at the retirement apartments where Linda's mom lives. On Friday Mandy, Paul and the grandkids arrived from Phoenix, followed by Mike and his dog Stewie later that evening.
Saturday was the day for our Thanksgiving dinner - a roast and ham instead of turkey, but surrounded by all the usual family favorites. Afterward we got everyone together on the front porch for a picture.
It was a great weekend of just hanging around together like we hadn't done together in too many years. I can't describe how wonderful it was to have everyone together at the home where Mike, Mandy, and Nick grew up. Here are some more photos from the weekend.
Let's boldly proclaim in confident speech and compassionate act that Jesus Christ, born in a humble manger in the obscure village of Bethlehem, lives today as the King of kings and Lord of lords. We bow before His majesty in weekly worship and daily service. We know not only who He is, the incarnate Son of God, but also whose we are. We belong to Christ. We are His people. We are not ashamed or embarrassed by the good news that all who claim His name become His children. And we will spend eternity with Jesus in His forever family. Arrogance? Certainly not. These are the humblest of statements only possible because of His amazing grace.
Rev. Bob Norton, writing in the December newsletter of our church, Church of the Ressurection (www.cor-pca.org)
I saw this today on the shelf of the lunchroom at work. Does it make it more desirable to call seaweed "sea vegetables"?
I'm imagining wild kelp parties off the coast of Maine.
This weekend the annual Rim Country Quilt Roundup was held in Payson, Arizona. This is always a fun show with a large number of quilts, and inspiration.
There are always quilts at this show from Debbie Stanton. We find Debbie's quilting inspiring and look forward to seeing it each year. This "cathedral window" curved cross-hatching is an example of how she divides and enhances the open space in a quilt.
We also love seeing Debbie's choice of motif's. Some of them are small and almost go unnoticed, but others become the theme of the quilt because they are large and complement the piecing so well.
The end result is a stunning quilt which won the "Best Professional Machine Quilting" award for the show.
Arizona is divided by a geological feature known as the Mogollon Rim, which rises about 3,000 feet in about 10 miles. The "Rim Country", as this area is known, provides fun twisty roads and wonderful vistas. The 125-mile trip from Flagstaff to Payson is always interesting because it takes us through this area.
Today the scenery had some almost magical elements to is due to a winter storm that was passing through the area. Here are a couple of shots from today's trip.
Portland is full of pleasant surprises. Seeing the word "Utrecht" on a sign-board was certainly a surprise since we weren't in the Netherlands. We'd never heard of Utrecht Art Supplies before, but this was a whole store full of that brand.
There is a parking lot on the other side of this wall, but the wall with these industrial doors are still there just for the architectural detail.
Fall in Flagstaff is probably the best time of year for weather, but you can never depend upon having bright colors on the trees. Even if the colors are bright, it's pretty much just yellow from the Aspens. By contrast, Portland has lots of trees that turn various shades of red and we were there at a perfect time for them.
As wonderful as the tree colors were, some of the most fascinating color was on the ground.
If you want to see more, we've got more photos at Portland Photo Album
Portland, Oregon is becoming our favorite U.S. city to visit. We were there last year in October for the first Machine Quilters Expo West, and returned again this year. The focus at the conference was learning about the Intelliquilter system, but we had plenty of time to wander around town, visit yarn shops, and eat far more yummy food than is good for us!
This is probably my favorite photo of our visit. We were headed into downtown for dinner and caught the Max train at dusk. The combination of the sky, train, architecture of the station, and the convention center towers really amazed me when I saw it in the camera. Another 30 seconds later and I don't think the sky would have had any detail at all.
Dinner at Bridgeport Brew Pub. Mussels for Linda with a rasberry infused vodka. Cottage Pie for Ernie with a pint of Porter. When the waitress asked if we knew what we wanted to order, we replied that we'd known for a year what we wanted to order!
Our Max pass meant that we could go anywhere that was on the Max train streetcar routes. That meant we were able to visit 5 different yarn shops. I think Portland may have the highest ratio of knitters in the population of anywhere we've visited (at least it felt that way). We met one knitter as we were heading for downtown on the train and she was headed for the same shop. In the photo, Linda is wearing the new sweater that she had finished the day before the trip. We found some wonderful Madelintosh yarn for Linda's next sweater project as well as some Opal "Starry Night" that Linda had been seeking for socks.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous this year and we heard lots of comments about how wonderful it had been, but this sign at twisted shows that Portlanders have a certain fondness for rain (last year we learned a new weather forecasting term - "sun breaks"). The staff explained that the fall usually brings rainy weather, which is just the perfect thing for knitting.
Portland has quite a food-cart culture. At least one full block in downtown is surrounded by carts, and there are pockets like this throughout the city.
Portland has a very old-fashioned feel to it that I really like. This auto-parts store is not only in an old building, but this guy was in the back patiently rebuilding an engine. You won't find that kind of thing in your local AutoZone and you just sense that if you needed an engine, this was the kind of guy you wanted to be building it for you.
The converging lines of the train and streetcar lines really captured my imagination.
Of course, you can't visit Portland without spending time at Powell's City of Books.
Imagine and entire city block, 3 floors high, that all looks like this! Oh, and the technical books are in yet another building across the street. So many books, so little time...
I guess I just had a thing for converging lines on this trip. We wandered into this kitchen supply store as we walked between a yarn shop and the streetcar.
More from Portland next time...
