An Sincere Apology to our Audience!

So, here I sit in a Starbucks in Olympia while Matt & his cronies are meeting across the street with the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Back to work for Matt for a bit. And I'm looking at our pathetic excuse for a blog and I am thinking to myself, "Self? What made you think keeping an up to date blog would be easy? Or FUN?" Needless to say, Matt and I have had way too much fun to properly blog this trip. It seems sort of shameful to say that I'll be finishing the blog, complete with awesome pictures, while at home! But, finish the blog, we will! It just won't be in a timely manner!

We're heading to Seattle this afternoon after the meeting with the Powers That Be in Olympia and we're having dinner with Matt's coworkers. I am hoping a fun dinner at Tulios. We'll be staying at the Hotel Vintage Park for 2 nights. Matt and his Peeps have another meeting tomorrow with Systems Biology folks, with my brother in law, Michael, hereafter known as Reverend Michael, coming over for same meeting.

Matt and I will stay one more night on our own, his Peeps heading back on Thursday, and we'll have a romantic dinner at Il Bistro, hopefully nabbing our favorite romantic table. I assume I will kill the time tomorrow as they all work by doing a little shopping downtown. Always fun in downtown Seattle!

I have very mixed feelings these days. When we pulled into Medford the other night, I knew the trip was about over. I thought I'd be ready to get home and sleep in my own bed. And while sleeping in our own bed truly does sound like heaven, I am a bit sad that our 3 1/2 week Road Trip Is almost over! We're weary and sometimes a bit sleep deprived, but every day has been a new journey, new adventures and diverse scenery and experiences. I have enjoyed most every minute of it. Even the sleazy motels and the creepy people!

I have cherished every moment spent on the road with my love. We never tire of being together. We never tire of talking and exploring and learning about each other and the world around us. This trip has made us evern closer. And I think about what a joy it will be when Matt retires some day and we get to do this all the time! I can't wait!

Speaking of Sleazy Motels...skip the Red Lion at the Quay in Vancouver, WA. What a PIT! Our room was the size of a shower, and the shower was a joke. Creepy little place, to be sure! Just cross it off your list of potential stay-overs in the Portland/Vancouver area.

That's it for this brief update. Thank you for sticking with us. Do come back & check the Blog as we finish it. We promise it will be entertaining!

Note to self: The Phoenix Inn is supposedly THE place to stay in Olympia. I'm asking around for future reference. It stills blows us away that both of our sons will be attending college here in the Fall. More mixed emotions there. I sit and look around Olympia and think, my baby will be here for a few years, hoping having the time of his life and learning about film and the world around him. It scares me to think about life without Rob in it every day. I know the time is coming close. And it absolutely freaks me oUt! I will miss my boy more than I could ever say. I know he'll have an amazing time and an amazing life. But he had better come and visit his mother every now and then. And now I know where to stay in Olympia! (I miss my boy...)

Pooped in Santa Monica!

Wow. Am I ever tired today! Everything hurts and I'm barely moving this morning. And I'm wondering to myself, "Self, was a REALLY long road trip a great idea for an old lady with Fibromyalgia & a bum ankle?" what the heck, life is short! Thank heavens we have a full day here to recuperate!

We'll rent a tandem bike (so Matt can do all the work!) & ride down to Venice Beach & watch the crazies go by. Then back to the hotel to hang out by the pool overlooking Santa Monica Beach. Our hotel, Casa del Mar, is absolutely beautiful & sits right on the beach - our room is well worth the splurge. Peaceful & serene, looking directly onto the beach & pool area. Ahhh!

I promise to catch up on our blogs later today!

http://www.hotelcasadelmar.com

Special Report -- Steely Dan Concert

First off, this was an amazing concert in an incredible venue. I will talk about the music in a moment, but the run-up to the band was hot hot hot. The temp at concert time was 91 degrees.

Barb waiting in line, 91 degrees!

One drives up this little goat trail of a road above Saratoga, CA to the original Paul Masson winery, perched high above Silicon Valley. Why up here, I don't know -- he grew his grapes on the impossibly steep hillsides and entertained crowds in his chateau and its surrounding deck with spectacular 180 degree views of the "big basin."

After parking and picking up our tickets, we beat a path to Masson's chateau for a fine dinner on his famed party deck. Like last year, it was a sweltering affair, dining in 90 heat (the heat wave that had followed us down from Washington was peaking about 5:30pm).  Good food, and good, cold Chardonnay helped, but only when the sun dipped behind the trees did we stop sweating rivers.

Dinner on the deck.

Here's the first amazing part: while we were dining on the deck, with the amphitheater behind us, we could hear Steely Dan warming up and rehearsing. This went on for a good hour and a half! And in retrospect, they played a number of tunes that we would not hear that night! Here we were, out to dinner, with SD as the house band.

If you have never experienced Steely Dan live, you are missing something very special. You may know that the principals, Becker and Fagan, are perhaps the most exacting recording artists of our time, demanding perfection from all musicians who play for them, perfection from the instruments they play, and perfection from the crew who mixes the sound for the audience.

We finished desert and set out to find out new seats. We had received an email the day before informing us that our seats had been upgraded. The SD horn and rhythm section play a good 15 minutes before the concert, so we found our seats and no sooner were we settled than Becker and Fagan strolled on the stage.

What struck us immediately was how close we were -- I mean, I could hit them with a ping pong ball, or so it seemed. Just average Joe's in jeans, looking like they wandered in by mistake. We were both taken aback at how close we were to the band. They opened with "Gold Teeth" and it was all good from there.

Here's the set list:

Your Gold Teeth
Aja
Hey 19
Green Earrings
Everything Must Go
FM
Time Out of Mind
Godwhacker
Show Biz Kids
Black Cow
Dirty Work
Night By Night
Josie
Peg
Reelin In the Years
Bodhisattva
Kid Charlemagne

Green Dot is where our new seats were!

Sonically, it was another amazing mix, augmented by the fact that we could hear the amps from the stage. Everybody on stage is a great player, and all the horns distinguished themselves. Once again, though, their drummer stood out -- he may be the best drummer I have ever heard.

Sorry, no pics from the show -- no cameras allowed at all, and it is strictly enforced. So it goes.

It was one of the best sounding concerts I have ever been too. The band was awfully tight, but loose at the same time (lots of jazz improv on the horn solos). They funked up a lot of their tunes, notably Time out of Mind, Show Biz Kids, Everything Must Go.

Becker did most of the talking, telling a smart-aleck story about why it is one reaches for the Cuervo Gold these days. Fagan introduced FM by saying that SD has nothing to do with movies and TV, but wrote this song because "somebody talked us into it, years ago."

All in all, an amazing concert.

Day 4 - Cottage Grove - Eureka

Woke to our Charming Inn in Cottage Grove.  The weather was picture perfect. Again.  After a quick breakfast (note: "free" breakfast at the Village Green leaves something to be desired!) and some pictures of the amazing gardens here, we were off on our new adventure!  More to follow...

Day 3 - Portland to Cottage Grove, OR

The day started out EARLY!  Portland was LOUD and active all night long, probably due to all of the visitor's arriving for the huge Beer (& Blues) Festival which takes place in PLand every year around the 4th of July.  Up early for coffee and to hit the road. 

First stop:  EUGENE!  Home of the U of O DUCKS!  Barb was thrilled to get back to her Alma Mater and regaled Matt with stories of frivolity, Boyfriends Past and all kinds of trivial crap he was kind enough to listen to.  The strangest thing?  Everything seemed SO MUCH smaller than I remembered...

It's hard going back.

FOOD FIGHT! (EMU Fishbowl)

Day 2 - Suncadia to Portland

A great day.  When we left Roslyn, the air was cold and damp with a frightful chill in the air.  It DID get progressively warmer and more sunny.  Thank heavens.

More & More Windmills Along the Way

Matt got a wild hair and decided to backtrack to Ellensburg and take 97 S down through Yakima, Toppenish, Goldendale & hit I-84 E into Portland. A great idea.  I drove him the back route down the Old Canyon Road so he could catch a glimpse of The Rock where all those stories involving his wife and her friends had taken place over the years.  I was sorry I didn't have a key to the property any longer.  I would have loved to have shown him the scene of many of racy, funny and unbelievable stories.

We had lunch at Ron's Drive-In -- don't bother. It was pretty terrible!  They even screwed up my chocolate shake -- they use a MIX!  Eeew!  We did drive down Old Canyin Road, though, on our way, so Matt could see the area of many years of fun for many of us at The Rock.  The road was beautiful and it looks as though the Smet's family has built even more buildings on the property.

Toppenish:  When was the last time YOU were in Toppenish, WA?  What a trippy place!  The murals alone are worth a drive-through.  Truly unique and amazing.  And you find yourself in Mexico.  A small, Mexican town that has seen better days, but which has such pride in their community.  Except that it's in South Central Washington.

We headed down through Goldendale and onto I-84 to breeze into Portland, but had to make an unscheduled stop in Hood River.  As soon as we left Goldendale, a TERRIBLE NOISE schreeched through the car all the way down the hill, across the bridge and into Oregon.  Luckily I had previously visited a Les Schwab in Hood River so we stopped and had a very small rock removed from between the brakes.  Amazing how much ungodly NOISE a little rock can make!!!  THANK YOU, LES SCHWAB!

After Hood River, into Portland we went.  We stayed at Hotel Lucia which was nice and right downtown.  The room was very nice but VERY small -- prefect for us and a quick stopover without a bunch of time spent in the room.  A quick walk to Nordy's (because Matt forgot a coat!) and then we headed to dinner at Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant.  Crappy wine selection, but the food was great.  Matt especially loved the belly dancer and begged me to take lessons...

Back to the hotel to sleep and prepare for EUGENE!!!! 

Cool Signage in Toppenish

Old Canyon Road - The ROCK!

TERRIBLE Food @ Ron's Drive In in Yakima!

Downtown Yakima

Getting Rid of the Rock in the Brakes!
 

Day 1 - Spokane to Suncadia (Roslyn, WA)

I am SO sorry for the DELAY in getting my Blog posts and and running!  We are having SOOO much damn fun, we are too dang tired at the end of the day to do all this work!  We are again tonight... so... I will at least post a few pictures from each day and fill in the blanks starting tomorrow night from Bodego Bay (heaven to you Hitchcock Fans!).  

Here is from Day one -- Spokane to Suncadia!  The condo is in fabulous shape.  I encourage ALL of you to get your butts over there to borrow the condo because it sits there empty way too often!  The day after this, my 1st Ex, Myron & his wife Joan and their boys, Brian & James, moved in to celebrate the 4th of July and take advantage of an empty condo.  I hope they are having a lovely time!

Note to all:  Never fear asking me to use the condo.  All you gotta do is arrange a date with me (& pay for the cleaning when you leave 'cuz I'm kinda poor these days!).  Pretty great spot for a vacation: a beautiful place.  Will place more pics...