I did a little light plastering touch up in the office. We had a pretty good review lesson with robert today. We concentrated on foxtrot with a little bit of rhumba thrown in. We did groceries in Kroger today on the way home from dance. Dinner tonight was egg salad in a bowl.My new Samsung 9.7 inch tablet came today. This thing is amazing. The display is the heart of this thing - bright and clear. Plex photos are really showing up well.

I finaally got into the office with the shop vac and vacuumed all the plaster up. Dinner tonight was the Waldorf Chicken salad using some of the chicken from yesterday.

The hurricane was less intense than expected in Sarasota which was good news. Our camera still worked but the right-left control is not working. After the news I got to working on sanding the ceiling. This really tired me out and while sanding it was clear that this needs another coat of plaster in many spots, especially the corners. Once done I took a shower and rested, debating whether I should vacuum and plaster today or wait till tomorrow.
i took the shop vac into the woods and emptied it and banged the cartridge against the tree. It was full to the top and the filter was really junked up. Would love to pick up a new filter somewhere or maybe get a Home Depot Shop Vac. For dinner we made Barbara Shannon's Chinese chicken salad. The rice sticks got burned trying to flash fry them so I ran out to Kroger and picked up a can of Chow Mein noodles.

Got up at the usual East Coast time today even though it was the first time back home in this time zone. I tracked Irma quite a bit and then during breakfast the morning programs were devoted to Irma. Once the morning shows were done I drove to Home Depot and picked up a can of plaster as well as did a Kroger stop for fruit. Picked up bananas, pears and plums. Thy didn't have the containers of blueberries like in the past. The season is ending. Plastered all along the edge of the ceiling, will sand this tomorrow. Watched Irma on and off all day. It looks like good news for Sarasota, the storm may pass East with less intensity than originally predicted. Our power is still on and the Lanai Cam works. Did the unpacking today as well although I am a little weary. When i went by the High School today on the way to Home Depot i noticed the entire building is down. Libbie had a dough in the freezer which she used to make a delicious pizza for dinner with fresh basil from the garden. i wasn't tired at bed time so I stayed up till midnight reading. I also got all the pics off Libbie's cell phone and labeled the directories after using Jalbum to sort them by date into appropriate directories.

We had the hotel breakfast then drove to the airport and dropped off the car and checked into Southwest. We breezed through TSA then had a coffee at Stumptown Coffee Roasters listening to a musician playing a piano. It was quite pleasant even though we were in an airport. We walked the long corridor to our gate and there was another musician playing guitar and singing Jim Croce songs. PDX is quite an airport. We got on our Southwest flight and even though the flight was full we got an empty middle seat. The flight was bumpy for the first half but then smoothed out once we got out of the Rockies. We had a one hour layover in St Louis which was good because there was no services. We got the exit row on a brand new plane which was quite comfortable. The flight was very smooth most of the way which was good. After we got our bags I called an Uber. We got Matthew who was quite talkative and a pretty nice guy. Once we dropped off the bags we went to Kroger to get our milk and cereal for tomorrow and then to Chopotle to get dinner. We got Carne Asada in a Bowl with all the fixins. We only ate half at home and put the other half in the refrigerator. It was the only meal of the day besides breakfast.

It was foggy when we woke up this morning. I still can't believe how much room we have in our suite. It can be 2 separate rooms. We stayed around until 10:15 because we wanted to check in to Southwest. I got B40 on the PDX to STL flight and A39 on the STL to PDX. We had an easy drive to Portland. We went over to Salem then up I-5. It was a Friday afternoon and the highway was full. We chose to go up I-205 around Portland and to our Comfort suites at 1 PM. We inquired and as luck would have it we they gave us a room which we used to drop off our bags. We walked to McDonalds for lunch then hopped onto the MAX Red line and went out to the Rose Garden leaving our car at a park and ride one mile from the hotel. We met some character who seemed somewhat insecure and sat near us as we went to Washington Park. He had stories of his road trip across the country, none of which was believable. We enjoyed the Rose garden once again. So much had changed with the blooms. At one time Libbie thought we saw it at peak a few weeks ago. I doubt it. We did an hour of walking then decided to take Max back. It was slow going back since they reported a car on the tracks at 122nd st which slowed the system down. It was still OK. We met a cute Mexican girl who wanted some assistance with train routes. She didn't say where she was going but she stayed close to us. I thought she was pretty cute and hope she wasn't in trouble. When we got back we went out to dinner at Bistro 21 and also filled up the gas tank to return the car. Gas was 3.09 which was not great but we filled the tank as obligated. I had spare ribs for dinner with a very nice craft lager. Libbie had a cheese sandwich and cup of tomato basil soup. Wow, her bread was tasty. It was just the right amount of food for the both of us. At the hotel a large tour bus from MN had unloaded the passengers for the night at our hotel.

It's a foggy and rainy day. We walked into town after the hotel breakfast and mailed a couple of postcards. Next we stopped at the coffee roaster by the bridge and picked up some coffee and a donut which we had out on the back deck overlooking the Siulisi River. On the way out of town i stopped at the used book store and bought the Lewis and Clark book which was $12 and is a semi coffee table book. it got pretty foggy and misty as we stopped at the Heceta Lighthouse. The fog is pretty intense and it was hard to see the lighthouse. We took the guided tour and when we were done the fog lifted a little. I took some pics before we headed North again. The rain picked up again, this time we needed the low speed wipers instead of the mist wipers. We stopped at Waldport where I saw a buy Marijuana sign on a business which I took a picture of for Facebook. We had a nice lunch in a Mexican restaurant after walking the business district evaluating our choices. We each had a Margarita and I ordered a Taco Salad with shredded beef. It included guacamole, sour cream, refried beans, tomatoes and lettuce in a tostada shell. We continued our travels North and arrived at the Best Western only to discover i made a reservation at the non beach front facility. I rented a suite anyway for $250 and then attempted to cancel the other one which is supposed to be non cancellable. The nice lady on the phone when I called the hotel directly canceled my reservation which saved us another $150 that would have been wasted. The suite is beautiful with a full ocean view off the Lanai. We had wine and cheese then walked down the street to Kylleys Seafood which i didn't need because i was so full. I had fish and chips with a bowl of chowder. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir with the meal which was $36. Individual glasses were $12 each so this was the more economical choice. We walked back in the dark which was only about 0.1 miles. We have been monitoring the Northward progress of hurricane Irma as it marches up the coast. It is supposed to hit Florida as a cat 4. I hope the condo hangs tough. Before going to bed I installed a synch program and attempted to download the photos from Libbie's phone. I need to find a better alternative to get her photos.

We had a breakfast of peaches and toast before leaving around 9. We stopped for a fill-up at 3.09 in Bend then 10 miles down the road we stopped for Starbucks and bought a picnic lunch and water. An hour down the road the smoke got pretty thick and the road to Crater Lake was closed due to fire. We chose to abandon ship and took Hwy 158 to Florence. We had a picnic lunch stop on the Willamette River at Lowell Bridge which was a preserved historic covered bridge. We had a nice walk through the bridge and then headed towards Florence. We found we could modify our reservation from tomorrow night to tonight which saved us some money. The bad news was our reservation down in Prospect outside of Crater Lake is going to cost us $150.
We enjoyed the little walk down Bay St in Old Town Florence. We had wine and cheese on our balcony overlooking the water then walked down to the Bridgewater restaurant where we had dinner. We started with a Pinot Noir then I ordered Surf and Turf which was Flat Iron steak and mushrooms along with broiled shrimp.

We had a breakfast of peaches and muffins then drove out to the John Day area of the Painted Hills where we first stopped and had a nice picnic lunch. i like the ham on flatbread with horseradish which was yummy. We also had grapes and Mandarin Oranges. We did a nice walk through the varied colors of the hills and admired the beauty that nature has provided. We walked through two different sets of the painted mounds then went to another painted mound area which contained fossils. We found a few fossils of leaves on the rocks before very tiredly and hot getting back into the car. We stopped at the little town of Prineville where we stopped for a self serve yogurt. I mixed milk chocolate and orange yogurt then topped it with honey roastd peanuts. This is a nice yogurt place. We sat on the sofa in the place and had our yogurt. On the way back in Bend Barb and Jack showed us their Senior Center where they play bridge then we went to the Sagebruush Art Society building which is a coop of sorts where membership pays for the facility. At 6 PM we went out to dinner to Pastini, an Italian restaurant on the Deschuttes River. We had a beautiful table on the croner surrounded by flowers and a view up and down the river. I also enjoyed the walkers going by in their summer clothes, to quote a Bruce Springstein Song. For dinner I had the Canneloni Fruiti Di Mare which was 2 Canneloni in tomato sauce stuffed with shrimps, scallops and fish. It was yummy. We had a bottle of 2015 Sharecropper Pinot Noir which was quite good. When we got back from dinner we spent some time looking at the pictures from yesterday which was the Lava Flow and the Obsidian glass flow. I also did some online research and canceled our second night at Crter Lake. in it's place I added a night in the coastal town of Florence. I found a river view room at the River View inn. I had to pay for the deluxe spa room because it was the only river view room left which costed us $50 more. We shaall see.

Peter fixed an interesting breakfast with potato, onion, garlic, tomato, squash and eggs. We started having the meal out on the deck but got chased indoors by the yellow jackets. After breakfast we said our goodbys and headed South to Bend. We tried to stop in a little town for coffee but there was none at a food truck or at the grocery in town. We got back on the rod and drove around Mt Hood. Too bad the air was very smokey. The view was incredible but shrouded in smoke. At one point my eyes were burning. We stopped just before Bend at a McDonalds where I had a Big Mac. It was the fastest McDonalds I have ever been in. They actually timed the employees in how fast they serve. We easily made our way to Jack's house although there was an accident that stopped traffic for a while. We only lost 7 minutes.
Jack and Barbara's home is lovely. Jack has extensively landscaped his grounds has a beautiful perennial garden surrounding his patio. We took a ride South of here to Newberry National Volcanic Monument and climbed the Obsidian pile to the top observing the lava flow. The Obsidian pile is interesting stuff embedded in the pumice rock and sometimes veins of pumice can be seen in the pure black Obsidian. We then went to a very pretty water falls before going to a lava field. The Lava Field had some pretty gnarled wood and wild flowers of rabbit foot plant. I was incredibly tired but hiked along. Dinner tonight was made by Barbara and was a chicken and almond mixture over a bed of lettuce with a sesame oil drizzled over it covered with fried noodles. It was accompanied by canteloupe slices. Barbara made a Key Lime Pie for dessert. How nice. I was incredibly tired and passed right out when my head hit the pillow.

We had a leisurely breakfast at Pete and Kate's. In the garden Libbie and Kate started cleaning up the flower garden, pulling weeds and finding things. In the meantime Peter came home with a 6 point socket set that worked on the shock absorber bolts without slipping. The 12 point set kept slipping on the bolt head. We finally got the bolts off allowing him to install the new shock absorber and put the tires back on the Subaru Brat. Next he is going to replace the front axle.
We went out to lunch at a Golf Club where the food was excellent and the bill not very high. I had a Tuna BLT which had a sushi grade Ahi Tuna and bacon, tomato, lettuce and a large bun. On the side was chips and salsa. It was great although I ended up not eating the bun top since it was a lot of bread.
We then went to the Orchard and Farm house that is owned by David. It's in rough shape and needs lots of work. Everywhere I look on the farm there is work that needs to be done. The kitchen is large but it's a disaster also. I would never sign up for that much work.
We picked a few boxes of peaches out in the orchard and found out they were for us. I thought we were helping to pick peaches for the Farmer's Market. From there we went back to Pete's to drop off the Peaches and the leftover lunch Libbie had boxed. We heard that Barbara, Kate, Andrew and the baby had arrived so we went back to the Farm House and greeted everyone. We then headed down to the Farmers Market where Alma was selling the peaches in their little tent. Kate, Andrew, Barbara and Dave all followed to the little town of Mosier where the Farm Market was and a restaurant called "Press and Cloth". We had interesting vegetarian pizza and beer. We paid the bill which was almost $200. We also met David's tenant pickers. A young couple just touring the country out to meet people. They live in an RV on David's property. I had the peach pizza and the eggplant pizza. Very interesting. Peter had to go into the hospital so Kate accompanied us back to her house giving us directions from the back seat on dark country roads.

We got up this morning around 6:30 and packed our bags, tagged them and put them outside our room for pickup by the crew. We had a breakfast of a Fritata with bacon and toast then said our goodbyes including long the line formed by the crew. It was a short ride over to the airport where we had no trouble going downstairs and across the road to the rental counter. We luckily got a 2016 Toyota Corolla. Our first stop was Costco where I was very disappointed by the wine and beer selection. We moved along and soon found the Metromat where we did the laundry. While the washers were washing I ran down the street to the Fred Myer and bought 2 cases of beer for our hosts, Peter and David. Once the laundry was done we got going looking for the interstate. We drove i-84 along the river for a while then visited the Bonneville Dam and watched the fish ladder before proceeding. On our way into the visitors center our car was searched. No weapons and no drones were allowed. Back onto the highway we got off at Hood River looking for lunch. We had a pizza and a beer at Presteni. The pizza by the slice was very good. It was easy to find Peter's house using Google. They have a lovely ranch on 8 acres. We toured the property. i really like the garage and the shop where Peter is working on a car. David and Alma cam over later in the day and we all had dinner on the deck. Pete cooked a meal with Tofu, Quinoa, Curry and a salad. It was delicious. This is what we need to be doing. Katy got a call to the hospital where a patient thought she was going to deliver a baby. If there was going to be a delivery then Peter would have to also go as the attending physician. We spent the night using Peter's WiFi

I can't believe it but Uncruise let us down again. I had coffee in the lounge
until it was time to go to breakfast. We went down to the dining room and sat
with Karon amd Phil. They forgot about our table so when we inquired, Jessica
the Hotle Manager served us coffee but no one took our order. We were able to
flag down Emma who helped but then the food never came out. People who came
fter us were finished eating and had left lready. For breakfast I had the
omelet and bacon which was quite good. We got on the buses and headed out into
the Williamette Valley. Our first stop was at Archer Vineyards, a tiny family
owned high quality Pinot Grower. The entire staff gave us a warm welcome. The
owner spoke to us and then later wandered around with us as we enjoyed the
outdoor patio and the field of ripening Pinot Noir grapes. He poured us several
glasses of a wine he made in honor of his Mother. It was quite good. The
winery also provided trays of chacuterie with meats and cheese, dried fruit and
nuts. We then loaded up the bus and went out into the country to the fanciest
of them all, Domaine Serene. Wow, this was like a fine country club. The
tasting room was gorgeous. We took a tour first, down 4 floors to the barrel
storage then slowly made our way up to the pressing and fermenting operations
receiving a tasting along each step of the way. We ended up upstairs in their
large dining area where a lunch buffet of a delicious salad and a turkey
sandwich with lettuce and peach jam was the lunch. A small square of chocolate
blueberry bar was dessert. Of course we had this with a nice Pinot the servers
kept going around keeping our wine glass full in addition to the water glasses.
We took a look at the new tasting room which looked like a fine restaurant.
Tastings in their started at $40. Wow. We then headed back to Portland in
some pretty heavy traffic. We packed our suitcases and then at dinner time had
the final dinner together, named the Captains dinner. I had the short ribs in a
reduction sauce with some broccolini. It was quite good. A glass of Triple
threat which is a red blend accompanied dinner. They first poured a Cabernet
which was bad. It had the aroma of nail polish. Our wine host April then made
an announcement that this was a flawed batch. We stayed with the triple threat
blend. Dessert was supposed to be a Tiramisu but it was a chocolate layer cake.
We also had a glass of chocolate liquour apertif after dinner. This was glass
number 92 of the week. I skipped glass 93 which was champagne because I could
not drink anymore wine. The champagne did not taste like a good wine, it was a
little tart. The tartness combined with not wanting anymore wine was why i did
not drink it or count it in my pour count. After dinner Caltain Lyman played
his guitar. Atlanta sang 2 songs for us. her voice is beautiful. The captain
played some standard covers then played some original songs he wrote. We bought
the CD of his songs which was $15.

This morning we had a breakfast of beef hash browns with an egg
over easy on top along with toast and jam. The chamber of
commerce came out dresed in costumes to greet us. A lady with
an umbrella said she does "undercover" work as a hussy. What a
great group of people welcoming us to their town of The Dalles.
We boarded the buses and went to the Maryhill Art Museum. This
place was a total treat. We didn't spend enough time here.
It's called the little museum you never heard of. I saw some
Rodin sculptures and some paintings by Rodin I never saw before.
Next stop was the award winning Maryhill winery. They have won
over 3,000 awards for their wine with many best in shows. We
sampled 6 wines there as well as a Merlot in the tasting room.
The view of the Columbia Gorge from the winery is spectacular.
The boat provided some chacuitiry in case we got hungry because
we were not going to return until 1:15 PM. We stopped in the
wine shop on the way out and sampled some Merlot which we bought
along with another wine that won he award of Best in show at the
Oregon Wine Association. We got back for lunch was a seafood
chowder made from the trout from last night and also a crem base
with potatoes and other veggies.

After lunch we had the option of walking through downtown or going out to a
small winery inside an old flour mill. We chose the winery tour which was worth
it for the building alone. It is an old Sunshine Bakery flour mill. We enjoyed
the huge motor that was used to drive many, many pulleys for various milling
machines. They also had it decorated with old adding machines, an old cash
register and numerous other antiques. The flour mill was up against a railroad
yard. I walked outside and took some pics from the tracks before we loaded up
the bus and headed back to the boat which spent the day parked at The Dalles
public dock. In the evening we had another wine tasting of Pinot Noirs, I had a
total of 4 glasses then we had the drink of the day which was a Margarita.
Uncruise let us down this evening with dinner. We had the Black Cod which was a
big mistake. The fish was undercooked and slimey instead of being white and
flakey. The veggies were not well matched to the dinner and were bitter. When
dessert came it too was a dsiappointment. It was supposed to be a pudding but
was a liquid with a Raspnerry and a Strawberry in it. In the evening they were
having trivia in the lounge. We listened to it from our room. The questions
were all about our trip this week and what we remembered about it. My cell
minutes had run out again so I bought another 1/2 gig even though the plan
renews tomorrow. I ordered another book on Amazon by the author who wrote the
Tampa book which I just finished.

This morning we were docked at an industrial area. Next to the
boat was a junk yard and an uncruise beach with pink Flamingos
and plastic Palm Trees. How cool, this is the party boat for
sure! Our first stop after riding 30 minutes along beautiful
scenery of the Washington fruit growing region was the McClore
Wine Center. We had an excellent tasting comparing Chilean and
Washington State wines. We tasted a total of 6 wines in our
"wine class" which was lead by April, the director of the
center. We then went into the tasting room where we had 3 more
wine tastings of red wines. Our next stop was a bus trip to
Terra Blanco winery where the winery is very impressive. There
literally is millions of dollars invested in a 300 acre vineyard
where the goal is to make estate bottled wines. They have their
own grapes, they press them themselves and they ferment the
juice themselves. We toured some impressive bored out
underground cellars which were reinforced with steel framework
then sprayed with concrete. This was the barrel aging room.
It's truly amazing. We had a lovely lunch of sandwiches and
salads as well as a greeting Rose then a Cab with lunch. We
next went to the tasting room for another 6 glasses of wine
bringing our total up to 57 glasses. We had 4 glasses of wine
with April's 5 PM tasting then a glass of wine with dinner and
then an apertif. Dinner was a pecan crusted steelhead trout.
Dessert was a red velvet cheesecake. Total for the week so far
is 62 glasses. I tried to get on Republic wireless but my data
had run out for the month. Theoretically it will renew tomorrow
because they said one day left. I skipped the 8 PM presentation
and passed out in bed.

Today we are out of range of cell phone service. We are docked
at Lyons Ferry in the town of Starbuck, not related to the
coffee vendor. It makes interesting tee shirts. There is
nothing here except for a KOA campground and a beautiful State
Park containing Palouse Falls. After a breakfast of poached
eggs on toast containing an avocado pesto we boarded the buses
and went to Palouse Falls. This is a very scenicn Falls our in
the middle of nowhere. We took a 1/2 mile hike out around the
back of the Falls and took lots of pictures. We then got back
to the boat and had a lunch of baby back ribs paired with a
Shiraz. The initial pairing was with a Pinot Noir but
previously we spoke with April who thought a Shiraz would be the
better pairing. The afternoon was spent with activities on the
boat. They had a swim call and a Captains poker tournament. I
need to learn to play poker someday. Just before dinner we
pulled up anchor and started cruising down the river. Dinner tonight was huge
scallops prepared in a citrus lime glaze. Three scallops was all I could
handle. We previously had 3 glasses of Resiling in the lounge and then I had 2
glasses of Pinot with dinner. They also served a very nice apertif with dessert
which was yummy. I hope we get a list of all the wines we have had. I
estimated this was my 40th glass full of a wine. We had dinner with Ken and
Susan and Phil and Karon. They are all friends of Ken and Susan and are very
nice people. I finished my "Tampa" novel and rated it so so. The sex was good,
the story a little weak. I read the whole thing.

Breakfast started with an omelet with scallions and jalapenos
and potatoes with Washington Walla Walla onions. Yummy, served
with toast and Uncruise legendary bacon. We sat in a booth with
Bob and Bobbie from new Bern. We departed the park we were
anchored at around 9 am for the one hour drive to Walla Walla
and basel Cellars whihc was a resort type winery. They have a
small hotel with accomodations for 16 attached to the iwnery.
We went down into the barrel room and had a barrel tasting which
was great. We had a Malbec and a Cabernet. This was after our initial pour of a
sparkling light wine. Back in the tasting room we had 2 more wines before going
over to Westwood cellars where we had lunch. We had 5 more samples of their
wines and a very nice pulled pork tacos with salad and chips and salsa. Wow,
wat a day. We hen went to the Hotle Westmore in downtown Walla Walla where we
had an hour to wander the town. Libbie found 2 quilt shops where she bought
some fabric. I found a nice tea shop where I was looking for a tea por. Back
at the ship we had a 5 oclock snack and a little guessing game with a wine
tasting of 3 wines plus a sparkling variety to start the evening. Our wine
total so far is 30 different wines sampled.

I went down early and had the coffee at 6:30 which is a very
good coffee. Breakfast started the day with an egg over easy
with hollandaise sauce and flat iron steak. We then went first
to Multnomah falls at 9 AM before going to Spring Hill Cellars
where we had 5 glasses of wine. The blonde owner gave us a nice
talk about her winery and how this was a dream to run a winery.
Surprisingly i liked the First wine served, a dry Reisling. Next
stop was Mt Hood Winery for a box lunch of a turkey sandwich and
5 more tastings of wine. The owner there had the same sotry,
Their dream is to be wineaker but their main cash crop is pears.
Back at the boat in the evening the dinner was Alaskan King Crab
with the Reisling from Springhill Cellars. We played a wine tasting game today
where we had 3 wines to guess the varietal. I can't tell one fromm the other.
I also can't tell these imaginary flavors they are coming up with such as nose
of fruit or an after taste of raspberry or a fruity finish. i can tell dry from
sweet and definitely like the drier much better, especially a well oaked red
wine such as Rodney Strong Cabernet which is my favorite. After dinner we had a
nice lemoncello dessert with an apertif of a blend that was fortified. We had 2
glasses of that it was so good.

We had breakfast in the condo and then ventured out onto the StreetCar and got off at Central Library. We then took a Max blue line train to the Skidmore Fountain stop and walked blocks to VooDoo Doughnut. The purple donut shop was a treat. There was a line as usual but it moved quickly. They had many many kinds of donut concoctions. I got a Portland Creme and the Bacon Maple donut which was something I read about years ago. it was great. We sat outside with a young couple from New Orleans and a young man from Birmingham, all visiting. We then had a nice walk the few blocks to the Chinese Garden. We opted for the docent led tour which was outstanding. We learned a lot about the architecture, the stones and plants. Chinese incorporate 4 elements. Plants, stone, water and architecture in designing a refuge from the outside world. After the tour we stopped into the tea house and had roasted peanuts and tea. I had the "8 Treasures" or Ba Bao Cha. The tea was outstanding with lots of types of leaves, stems and twigs that were supposed to be a Chinese elixir. The most interesting part of the tea was the interesting mug. I want a tea mug just like the one in the tea house. We looked in the garden shop and the tea house where tea and some mugs were for sale but not the ones they served us with. We next got onto the Max and then the streetcar and visited Powells for the rest of the afternoon. It is an amazing place. Four floors of a building that covers an entire city block is spectacular. I bought 3 used books. One was an Acadia publishing book of Death Valley history, one was a book of Hemingway Short stories and the last was an impulse purchase. I was attracted o the title which was "Tampa" which was a suspense/mystery book on a table advertised as new books at used prices. When done we hopped the streetcar and went back to the condo to drop our stuff off, wash our hands and do other bathroom functions. We sadly learned today that John Carter passed away. This was shocking although we knew that he wasn't doing very well. We got more wine at Safeway for wine and cheese then headed out on the streetcar up to the PSU campus. We got off at a station called PSU Center which was totally amazing. It was part of the campus with a brick quad but what was amazing was the number of intersecting light rail tracks with trains going every which way. The challenge was going to be finding which Streetcar to get back on to go back. We walked 3 blocks up to Hot Lips Pizza where we each had an Ashland Amber craft beer. I ordered 2 slices, a Pepperoni pizza and a Sicilian Veggie slice. The slices were huge and I should have only ordered one. We decided to walk all the way back since it was only 0.6 miles. On the way back we stopped at the Old Church since it was before the 7 PM concert start to find out about tickets. The place was only half full so we bought 2 tickets for $36. The concert started with local musicians, each playing 2 songs. This wasn't too bad but then our headliner, Haley Johnsen came up. Who is a very slim, sexy and pretty lady who was on American idol She has a great voice but the number of guitars in her band drowns her out. She is much better without all the noise such as when she sang solo strictly with an acoustic guitar. It was beautiful, I wish more of her music was like that. We left a little after 10 and then it was home and to bed.

We had breakfast in the condo and then ventured out onto the StreetCar and got off at Central Library. We then took a Max blue line train to the Skidmore Fountain stop and walked blocks to VooDoo Doughnut. The purple donut shop was a treat. There was a line as usual but it moved quickly. They had many many kinds of donut concoctions. I got a Portland Creme and the Bacon Maple donut which was something I read about years ago. it was great. We sat outside with a young couple from New Orleans and a young man from Birmingham, all visiting. We then had a nice walk the few blocks to the Chinese Garden. We opted for the docent led tour which was outstanding. We learned a lot about the architecture, the stones and plants. Chinese incorporate 4 elements. Plants, stone, water and architecture in designing a refuge from the outside world. After the tour we stopped into the tea house and had roasted peanuts and tea. I had the "8 Treasures" or Ba Bao Cha. The tea was outstanding with lots of types of leaves, stems and twigs that were supposed to be a Chinese elixir. The most interesting part of the tea was the interesting mug. I want a tea mug just like the one in the tea house. We looked in the garden shop and the tea house where tea and some mugs were for sale but not the ones they served us with. We next got onto the Max and then the streetcar and visited Powells for the rest of the afternoon. It is an amazing place. Four floors of a building that covers an entire city block is spectacular. I bought 3 used books. One was an Acadia publishing book of Death Valley history, one was a book of Hemingway Short stories and the last was an impulse purchase. I was attracted o the title which was "Tampa" which was a suspense/mystery book on a table advertised as new books at used prices. When done we hopped the streetcar and went back to the condo to drop our stuff off, wash our hands and do other bathroom functions. We sadly learned today that John Carter passed away. This was shocking although we knew that he wasn't doing very well. We got more wine at Safeway for wine and cheese then headed out on the streetcar up to the PSU campus. We got off at a station called PSU Center which was totally amazing. It was part of the campus with a brick quad but what was amazing was the number of intersecting light rail tracks with trains going every which way. The challenge was going to be finding which Streetcar to get back on to go back. We walked 3 blocks up to Hot Lips Pizza where we each had an Ashland Amber craft beer. I ordered 2 slices, a Pepperoni pizza and a Sicilian Veggie slice. The slices were huge and I should have only ordered one. We decided to walk all the way back since it was only 0.6 miles. On the way back we stopped at the Old Church since it was before the 7 PM concert start to find out about tickets. The place was only half full so we bought 2 tickets for $36. The concert started with local musicians, each playing 2 songs. This wasn't too bad but then our headliner, Haley Johnsen came up. Who is a very slim, sexy and pretty lady who was on American idol She has a great voice but the number of guitars in her band drowns her out. She is much better without all the noise such as when she sang solo strictly with an acoustic guitar. It was beautiful, I wish more of her music was like that. We left a little after 10 and then it was home and to bed.

We had our breakfast in the condo previously purchased in Safeway across the street - shredded wheat, milk and banana. We then walked to the street car line and purchased a one day pass on the TriMet system which includes bus, streetcar and light rail. We took the #20 bus to the Rose Garden after briefly stopping in to Powell's Books.We went into the wrong end of the garden and climbed forever and then many hundreds of feet of walking. The Rose Garden was totally worth it . There were more varieties than i have ever seen, it was so beautiful and there were so many varieties and all of them were in bloom. What a spectacular site. I made note of one couple on a bench doing some heavy making out. She was holding on to his erection and he was massaging her breasts and had a hand under her skirt working away while her head was back oblivious to the world. After walking for ours we grabbed a water from the snack truck there. Eventually we bought some trail mix and rode the shuttle all around the park. Next we went to the Japanese Garden which had an admission charge of $13 for seniors. It was totally worth it. The garden was so beautiful. Every turn in the path was a joy to behold. When it was over we rode the shuttle down to the MAx and took the train to the Library stop at 11th and then took the streetcar up to Jefferson and 11th which is where our Condo is. We stopped into the Safeway and bought a bottle of wine, some cheese and a box of triscuits for our afternoon wine and cheese. Tonight for dinner we went to Thai Chili Jam which was 2 blocks from our condo. I had nice sweet sour stir fry with chicken which was outstanding. Libbie had Scallops Pad Thai but she said hers was too hot. We both asked for Medium heat. We each had a glass of wine with dinner

I had a bunch of errands to do this morning. First thing was to mend the electric fence in the backyard. Next i put a drip waterer on the Hibiscus inside the fence in the backyard. I then practiced Clarinet before packing it for the trip. At 10 AM i called for an uber. Juan from Cuba arrived in 6 minutes in his White Toyota Corolla which was just like mine. He took us to the airport in about 20 minutes. Our flight left on time but it was the flight from hell. The ride over the Smokey's was rough and the ride landing over the desert into Las Vegas also rough. We had 3 girls sitting in the row behind us, all less than 6 years old and a Mother across the aisle who was a moron. The girls kicked the seats continuously, the mother had no parenting skills and did nothing but yell at the poor little girls. At one point a black woman took the time to sit with them and do an ABC activity with them but other than that it was hell. I was so glad to get off that 4 hour flight. We sat in a Beach Bar, Sam's BEach Bar in Vegas and had an incredibly good Fish Taco and a Sam Adams. We were told Sam was with Van halen and all proceeds go to children's charities. Lunch was sup expensive at $75 with tip.Our Portland flight was delayed by one hour because of the beautiful thunder storm we watched move across the field. it doesn't rain often in Vegas but when it does it messes everything up for a while. We finally got in at almost 10 PM. Our condo is beautiful, very contemporary in an industrial theme. It's 2 floors and has floor to ceiling glass overlooking the city. Very nice. It also has all the modern amenities.

Libbie's Prius battery was dead since it wasn't used all week. I put the charger on it so she could go to her massage with Jennifer. I made another dump trip with some junk from the attic as well as the folding doors that didn't fit yesterday. Check in was late so we got B56 on the flight to Vegas tomorrow. Oh well. We'll survive. I did a little trip planning for Oregon today. Dinner was hamburger again whcih was very good with beer and baked beans.

Took the carpeting and the 8 foot table with messed up legs to the dump this morning. It was an easy trip, there was no line at all at the containers. I could not fit the folding door from my shop into the car so that will be another day. Libbie scraped the entire ceiling in the office today which was amazing. Dinner tonight was hamburger with tomato slices on a bakery bun. Side was baked beans. We had the hamburger with Kilians Red Beer. I ran a new cable from the front hall closet to the Office today to restore Internet upstairs. Now Sonos and everything else works again.. Importantly, the landscape lights turn on again. I also mounted the second blinds in the Living Room to shield my computer from anyone passing by outside the window.

I want to remove the carpet today. After the mornging programs I attacked moving the drawers upstairs to the attic. I cleaned off the desk and moved outside for a trip to the dump. The legs fell off the desk when I tried closing it up. they were always a problem. After getting the last of the boxes out of the rooom I cut the carpet down the middle and ripped it up and rolled it to carry it outside for the dump trip. I bagged the padding and also bagged the nailing strips all around the outer edge. i also did the closet. Checked online and found that the dump is not open on Sunday so this will for tomorrow for disposal. I picked up some mini blinds for the living room where my office is going to be for a while. I mounted one and it looks pretty good. i was too tired for the other. Libbie made her fabulous pizza once again which i had with a beer I bought today in Kroger, Killian Irish Red. I really like that beer.
Late at night I attempted to splice the Ethernet cables but it didn't work. Next I tried putting connectors on the wiring. This didn't work either with a switch. I put my tester on the cable and worked on replacing the connector three times, each time unsuccessful. I went to bed with the cable being a failure.