Brock arrives One Year Later

No drama here, just good news Brock is here for good finally! We're so happy to be living in the same home at long last. Fallbrook is out of a storybook (about white, very Christian conservatives) but stunningly beautiful - my passion for gardening has been unleashed like an insatiable addiction. In addition to our vineyard, we've planted 17 fruit trees of every sort... and the raised beds are chockablock.

I leave for Spain tomorrow and will meet up with Caity and Maggie in Seville Spain. We'll drive north along the coast of Portugal, back down the interior and then home again. Both will live with us for part of the summer. Caity's leaving in August for her next teaching commitment - this time Honduras. Brock's still committed to talking her out of it.

Now you're somewhat caught up.... and so the story goes.

Welcome to the Hotel California - Fallbrook

 WE CLOSED ON OUR NEW HOME IN FALLBROOK, CA TODAY!!! Brock and I will drive down this month with my absolute necessities, like my espresso machine, a blender, a few clothes, an air mattress and a couple of camping chairs.  He will be bring down many, many bikes.  He'll turn around and head back to Portland to hold down the fort until the Portland house sells.

Today Maggie moves home from her first year at U of Oregon.  Tomorrow Cheyne will graduate from same and Sunday Caity returns home from a month in Europe celebrating her graduation from Whitman.  So, curiously Brock will be in Portland with 3 of our kids over the summer as they await the rest of the lives to begin.  Maggie will be heading to Lyon, France for her sophomore year, Cheyne begins adulthood working for a stockbroker and studying for his CFA and Caity will leave in the fall to teach school in Cadiz Spain before beginning grad school. 

This is bound to have some very humorous moments, so I hope you'll tag along for the fun.... more soon.  Lots of good byes to say......

It's Raining It's Pouring

Well, it's never gotten above 44 degrees and it literally hasn't stopped raining yet!  Hence, there are no photos to share.  We came down Coast Route 1 and even in the pouring rain it's absolutely spectacular... the road itself has taken a real pounding this winter season and  makes for a challenging drive.  We stayed in Santa Rosa with Livonne and Andy for a night and then continued to Cambria Pines Lodge.  VERY cool place.  

This trip may serve to make us a little happier to live right where we do in Oregon!  This appears to be an entire coastline of people living in multimillion dollar homes and then the people who work for them... who are living in very, very basic homes that look like you're across the border in Mexico, but their homes are priced in the mid $500.000.  They just live very densely packed.

We're heading across the state tomorrow morning to drive Hwy 49 thru the Gold Country.  Thanks for bothering with this... wish it had been a better idea.... just too much rain to make it very interesting.  Hope you're all warm and we'll talk soon!  

Looking for a new home in the sun!

Sunday, Jan 20th we'll hit the road in search of the sun (which has been in short supply in Portland of late).   We're heading south and will cut over to Hwy 1 and follow it down the coast of Calif looking for that undiscovered little hamlet that calls to us. We'll post photos along the way and hope that if you're not experiencing sunshine where you are, that you can enjoy it vicariously with us.  

We should probably head straight to the wild fire areas and look for something that's just singed around the edges, smells a little smokey and priced to sell.