Gig Harbor music scene

I was a quiet, wide-eyed witness to musicians simply reveling in the joy of making music.

Swamp Gators and Antebellum Cane Plantation

We were most excited about the alligators.

Palace and Hill in Mandalay

What a day! Bagan in the morning; Mandalay in the evening.

Shwedagon Pagoda & Chinatown

We walked a good portion of Yangon today, but the highlights were the Shwedagon Pagoda complex and the street vendors in Chinatown. This morning after a lovely breakfast at Ten Mile Hotel, we took a cab into the city from the area around the airport. It was a long drive and I was grateful that […]

Extended Birthday

I celebrated for five days in a row this year. I think I deserve it. 😉 My birthday was Tuesday, but I took a few days off work and began the reveling on the Saturday before. First up was an overdue visit to my friend Vladimir in St. Johns, a neighborhood of Portland. We went […]

SeaQuest Inn Bed & Breakfast

I’d like to take the time to talk about our Christmas lodging before I continue on the journey. If you are interested, click here for Day one and here for Day two. Arno found the SeaQuest Inn Bed & Breakfast online for us, and reserved three nights. The closest town is Yachats, seven miles to […]

Dieting With Braces

The basis of the dieting plan: too lazy to clean your teeth? Don’t eat!

Tara in Iwakuni and Sanzoku (Chicken Shack)

On Sunday my T was still dealing with jet lag and reluctant to get out into the heat again. We made easy plans to go shopping in downtown Iwakuni and then to watch movies (Best of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and have some mother-daughter bonding time. Again, we enjoyed finding grocery stores to wander through, […]

Visiting the Treasure Valley

Tara’s Spring Break was last week, so I took the week off work, and we made plans for a road trip. Arno suggested going to Moab, Utah, since that is what he and the boys have done multiple times in the past. T and I were game. We went in separate vehicles, since I could […]

Love my Peets

There was no reason to sacrifice fine dining just because one was living in a tent at 6000 feet.