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Saturday, July 14, 2018

Special people and fun on our vacation...

One of the most fun things on our recent vacation to Oregon was getting to meet up with two wonderful ladies that also have blogs.  I've known Les from Coastal Horizons for about 20 years.  We met at a book site online in 1998, I believe.  And we've been friends ever since, along with Nan at Letters From a Hill Farm and some other ladies.  Even though we've been part of groups and emailed and chatted and shared our lives, this was only the 2nd time that I've seen Les in person.  It was wonderful!!

Les and I met up with Robin, who blogs at A Fondness For Reading, and had a delicious lunch in McMinnville.  It was a location between their two homes and it was perfect.  We enjoyed our food and talked and talked.  Robin has already shared a blog post here.  Les shared her post about this today as well - here.  After our meal, we walked through the downtown area of this charming town and shopped a bit.  Of course, there was a bookstore and did we stop and take a look?  What do you think?  Ha!



Here are Les (on the left) and Robin (on the right), just in front of Third Street Books.  They are holding our purchases.  Are you surprised that there were books purchased?  I'm not.



A lovely little independent bookstore.  We were chatting and pointing out books to each other, picking up this one or that one to say 'oh, I read this - it's good'.  The lady behind the counter looked at us and said - librarians?  booksellers?  We laughed and said, 'Yes!'.

I'm so happy that I got to spend several hours with both these ladies.  We could have talked for days and days, I suspect.  Bloggers that you've 'known' for years are truly dear friends.



Here are the two books that I bought.  I always like to see if I can find a good book relating some kind of history about an area where I vacation.  Tales From the Past by Jim and Reita Lockett is a compilation of stories about Yamhill County and the general area where McMinnville is located.  A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee is the first book in a historical mystery series that is set in early 20th century India.  I had been meaning to pick up this book for a while.  This was a great opportunity.



I also bought a new coffee mug for myself at the Made in Oregon store at the airport.  This is an 'Original Handwarmer Mug' - left-handed version.  Yes, I am left-handed.  That little cubbyhole on the left side is where your hand goes and basically, the mug warms your hand while you enjoy your coffee or tea or hot chocolate, etc.  I've found that since I've lost weight, my hands are much colder than they used to be.  I was charmed by this and, as I love beautiful pottery, I needed to have it.  It was made by the Clay in Motion Pottery Studio.



We also found the best little shop in downtown Depoe Bay called Knock Your Socks Off.  They sell - wait for it - SOCKS!  And other items.  We got some for our daughter and son-in-law as a gift.  The upper left is for our son-in-law.  He has really large feet - like size 16 or 17.  So, his have the proverbial 'Big Foot' on them.  The lower left are ones my husband picked out for himself and say 'I'm a really big Dill!'.  The upper right are for me, but I might go ahead and give them to our daughter - birthday cake sprinkle cozy socks.  The lower right are definitely for her - 'I'm not bossy...I'm the BOSS!'.  She is a charge nurse in her hospital department and, yes, she is a bit 'bossy'!  Are these hilarious?  OK, OK, maybe you had to be there.  Ha!

Again, our trip was great.  We had fun times and wonderful food - inventive salads and lots of fresh seafood - berries that were in season - coffee that almost made me weep with the wonderful taste of it.  Can't wait until we will be able to visit again.  Thanks for sharing our good times!
   

30 comments:

  1. It's always fun to meet long time friends in person. What a fun trip!

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    1. Yes, I agree, Kathy. I known you've enjoyed meeting other bloggers too.

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  2. Meeting fellow bloggers is the best! :)

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    1. Yes it is. It would be lovely if all of us could meet, but we do pretty well just connecting through our blogs, don't we?

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  3. Love the socks! Eager to hear about A Rising Man, although you probably don't have much time for reading right now. :)

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    1. :) Just ordered some socks!

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    2. I'll get to A Rising Man, though likely not for a bit. I'm thinking about what our mystery group will read in 2019 (yes, already!) and I'm pretty certain I'll work an India theme in there.

      Yay, that you ordered some socks! They had about a jillion different kinds, many with cute sayings or other special features.

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    3. For the Indian theme, I recommend the Nuala books by Harriet Steel. I loved them. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/harriet-steel/

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    4. Thanks for the suggestion. Will add that series to my list.

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  4. What a nice vacation and I know you enjoyed meeting your blogging friends. I love that mug to warm your hands.

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    1. My mug is wonderful. I like it now and I know I'll love it even more in winter. And glad you could 'meet' Les and Robin!

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  5. I miss you! We had such a fun time, didn't we? I love this post and borrowed your photo of me & Robin (updated my post). Hope you don't mind! Looking forward to our next visit, whenever that may be. xoxo

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    1. We had such a good time! Hope to see you before another 20 years goes by. And glad you put that picture on yours as well. Stay cool and comfy!

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  6. That's the coolest mug! My leftie daughter would appreciate that for her hot chocolate. She's always moaning about the disadvantages of being a leftie in a right-handers' world :)

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    1. Susan, she can come moan to me. I totally get it. Yes, it's a right-handed world for the most part.

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  7. It's always so fun to meet up with blogger friends. I'm glad you ladies had a fun time. Again, thanks for sharing, Kay!

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  8. Oh my! You got to meet up with Les. I've known her as long as you have, yet I've never met up in real life. We hope to make it up to the Pacific Northwest once we are retired. We will have to all meet up.

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    1. You do need to visit in her area, Deb. As I said, summer is best up there, but you could do the rain time too.

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  9. I am just SO happy for all of you!! I just bought A Rising Man a couple weeks ago! I love the mug, and I didn't know you were left handed. I guess in all the millions of correspondences we've had, it just never came up about which hand we favor. I am a rightie. Thanks for the wonderful post. It was a tiny bit like being there. Yamhill is Beverly Cleary territory!

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    1. I'm not surprised that you are right-handed. Most people are. Something like 10% of us favoring the left. That being said, my mother (a leftie) managed to adopt 2 out of 3 left-handed children. Funny, right?

      And, yes, I knew that area was Cleary country. There's a great little book that I tried to buy at that bookstore (it was out of stock) - Walking With Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland. I want to get it.

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  10. I am totally enamored with my new mug. I may have to order another one. LOL

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  11. How fun! I love your new coffee mug, clever design! Whenever I travel (which unfortunately isn't often), I have to scope out the local indie bookstore, library, and cemetery. :-)

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    1. I almost always try to find a bookstore and have enjoyed checking out libraries as well. I will admit that graveyards have not been on my list up to now. LOL

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  12. Oh how fun to spend a day with other bloggers in a bookstore! I'm trying to visit more indie bookstores but we haven't been traveling much this year so far. I love the mug and that there's a left handed option. My husband is left handed and I was so surprised by the amount of adapting he has to do!

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    1. Yes, I don't think most people do realize how much of the world is made for 'righties'. Unles you're a 'leftie'. LOL

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  13. That sounds so fun. When we were in Seattle in April, I really wanted to go to The Seattle Mystery Book Shop but it is CLOSED! No funds to keep it going. Such a shame.

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    1. I think I had heard that it was closing. I never got to go there. Sad.

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  14. So good to see Les & Robin! Sounds like you guys had so much fun. Loved all the goodies you picked up. In particular that mug is too cute and I'm sure every time you use it you'll think of your fun vacation.

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    1. I love the mug. In fact, I'm drinking coffee out of it right this minute. And seeing Les and Robin was wonderful.

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