Home Again, Home Again

BACK IN TOWN: We made the six-plus hour drive from the Central Oregon coast today back to the Emerald City. It seemed to take too long, but I guess that's what happens when you have six animals with bladders packed into one Honda Fit. :0

When we finally made it back to Seattle, we saw the Great Wheel was sporting Huskies' colors, a hat tip to the Huskies playing in the Fight Hunger Bowl this evening.

One of our pit stops was in Centralia, at McMenamins' Olympic Club. We've always like McMenamins' for their unique art work and craft beers, but now that we bought McMenamins passorts, with prizes for hitting stops, we're especially motivated to stop. We make sure to get our passport stamps at each stop.
                                        
Each McMenamins has its own vibe, and perhaps the coolest thing at the Olympic Club is the women's restroom off the pub. "So many choices! I don't know which one to use!" Annabelle said of all the faucets.

And so, she tested them all. And yes, they all worked.

And here is Ms. Annabelle sporting a French fry mustache.

Tomorrow will be unpacking, cleaning, and finding new homes for all the great Christmas gifts.

This is a short one- turns out sitting in a car for several hours with one or more Havanese on your lap is exhausting.

Christmas Continues

 

FEASTIVUS: Another night, another holiday feast of roast beast (apologies, PETA et al). The vegetable dishes were every bit as delicious as the meat. This was part of Christmas dinner in Siletz.

 There were some decadent desserts, too. Mine contribution ended up being a bona fide cake wreck! I made a six layer banana cake with peanut butter and marshmallow filling, butter cream frosting, topped by toasted coconut and ringed in Whoppers malted balls. Apparently that was all a bit too much for the cake dish it perched atop. As I was smoothing the buttercream, the cake went for a roll off the stand and down onto the counter, next stop kitchen sink. I was able to catch it before it hit the sink, but let's just say it was a little worse for the wear.  We got it back up on the cake stand and I made it look mostly OK externally, but it was still super unstable. As soon as I started cutting it after dinner, it basically exploded. Sigh.

This morning brought bright sunshine here, near the Central Oregon coast. We went for a little walk.

Peeking through the moss covered trees, we could see the Siletz River

This canoe didn't quite make it to the Siletz, though. ...

Annabelle had a one-sided conversation with this fisherman ...

And we admired another friendly-faced, statuesque riverside resident.

We'll be heading back to Seattle tomorrow, after a week of being holiday road warriors. I bet our fish will be happy to see us. 

Ho Ho Ho!

RIVER KIDS:  The kids spent a few moments along the Columbia River on Christmas Eve.  It was so foggy, they couldn't see the Oregon side across the way!

We stopped for a bit of Christmas cheer at McMenamin's along the Columbia. It was full of people in ugly holiday sweaters, and travelers on their way to or from Grandma's house.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: Sorry no post yesterday. The Internets must have been overloaded with people trying to check Santa's status on the NORAD site. We were certainly checking, with CJ giving us updates throughout the day.

Annabelle had a case of the Bah Humbugs due to the computer foiling her.

THE WINTER OF '68: Forty-five years ago, in December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from the Earth to the Moon and back again. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were launched atop a Saturn V rocket on Dec. 21, circled the Moon ten times in their command module, and returned to Earth on Dec. 27. The Apollo 8 mission's impressive list of firsts includes: the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon, the first to fly using the Saturn V rocket, and the first to photograph the Earth from deep space. As the Apollo 8 command module rounded the far side of the Moon on Dec. 24, the crew could look toward the lunar horizon and see the Earth appear to rise, due to their spacecraft's orbital motion. Their famous picture of a distant blue Earth above the Moon's limb was a marvelous gift to the world.

 Image Credit: NASA

The photo was captured with a they custom 70 mm Kodak Ektachrome ASA 64 color transparency film loaded into a custom Hasselblad 500 EL camera with a 250mm prime lens set to 1/250 second at f/11.

On Christmas Day, , * ** three humans orbited the Earth. Frank Borman,  Jim Lovell and William Anders

 

There's a video about the 45th anniversary of "Earthrise" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-vOscpiNc#t=28. Christmas Eve 1968 was when the trio read Genesis from on high, as well. It wa the most watched television broadcast of all time at the time.

XMAS EVE STROLL:  We spent a bit of time Christmas Eve morning watching the tail end of the spacewalk.

Approximately six hours into Tuesday's spacewalk, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio finished installing a new pump module on the International Space Station's truss. They bolted the ammonia pump in place, hooked up the four fluid lines that help route ammonia through the unit and attached five electrical connectors.  It was the second spacewalk on Christmas eve, the only other 1999 servicing the Hubble STS-103

                   
Astronaut Mike Hopkins works outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk Dec. 24.

 Image Credit: NASA TV

This "Season's Greetings from NASA Television 2013" gives me some great ideas for next time it snows in Seattle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYfwY1HzQF8&feature=youtu.be

COASTAL:  Our Christmas travels continue. We're down near Newport, Ore., now, visiting more family. We all had a wonderful swim earlier today, and another fabulous feast awaits. It's the most wonderful time of the year, indeed. 

Wherever you are and whomever you're with, we here at MPA hope you have a holly, jolly holiday.

Holiday Happenings

SOUTHBOUND: We left Seattle Saturday midday for a holiday junket. Saturday night was a fun family party in Lake Oswego. The sunset over the Columbia River was gorgeous as we crossed the I-5 bridge. My crappy cell phone camera certainly didn't do it justice.

PUZZLED: Sunday, we mostly worked and played around G&G's house in Vancouver. Annabelle found a brand new bamboo puzzle in a box, and decided to give it a go. She labored on it for a few minutes and when she had it completely disassembled announced with great flair, "I did it!" LOL. 

Um, no, Annabelle, you're done when you have reassembled the puzzle. Above is a 'before' picture. Looks pretty complicated to me.

We were invited to visit a remarkable, century-old estate in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland Sunday afternoon. What a wonderful, beautiful history lesson that was for all of us. 

WISH LIST: Today, we worked and played around G&G's house again, and the kids went to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" with the grandparents." CJ reports, "It was OK." I think it got a bit more enthusiastic review from Annabelle. 

While they did that, Christian and I did a little shopping. We did NOT buy this "Mars Explorer" Barbie for Annabelle (or CJ). 

I have taken a few photos of our travels, but I stupidly forgot to bring the cable to link my camera to the computer. Hopefully, I'll have it tomorrow.

MEANWHILE, ABOUT 18,000 FEET OVERHEAD: Saturday, we watched part of the spacewalk undertaken by a couple of NASA astronauts in attempt to repair an ammonia leak on the ISS. The views were astounding.

Here is a photo of flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, who completed a 5-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, to remove the faulty pump module getting suited up for the spacewalk.
Their spacewalk went mostly well - they were able to get more of the repairs done than anticipated, so they may be able to finish the task in two spacewalks rather than three. The second spacewalk will commence on Christmas Eve, at 4:10 Pacific time.

Though the clouds blanketed most of the sky, we were able to catch a few glimpses of the ISS tonight, as it flew over just before dinnertime.

Here's hoping their spacewalk goes off without a hitch.