Annual Holiday Letter to Friends and Family

Happy Holidays!  This is the annual letter that George composes every year (except last year).  It is too big a file to send via e-mail, so my blog is a great way to share!

There is much to be grateful for from 2013 and to look forward to in 2014!

Is it December already? Again? Yes, I was negligent last year, and did not send an annual report. So please accept our apologies, and let us now get on with it. There is much to tell.

For 3 weeks during this past July and August, Lori and I traveled through Maine and some of Atlantic Canada. We went with our friends Steve & Lynn, the same couple we went to South America with in 2006. We sailed on Penobscot Bay in a rented 2-masted ketch for four days and nights. We visited the Bay of Fundy, and spent a week exploring Prince Edward Island by bicycle. We sampled traditional food and music during the festival of the blessing of the boats in Caraquet, on the Acadien Peninsula. And then we spent 3 days in Quebec City, which must surely rank as one of the most beautiful cities of the world. I even got to use some of my High School French, which many of the locals were kind enough to tolerate.

Lori is in the process of trying to reinvent herself professionally. In the third year of her tenure as President of the Oregon Science Teachers Association, she has worked hard to make that organization more effective in serving the needs of its members. What's more, she is trying to take a leadership role in the dissemination and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards, a new approach to science and technology curricula. She was the local-area coordinator (or, as I call it, clipboard-in-chief) for the National Science Teachers Association Area conference, held here in Portland in October. She has traveled to conferences in San Francisco and Mesa Arizona, learning about programs that help science teachers, and searching for leadership opportunities. She is working half-time this year, teaching 3 sections instead of 6. Consequently, I get to see a little more of her...not twice as much, to be sure....but a little more.

On a personal level, she has been spending more time in the garden, and in the kitchen. She has a perennial garden in a raised bed outside the kitchen door. We've got kale that will probably survive the winter, and with our new Vita-Mix, we have healthful green smoothies (mmmmm!) whenever the mood strikes her. She has also found time to take up an old skill: knitting. She's making me a new sweater, to replace the one that was attacked by South American moth larvae.

I've been singing in two different groups for the past year. In addition to the barbershop chorus, where I have been involved for the last 14 years or so, I joined a mixed choir. The music, mostly classical and jazz, is much more challenging. I am singing with some very skilled musicians....and managing to keep up. We have completely new material every 9 weeks or so. All in all, I spend about 4 hours a week in rehearsals, which is a wonderful thing. I'm singing more now than I have since High School, and loving it. Between now and the first of the year, I have 15 performances scheduled. There is something uniquely gratifying about making beautiful music with others.

For the last couple years, I've been doing volunteer work in schools. I spend two mornings a week as an assistant in an elementary library, and coach Middle School students in speech at 2 other schools. It is a continuing reminder of all that I loved about schools, and all that frustrated me. Its a total of about 12 hours a week, and it's enough.

Ben is now a project development leader at his software firm. He and Abby and their baby boy Maddox (he'll be 2 in May) live in a beautiful home in Tempe, outside of Phoenix. They've just had their kitchen rebuilt. Ben continues to play mandolin with his consort of contributors, and their house is full of instruments. Maddox loves to sing and dance.

Miriam and Skye are both taking some big steps professionally. Along with her work as a doula and Nia dance instructor, Miriam is the new Executive Director of United Way of Eastern Oregon. Skye has left the Forest Service and is now a licensed Landscaping contractor.  And Asher (I gasp as I write this) is in kindergarten. His fine motor skills are quite amazing. Some of his drawings are displayed proudly in our home and other places. He has started piano lessons.  His little sister Eden Pearl turned 2 a month ago. She has developed powers of concentrated effort, communication, and persuasion. She can dress herself, feed herself, speak in complete sentences, and listen attentively.....when she wants to. Skye built a field-stone retaining wall for the front yard of their cozy home, high on the hillside overlooking La Grande.

In March of this year, we traveled to New England to help celebrate the 90^th birthday of my father's sister, my Aunt Lisl. She is the oldest member of our family. Although she doesn't hear as well as she used to, and has difficulty moving around, she is as sharp as ever, cracking sarcastic jokes and keeping everybody on their toes. We will be back there again next summer, as there are a couple of weddings on the agenda.

It is very good to be back here in Oceanside, as I write this, the weekend after Thanksgivinuka. It is very quiet here. The place is consistent and familiar. It's like a nest. I find old unfinished crossword puzzles, and listen to KLCC. There are one or two pink rosebuds left. The kids were all here at the end of the summer, when it was warm. We want them to come every year.

We send our love and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Quebec!

We arrived in Quebec City just as they were preparing the streets for the parade that started the Festival of New France.  We stayed in a B&B in the old city not two blocks from the street where the parade entered the old city.  As George & Lynn unloaded the car, Steven and I took a walk to find the parking garage.  Did I say this was an old city?  The streets are not a grid, and it took us a while to get ourselves oriented. Once we did, we went back for the car.  As Steven and I were moving the car to the parking garage, they were closing the streets behind us!  We had a short adventure with finding the parking structure as I missed the right turn into the garage.  It took us a while to make our way back to try it again.  It involved an illegal U turn, but hey, we finally made it to the garage.  With the car safely parked, we made our way back to the street where the parade had already started.  We watched for a while, trying to find a good time to cross the street to get back to the B&B.  We immediately took George & Lynn with us to watch the rest of the parade.  It was a spectacle.  Townspeople dressed in period costume (the city was founded in 1609) large icons of the different aspects of the foundations of their city and culture. It was fun to watch the people proudly celebrating their heritage. 

The festival was continued through the weekend at the lower city where there were living exhibits of town life in the period of the city’s founding – food, drink, song, dance, oratory.  This included a tribute to the native people of the area as well.  It was a wonderful addition to our stay to include these fun activities.

Summer brings an atmosphere of fun and revelry in this city.  We discovered that the Cirque du Soleil staged a show at the waterfront nightly.  The price – standing in line for over an hour and then either sitting on concrete steps or standing to take in the amazing music, dance, acrobatics and theater that is Cirque du Soleil.  If you’ve never experienced a show, you must try it at least once.  It is like no other experience you will ever have.  After the show, there was a light show that was projected on the grain elevators on the waterfront.  

And speaking of Levis, our visit coincided with the Jazz festival they were having there.  George and I took the ferry from the city, walked up the hill and to the streets of this small town.  They had several music venues, and the restaurants and bistros had placed tables out into the streets.  We had a light dinner, and then enjoyed a couple of the acts before traveling back to the city by ferry.  We could hear the music of the Cirque du Soleil show on our way back to the ferry, and was able to view the light show on the grain elevators on the trip back to Quebec.

We had only the two full days and the evening we arrived there and it didn’t seem like enough time.  George and I are already talking about returning.

The Acadian Peninsula

On Friday, we rode the bicycles into Charlottetown.  We really didn’t want to pay to have them picked up in Murray Harbor.  So, we broke the ride into 20km segments with a meeting point at each one.  One person drove the car ahead to meet us with snacks and water.  I am proud to say I biked the first three legs!  While PEI is relatively flat, there are rolling hills, and the bike gears really made them easier to do.  I ended up in “granny gear” a couple of times, but I did not have to get off the bike!

Saturday morning, we loaded the car and headed back to New Brunswick. Our first stop for the evening was Kouchibouguac (Coo-she-boo-gwak), a beautiful Canadian National Park on the Northumberland Straight just south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The name comes from the Mi’kmaq word river of the long tides.  We went to one of the beaches that was reached by a boardwalk over the salt marshes for an evening stroll.  There were herons, osprey, and a bunch of terns successfully fishing in the marsh.  It was so much fun to watch the birds dive and come up with the little fish they were catching.  The terns were making a lot of vocalizations, which I interpreted as, “I got one! I got one!”  The jelly fish were washing up on shore and Lynn had some fun trying to get them to go back out.  The sunset was beautiful there.  On our way out of the park back to our motel, we were hopeful to have a moose sighting, but we were not so fortunate.

We left early the next morning for Caraquet on the Acadian Peninsula.  We were fortunate to be here during their Acadian Festival.  The day we arrived was the day for the Blessing of the Boats.  Many of the large fishing boats were decorated with flags of Canada, New Brunswick, and Acadia.  The houses down the main street were also proudly decorated with the Acadian Flag, a gold star in the blue portion of the French flag.  Down on near the wharf, there is a fisheries school, and the blessing of the boats has been an event for about two hundred years.  Fishing is the backbone of this community.  We were told that the captains of the boats would invite visitors on board for a ride before the ceremony.  Lynn and Steve were fortunate to land a place on the Praga, the boat chosen for the blessing.  They had a ride and a personal tour of the boat by the boat’s captain, a woman justifiably proud of her accomplishments. 

We are staying in a lovely Bed & Breakfast, L’Heureux Hasard, which translates into a happy chance, or serendipity.  The owner, Manon, is a cheerful, friendly woman.  Like the B&B proprietors we have encountered, she is a font of information about the area and what is going on so we can make plans for the day.  The breakfasts are beautifully presented and delicious.  We highly recommend this place to anyone traveling to this area.

On Monday, we visited the Acadian Village.  This is a living history museum where they have moved houses and barns from around the area to depict Acadian life between 1775 and 1940.  Farm houses, fishing, churches, a grist & carding mills are on the premises with people dressed in period costumes there to tell you all about the building and the people who lived there.  They demonstrated cooking and baking using wood fired clay ovens, making netting & rope, farming, preparing and spinning wool and flax, making shingles, wooden buckets, tubs and barrels.  There was a printing press and a restaurant featuring Acadian food.  

I love these types of museums as they can really give a sense of the community we are visiting.  Moving into the 20^th century, there was even a gas station with oil in glass bottles!  We spent most of the day there.  At the end of our tour around the village, they had the baked goods they were making throughout the day for sale in the gift store.  We bought some of the bead and cookies they made... very tasty!

Tuesday, we drove to the nearby island of Miscou.  There we spent time on a beach all to ourselves that was recommended by Manon.  We noticed the water draining into the Atlantic ocean was tinted brown.  We later discovered this was most likely due to the peat bogs that cover almost half of the island.  We walked a boardwalk through one of them that had interpretive signage.  We discovered pitcher plants that were flowering!  

We were directed to Steve's Canteen on the island by three separate sources.  So, we went, of course.  He has a sign that says he has the freshest seafood around.  He showed us the fish pens where he kept the lobsters and shellfish.  Talk about fresh, these creatures were alive moments before they were cooked up and served to you! The support beams to the shed that covered the tables were made of driftwood.  He has his visitors sign their names and places, so we left our mark!

In Shippagan, we were amazed at the fishing boats that had been hauled out of the water for winter storage already.  Their fishing season ended and to keep the boats safe during the winter, they take them out of the water.

All in all another good day of discovering new places.  I love traveling.  Today, we travel to Quebec City!

PEI Continued....

Murray Harbor, Prince Edward Island

On Tuesday, the weather was a bit better.  Steve, George and I hit the Confederation Trail with the bikes for a 29 km ride to the Belfast Mini Mill.  Lynn drove the car with her bike and met us there.  There, she was enthralled with the washing, carding and spinning machines where they processed not only wool, but fibers from lots of different animals including poodle, golden retriever, alpaca and muskox.  It was fun to watch her expressions.

After lunch, we unloaded her bike, loaded mine and I drove home while they biked back.  Unfortunately, during that time, the rain had started and the trail got very soft.  The trail is not paved, so the biking was a bit slower and they were covered with the red mud of the islands when they finally pulled into the house.  Thank goodness we have a washing machine here!

Wednesday dawned with a clear blue sky!  Yeah!  After breakfast we took a short bicycle ride around our little town.  It is really very lovely when the sun is out.  It was lovely with the clouds, too, really.

We tried to score some fresh seafood, but learned that there wasn't any to be had, but that they served a wonderful lobster supper in nearby Cardigan.  So with that in mind, we made a plan for the day.






George and Steven took off on the bicycles for Panmure Island.  Lynn and I followed in the car and met them there.  There was a great sandy beach area with life guards and a snack shack.  Lynn and I walked the beach nearly to the lighthouse that was there, while we waited for the guys to show up.  We laid out on the beach, and swam in the surf.  It was a lovely day!






We drove to Cardigan for our second lobster dinner of the trip.  Starting with a wonderful seafood chowder, salad, famous PEI Muscles, the lobster with a PEI baked potato, and topped off with a brownie with ice cream with dessert.  It was wonderful.










On our way home, we passed the Buffalolands Provincial Park.  Amazingly enough, the buffalo were out this evening, so we stopped to take pictures, of course.  Not sure why they are here, but they were interesting, nonetheless.

Another good day on PEI.

Prince Edward Island (PEI)

From Alma, we made our way toward PEI.  Just before we crossed the bridge from New Brunswick to PEI, we stopped at a visitors center at Cape Jourimain.  The Confederation Bridge was opened in 1997.  Before then a ferry was the only way to get to the island.

We stopped at the visitors center on the other side to pick up maps and other information about cultural events.  I even was able to get a bird checklist.  Unfortunately, it is in French.

In Charlottetown, we found a bank to exchange some money, lunch, and groceries.  We had reserved bicycles for the week and a bike rack to cart them around with.  Unfortunately, the rental car has either plastic or fiberglass body parts, so neither we nor the bike rental company was comfortable using it.  So, we arranged to have them delivered to the house in Murray Harbour.  For a fee, of course.




Murray Harbor is in the southeastern part of the island and about 60 km from Charlottetown.  It is a small little village.  The 100 year-old red house is a lovingly kept, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house.  The back porch has a view of the harbor.  Unfortunately, I don't know if I will be able to enjoy it much.  The mosquitos here love me like all mosquitos do.  I've got repellent, so we'll see how much use I'll be able to get out of it.





This morning, we took a short bicycle ride (about
17 km) around the country roads.  There are hills, but not the kind that make me dread riding the bike  on.  The bikes we rented have good gear ratios, so getting up them is no problem, and going down and on flats, the high gears can really help to pick up speed.





We cycled out to the Cape Bear Lighthouse.  The light house now houses a little museum and gift shop.  The Marconi wireless telegraph station that was built there in 1905, was the first to pick up the SOS distress call from the sinking Titanic in 1907.  The Marconi station is no longer there, but they have made a lovely little picnic area were we took a short break before heading back to the house.

That was our first outing on PEI.  We will be here all week.  Something that I am very much looking forward to.  Touring around with the bikes, and relaxing at the house.  Vacation!

Culturally, I am looking forward to the ceilidhs.  These are community gathering involving folk music and dancing.  They have them every night somewhere on the island.  There are at least three of them in our neck of the island this week.  We will be going to at least one of them.

The next day's weather forecast showed rain on our side of the island, so we packed the car and headed west.  Stopped in Charlottetown again for lunch, then on to the College of Piping and Celtic Performance Arts in Summerside.  Stayed for their mini concert where they came out and spoke to the four disciplines they teach: Piping, drumming, island dancing and step dancing.  It was informative and enjoyable.

On our way home we stopped and got fresh muscles, clams and fish for dinner that night.  Lynn & Steve cooked up a seafood pasta dinner that couldn't be beat!

New Brunswick

The drive to Canada was long, scenic, and the day was beautiful.  We drove along Highway 1, then cut across at highway 191 to meet up with highway 9 to cross the boarder at Calis.  The boarder crossing was uneventful, and I spied a bald eagle soaring as we neared the checkpoint.

Driving up highway 1 in New Brunswick, we stopped in St. John for dinner.  Turning off the major highway onto the minor highway 114 toward Alma, the poorly paved road became a gravel road.  So, not only was there the road to really pay attention to, we had the possibility of moose crossing the road. Unfortunately, we were driving along this just at sundown when these animals are usually on the move.   Luckily, no moose were sighted.

We arrived at Barb's B&B north of Alma, New Brunswick around 10pm  In the morning, the four huge windows we saw nothing out of when we arrived gave a spectacular view of the marsh that gave way to the bay of Fundy.  The owners, Rick & Barb, served us a wonderful breakfast while providing a font of information about the area.  After consulting with them and the tide tables, we made the decision to spend the day at the Hopewell Rocks.

This bay has the worlds largest tidal changes which we experienced it up close and personal.  Low tide was a 0.0 ft tide around 9am, so we headed out to the Hopewell Rocks about half way through low tide.  There we walked on the “ocean bottom” around the bases of the Flowerpot Rocks.  These are rock formations of glacially deposited conglomerate and sandstone that have eroded due to the tidal shifts in a way that has made them separated from the mainland.  Kind of like our stacks off the Oregon coast.  They were pretty impressive, especially after we saw them during high tide at 44 ft.

The left picture was at low tide (0.0ft).  The center picture is of me at the base of the arch in the left picture.  The right picture was at high tide that same day (44ft).  Amazing.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at Barb & Rick’s.  I used the time to write about our adventures.  We went into the nearest town of Alma and ordered take out from the local diner.  The seafood chowder was wonderful.

The next day we packed it all up into the car and headed for Prince Edward Island (PEI).