Post Thanksgiving Thanks

Linda and I survived another Thanksgiving! No, it wasn't the visit to see our daughter Karen, her husband Peter, or grandson Solomon. The survival was the traffic. Both east and west bound lanes of I-84 just east of Hood River were narrowed to one lane each direction while the center median is being rebuilt. But the result was horrendous traffic backups in both directions, miles and miles long. You would be driving along at freeway speeds and suddenly realize that the cars ahead of you had not just slowed but stopped. Yikes! Then we would creep along for about 30 minutes until past the construction zone. I-205 between the Oregon City Willamette River bridge to I-5 took over 45 minutes.

But the trip was worth it. Some of the moments I treasure most was preparing a traditional turkey dinner with Karen; I even presented her with her very own roasting pan, even though Karen did make some crude comments about me getting rather intimate with the turkey. Another highlight was shopping on Black Friday with Solomon, who was impressively well behaved, although Costco and Target may never be the same again. Peter and I took Sol for a walk to a nearby school playground where Sol had a great time running around.





Peter is a compulsive guitar player, he just can's be without his guitar for very long. So we were treated to a number of musical interludes. The funny thing was that Sol would keep saying "Daddy stop."









Linda had a good time, but would have enjoyed the trip even more if she had brought her stitchery instead of leaving it sitting on the back porch. On the way home I jokingly asked Linda if she wanted to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Much to my surprise she said yes so we wandered around southeast Portland until we found KK. The doughnuts were OK, but the 5-cent coffee was even better. We took the old Columbia River Highway from Troutdale to just past Multnomah Falls. The field of cabbages were near Corbett.








Elinore, Linda's calico kitty, was really, really happy to see us come home again. So was I.















That's all for now.