Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Vacation, Day 1, 10/21/2009, Part 2

We're home! We had a great time! We hugged and visited with family and friends and ate fine Southern food, home-cooked and in restaurants! I took loads of photos! Now I have to find time to get them to Flickr and pick some to share. I've had a mental struggle with myself, deciding how to post about our super vacation--by date, by category, randomly. Since I'm almost always also struggling to remember details these days, I'm taking the easy road out and continuing in date order. You'll find some after I explain things a bit--you know I can't help myself 'cause I love words!

So, in New Orleans we made our way from the plane to the gate where our friend Kay waited with open arms and a huge smile. Mama saw her first as a really tall man wheeled her along in the airport wheelchair. I caught a glimpse of her beautiful snow white hair and knew we had truly arrived. Later after he had retrieved our luggage, the man wheeled Mama out the door and across the street, voice booming at the slowly moving traffic to our left and holding out his left hand to get their attention--none of them dared advance until we had passed. Once we got out of the elevator to make those last few steps to Kay's truck, he was telling me how blessed I was to still have my Mama. "Yes," I agreed with him. "I surely am." "And she looks good, too," he said. "Yes, she does," I started to say. He quickly went on, "She looks better than you do!" Well, we all hollered with laughter at that one and I agreed with him wholeheartedly!

We realized from the get-go that we'd only have a few hours in New Orleans before hitting the hay and a few more the next morning, but at least we were there to do our part by spending some money and some time. Kay had printed out the direction to Hotel Place D'Armes in the French Quarter, so we set off in the warm, humid air to find it. Somewhere along the way a traffic direction sign had disappeared--honest--so we ended up going round about instead of straight there. Each one of us thoroughly enjoyed this serendipitous turn of events, seeing graceful wrought iron...
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...enticing neon signs...
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Be sure to read that exhortation in blue!

...colorful cottages and...
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...mule-drawn carriages...
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...and a St. Charles streetcar, turning right onto Canal.
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When we arrived at the hotel, thank goodness I remembered to get this photo! Back at the airport when Kay attempted to latch Mama's seatbelt, she discovered that all four of our suitcases sat on one of the pieces, so she tied Mama into the seat!
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I'm so glad to be blogging again! Tomorrow I'll finish with Day 1.

I hope you'll stick with me over the days to come as I share much more of our Southern bliss!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Vacation, Day 1, 10/21/2009, Part 1

Before we flew out at 6:15 a.m.--she looks great for having been awake since 3:20 a.m.
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The Iceman cometh, thank goodness, to de-ice our plane's wings in Denver, our place to change planes.
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Our lunch--ha, ha! We did just fine on it, too!
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We've landed!
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And now I have to report that I will be away from the World Wide Web for a whole week!

Mama's staying with Aunt Baker and Uncle JL, and I'm off to Talladega with our friends Milton and Kay!

You know I'll return loaded with pix! In fact, I've already got almost 1000 to go through from Wednesday through Sunday--surely some of them will be worth sharing with y'all.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Now that's a grill!

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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Great advice appears in these store windows

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These windows are at Moule, 1225 NW Everett St., in the Pearl. I stood across the street to take them, in between passing vehicles.

Mama and I are on vacation. I don't think I'll be around the Internet much, but I'll be back by Nov. 5th or so.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

You know how you see someone you've never seen before and ...

...then you see that same person again! Well, I thought that's what had happened with these two sightings two days apart. However, upon closer inspection of the largest size of each photo, I don't think that this is the same woman, though at the time I took the second photo I remember thinking, "Oh, wow! There's that woman I saw downtown the other day!"

First at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Sept. 17.
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Then on Sept. 19 across the street from Three Doors Down on SE 37th.
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Friday, October 23, 2009

The view from Mama's bedroom window

Isn't she blessed?
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Three Doors Down Cafe, A Fine Food and Drink Series, No. 5

Chicken liver pate with grilled foccacia, a pungent, smooth appetizer that matches perfectly the crispy foccacia.
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Linguini with slowly simmered beef and pork sugo. Here's another truly wonderful comfort food that amazes me. Flavor, texture, taste--it's got it all going on. I immediately thought about how some children always want spaghetti, but if one were to come to 3DD, the parents could order this instead. I believe the child would be satisfied with the taste and enjoy trying to wrap the linguini around a fork.
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Seems like I shared my appetizer with Kailey, and I had some of my sugo boxed up for the next day. That left room for dessert and wine. Here's the red wine--Notios, Peloponnisos Regional Wine, Red Dry Wine. Perfect accompaniment to my dessert.
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Bocca Negra, my favorite chocolate dessert in Portland!
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