Went to Oregon with Marilee last Monday and Tuesday. Picked up the painting from Stephen Rogers. Went to his apartment and met him and his girlfriend. They were both very nice and his painting was great! Amazing work and such a nice guy.

Then Mar and I went into Portland and checked into our room at the Hotel DeLuxe. It is an older hotel and further from downtown that I thought, but we had a nice large double queen room.

We walked (after a wrong way detour!) to the Pearl District and went through some shops. Froze our hands, feet, and butts off! It was cold! Went back to the hotel and warmed up some.

Decided to go to Gruner for dinner. It was a short walk from the hotel. Had some good food. We ordered a sausage and sauerkraut platter and the house Coq au Vine to share bites. But started with an excellent starter of ricotta dumplings with apple, winter squash puree and speck!

The next morning (after Mar let me sleep in) we walked to the downtown area. Very similar to Seattle as far as the stores and Pioneer ‘mall’ that seemed like Pacific Place and Westlake combined.

Then we went to the food truck block. Seattle really needs to get over their resistance to food trucks. There must have been 50 in a large block/parking lot. We decided to just get a small taco to hold us since it was only around 11:00.

After checking out of the hotel we tried to find a street of great shops that I remembered from when Darrel and I stayed there a dozen years ago. No luck but we did find the only Fred Meyer anywhere that doesn’t have a shoe or clothing department!

On Friday I had a bit of stomach issues and laid low. Still didn’t feel well on Saturday but managed to get a few Christmas decorations up. Had to stop after coming across Darrel’s stockings. Went over to Mar and Garry’s on Saturday evening to watch Gar light up his holiday flag. Then we watched the yacht club lighted boat parade for a while.

Sunday was the many annual Special People’s cruise at the yacht club. It is really a great event where ‘special’ people go out on boats to see Santa on a boat anchored a few miles away. I have usually helped either on a boat or on the dock getting the ‘kids’ on and off and helping them tell Santa what they want. But this year I went out on the Santa boat, Another Bill. What fun it was to listen to the kids telling the Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

We had the Seahawks on and watched them win, too!

Today, after cleaning the bathroom, floors, and kitchen, Courtney and I got the tree up. We set it up in the back room instead of living room for something different. I am trying to mix things up a bit this year so it isn’t too depressing. Doesn’t always work though.

I put the lights on, took them off again because the end wasn’t a male plug for the extension cord! Not sure why that happens but there was one plug that had both the male and female on it, so after taking them all off and putting them on again, it worked.. Why don’t all the strings have both?!

But I haven’t gotten too far on the actual decorating of the tree yet. Tomorrrow, I guess.

It still catches up with me sometimes when I remember that Darrel isn’t here. I guess it will be that way for a long time.

I have made arrangements to go to Europe the end of February. I will start out in Nice with a couple of friends who own an apartment there. Don and Frankie will get me oriented before they leave. Then I will stay at their place for a week before heading to Florence.

I found a great place in Florence owned by a woman in Australia and am going to stay there for 2 weeks. I hope to find some cooking schools in both places for day trips. I looked originally for a farm house/cooking school, but they don’t typically start until May or June. I wanted to be able to meet up with Don and Frankie, though, since it will be my first European trip and I am traveling alone. That is why I am going in that time frame, plus less tourists!

I am not sure what I will do after Florence. May come home or may move on somewhere else. I am leaving my options open!