year-end 2018

Romie turns  one (Dec ~7, 2018)

PJ's Christmas stockings (with a few add-ins, including NOC-work) are aging well

of course we went to Richardson's for lunch

of course we went to Parlor for dinner

gathering at San Juan

gathering with Stern family

SF crew heads home (one member injured in boisterous badminton battle)

ringing in the new year with Five Crowns

turf

Long overdue - after way too many years of poor results growing grass but excellent weed growth in that same grass - this - we are quite happy with it.

baby shower

OK I didn't get to attend . . . but it seems like the baby shower for Dharma (held on 18 November 2018) turned out as nicely as one might expect given all the work that went into it!  Here are some photos  . . .

Virginia visit (October 4-8, 2018)

Mae was all grown up since our last visit!

Visit #2 to Virginia for 2018; this one quite delightful but seemed way too short.

Some highlights - dinner (and big news) at Lyon Hall on arrival night; traveling to Mike's and Ally's new-ish home in Maryland for dinner on October 5 with Charlie, Beth and Mark there (and of course Palmer); a couple breweries, including Atlas; travels to the seafood area; seeing Mae all grown up since the last visit; and back to the Boo-tique at Target.

But mostly - we like hanging around the house with Kerry & Luis (OK also walking over to Westover Market).  We feel entirely at-home there.  Cards, chatting, etc.  We'll look forward to the next time.

Atlas brewery was quite fine.

Visiting Ally & Mike & Palmer ( plus Charlie & Beth & Mark)

We ran into Steve, Carrie, Piper - and Mortimer Moose - at Target, of course.

Flagstaff (Lockett's Meadow) (September 27-30, 2018)

Flagstaff remains perhaps our single favorite destination - PJ and I much enjoy just wandering around - we always stay at the same hotel, wander the same streets, find interesting meals, often including a lovely hike.

As I've written elsewhere - we've been hiking Lockett's Meadow since 1989 - it remains as lovely as ever (even if we arrived a week or two before peak color). 

We had great luck dining at Tinderbox and Brix.  Not to mention the customary pre-hike blowout breakfast at Martanne's.   And plenty of other treats along the way.

Criollo!

We know who did this (a few years back)

Canada trip (September 8-16, 2018)

Upon arrival in Magog

It's been seven years since PJ and I visited Quebec (province) - the last time is described here - so we decided it was time to return.  As much as we liked our previous itinerary, we made a change - spent the first three nights in the "eastern townships" (for this visit, centered in the town of Magog), then three nights in Quebec (city) and two nights in Montreal.

Manoir Hovey overlooks a lake in North Hatley

First of two visits to Manoir Hovey

I predict we'll return before too long, and probably stick pretty closely to this revised itinerary.

Kind of interesting to think
how life would be with
this kind of schedule

Magog hotel was "just OK" in terms of the room, but "just what we prefer" in terms of location - easy walk to the street where all the restaurants and shops are concentrated.  We find that we do tend to enjoy the smaller towns more as the years go by.  Magog with a lovely lake.  We find our way to Manoir Hovey in very-nearby North Hatley (incredible lakeside setting with even better food); we visit an actual monastery in a lovely setting (Abbaye De St-Benoit-Du-Lac (St. Benedict's Abbey)) and have the opportunity to hear Gregorian chant; we find an amazing dinner at Tavern 1855.  Some of these spots not using a lot of English (though Magog is definitely a tourist-driven town at this point); for our best restaurant meal there (Tavern 1855) we relied on Google translate app to figure out food.  Weather good though a bit chilly on first arrival plus a bit of rain; perfect weather thereafter.

St. Benedict's Abbey

I won't write much about the Quebec and Montreal portions of the trip because we repeated the things we loved on prior trips - lots of walking, lots of visiting lovely churches, lots of fine dining.  Things that stood out on this trip:  (1) the weather was amazing; (2) we did a good job of getting out and walking in lovely late afternoon - sundown settings - this was particularly compelling while wandering around Quebec city; (3) we had an unprecedentedly high hit rate for truly remarkable meals - normally if we hit one or two great meals over a trip of this length, we're pretty pleased - but it's easy to count at least seven that were amazing.  Clocher Penche and L'Echaude in Quebec (two meals at each); Garde Manger in Montreal, for example.

At Montmorency Falls

A new stop was Montmorency Falls (enroute to Isle d'Orleans) - we liked it.

And PJ is quite an excellent traveling companion!  We'll look forward to returning.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal

inside Notre Dame Cathedral

St. Patrick's (Montreal - a favorite)

A lovely evening in Quebec city - looking out toward Isle d'Orleans - this is where the townspeople
in Cather's Shadows on the Rock would have looked for the ships arriving from France . . .

Clocher Penche, Quebec

portrait of a master tinkerer

Charlie shared this photo from his recent visit to St. Joe.  I love how it captures EMG utilizing his >40-year-old pickup as something of a mobile shop.  And in the background - the shed on the hill farm - where he essentially ran his shop for decades.  (After building that same shed.)

At very front/bottom left of the photo is a simple rectangular toolbox - its contents are splayed across the rest of the endgate - this is the basic toolbox that was carried on shelling jobs, and elsewhere, in my 1960s-70s memories.  It was backed over by trucks several times - no problem, EMG just hammered it back into shape.

The gauge at top left sits atop an ancient air compressor - an item fired up every morning before we went off to clean out corn cribs or grain bins - aging truck tires needed to be filled, after all.

I see a couple items that didn't exist in the '70s (or at least we didn't have 'em) - witness the weed whacker, for example.  And we didn't use much plastic then - right behind that old toolbox at bottom/front left is a plastic container that I'm pretty sure doesn't contain maple syrup.

It might look a little disorganized, but I'll wager that some thought went into the placement of each item in the pickup bed.

On he goes, a classic shade tree mechanic.

peak flight

At the Modern Times brewery in San Diego - on Saturday 18 August (day after the Stone festival) - I ran into or constructed what I'm pretty sure is the finest beer flight I've ever had.  Perfect composition:  small servings of intense, complementary styles of which ordinarily I'd be reluctant to order a full pint.  Exactly what I'm looking for in tasters!

Not only that, don't they look rather amazing?

L-R:
--"Sea of Tranquility" (Fruited Super Berliner) (Special Release) 6.5% ABV
--"Nectarnomicon" (Raspberry & Guava) 3.6% ABV
--"Factory Cathedral" (Super Gose) 8.5%
--"Suggestion of Mass" (Imperial Stout) 11.3%

Stone - San Diego

PJ, CPG and I drove over to San Diego on Friday 17 August; met up with PJr, NRG, and Romie (who were spending the week in SD); then Michael C joined.  From there - drove up to the Stone tasting event - our fifth time (PJr's sixth).  Beer, food, weather, company all delightful.  This continues to be a fine event.  Smaller group nice but we missed some of the energy of the bigger group! 

On Saturday morning we three met up with PJr/NRG/Romie at Broadway Pier for coffee and donuts and fun (including scooter test runs).  After lunch we went to the Modern Times brewery and found it highly acceptable.  Back downtown; met up with Naseem; we eight walk to the D'backs-Padres game (thanks POC for lining up tickets).  All good there other than final score.

Easy return drive on Sunday except a little more freon, or whatever automobile A/C systems use these days, would have been a plus.

K's August visit

this guy seemed happy to see K

K visited us here in AZ between 9 and 14 August!  We visited a few restaurants; had a meal at each of the Phoenix-resident-family homes; celebrated Paul Jr's #31 on Friday 10 August; mostly enjoyed being together.  Spontaneous road trip to Tucson on Saturday 11 August - it was a bit of a nostalgia tour for K; visited U of A campus and the Pi Phi house; also wandered around the downtown area and enjoyed pretty amazing weather (dinner at Penca).  Played 5 Crowns and sampled some of the local breweries as we roamed.  Overnight at the local Best Western.  Fun and highly random trip!  We of course were sorry to see K leave on Tuesday 14 August.

sampling of our restaurant/brewery gatherings in Phoenix, Gilbert, Tucson (Borderlands my Tucson favorite)

Nice experience at Pi Phi - the girl on duty took the time to show K around - including seeing
her old room (upper R); K stands in just about the same spot in lower R when moving into that same room
15 years plus one day earlier (with orange doggie guarding her goods).  

one of K's Pi Phi pals designed the street-facing sign here . . . 

yes it was fun wandering around Tucson with this group (plus photographer-NOC)