Tourists

We decided this trip to do a "photo essay" on tourists! Here are some of my favorite shots. (Note one of the photos is how tourists should look!) Whether they are posing for group photos, wearing his and hers matching outfits, wearing bathing suits which provide way too much information, taking photos on a cyclo ride , or wearing an entire hat collection on the airplane home, it's fascinating to watch people.

More on Viet Nam

Shaun and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in 2000. We fell in love with it. We loved the charm of the city and the people and loved seeing the local school children and women in their beautiful ao dai dresses. We have wanted to go back to see more of Viet Nam which we finally did in November 2008. We spent time in Hanoi and Halong Bay. If you travel to Hanoi, be sure to use either CP Taxi or Hanoi Taxi, because many of the taxi companies attach their horns to the meters. Needless to say, there is lots of honking going on!!! The houses are very tall, deep and narrow, because taxes are assessed on the width of the home only. Houses are painted only on the facade (the expensive part) . The local paints wash off in the rain, so the people who can afford it buy "paint in cans". We saw several young couples taking wedding pictures since it was an "auspicious week" in their lunar calendar (which also meant that twice in that part of the lunar calendar month, the locals would be eating dog). Zoe Marie just doesn't know how lucky she is to have been born and raised in the Pacific NW, USA. She could have been somebody's dinner in Viet Nam, or an untended street dog with mange in Bali!

Viet Nam and Maslow's Hierarchy

In November we traveled to Hanoi and Halong Bay, Viet Nam. We were greeted at the Hanoi airport by Hnuang, a charming young woman who would be our guide for the entire week. She took us to points of interest and helped us understand the culture and daily life in Hanoi. Removed from our daily pursuit of self actualization, we were reminded of how much we take for granted in regards to our physical safety, a very basic human need.

• A recent helmut law was implemented because more there are more than 1000 deaths a month on scooters. To enforce the new helmut law, the police were shooting offenders with rubber bullets while they were riding!
  
• There are hundreds of overhead electrical wires. They are heavy and frequently fall on passerbys during high winds and rain.
  
• Pedestrians, motorbikes, bicycles and cars coexist on the same roads. We just closed our eyes and walked when we needed to cross the street. The traffic moves slowly and everybody (well, obviously not everybody or there wouldn't be so many deaths!) weaves around slower moving objects! Our guide hit a pedestrian on her way to get us one morning while on her motorbike. She said that the woman was "walking too fast". So apparently, there is a speed limit for pedestrians too, though it's not posted.
  
• Clearly we don't need to buy gas guzzling pickups. Motorbikes carry families of 4 or 5 at a time and also big loads of cargo.
  
• The air quality is awful. Most motorbikers were face masks.
  
• Returning from Halong Bay to Hanoi, there was a torrential rain, one of the worst in 25 years. The bridge into Hanoi was under water, so after observing others and ensuring they made it across a flooded area, our driver took us through 18" of water to get to a new bridge that hadn't yet opened. We drove across that bridge, and at the other side, there was an accident blocking the exit ramp. No problem, we crossed over traffic and exited from the on ramp where other cars were also beginning to cross the closed bridge! We made it back to the hotel and safely back to the Hanoi airport the next morning because we had a very resourceful driver who knew the higher roads.

We're off to Asia!

This morning we are leaving for 3 weeks in Singapore, Viet Nam and Bali. We look forward to seeing some new places (Hanoi and Halong Bay), and visiting old friends in familiar places (Singapore and Bali). We will publish posts along our journey to keep in touch. Our friend Trink, will be joining us next week for the Bali portion of the trip. The picture was taken on a sunrise climb up the Mt. Batur volcano in Bali in 2007.

Fall in Portland

One of the best things about living in Portland is the fall. When Shaun, Josh and I came up on a "preview" trip before moving here, we came at the peak of the foliage season and loved the beauty of the city and the crisp, clean air. We fell in love and never even went to see the other "candidates" for our next place to live. We bought a loft and six years later, we are still here and still in awe of the beauty and kindness of our surroundings. Last week, we drove to Multnomah Falls with our friends, Sheryl and Oliver, and enjoyed the scenery there. The tree is on NW 23rd Ave.--one of many amazingly beautiful ones.

The Girlfriends

October 10-13, I went to Lake Tahoe with "The Girlfriends". We are 5 friends who met while working together at HP in 1986. We started off having lunches together, and quickly decided that an hour wasn't enough time, so started going out for dinner. In 1996, we decided that wasn't enough time either, and started spending a night away. We're now up to 3 nights at a time! We have been through marriage, birth of kids, kids off to college (with one about to graduate ), divorce, coming out, illnesses and deaths of parents, cancer, and just about anything else that life has to offer. We have been there for each other through all of life's challenges. We have spent weekends in Half Moon Bay, San Diego, Lake Tahoe, Portland, Seattle, a cruise to the Pacific NW (Vancouver and Nainaimo BC), Las Vegas and others. It really doesn't matter where we go because most of the time, we are just hanging out talking, laughing and keeping each other humble. Good friends are truly one of life's kindest blessings. These "guys" are the best friends one could hope for.

Race For the Cure

This morning Shaun, Kori and I walked and ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Portland is one of the top 3 events in the country in terms of attendance and they were expecting 45,000 people today. Not bad for a town of 600K people!!!

Shaun ran the timed 5K race in a little over 26 minutes (she thinks). She will have her unofficial time by 5pm tonight. She really is a stud and I'm very proud of her. She worked hard preparing. After she ran her 5K, she met Kori and I and we walked the 5K with our friends and neighbors from the Pink Pearls. The Pink Pearls, sponsored by Hoyt Realty Group, is a social and philanthropic group of neighbors and friends. Hoyt Realty hosted several fund raising social events and raffled off a pink bicycle (which I didn't win in spite of buying 75 tickets!) this morning at a delicious brunch after the race. Thanks to Marilyn Anderson and her team at Hoyt Realty for creating this opportunity for us to come together for good causes and to meet our neighbors.

It's always gratifying to participate in this event. It's heart warming to watch the breast cancer survivors walk through their special lane at the finish line. The costumes are always interesting. Shaun and Kori customized our standard-issue t-shirts with fancy trim, belts, hoods, yokes, darts, and whatever else they could think of! Participants wear signs and ribbons honoring those they know who have had or do have breast cancer. One lady carried a big sign that said "Boobs for Obama"!

As we walked, we were mindful of our friends who have battled breast cancer. Ella, Rebecca, Linda, Leslie, Diana, Nancy, Dotty, Isabel and others.....your spirits and determination encourage us daily.

It's also a day to remember what a difference just one person can make. Susan G. Komen's sister, Nancy Brinker, started this event to honor "Suzy's" memory, educate women, and to work for a cure. Look what the "power of one" has become!

St. George, UT Labor Day Weekend

August 29-September 1, we gathered in St. George, UT with Kori, Shane & Janese and their 8 kids, and Amie & Dean and their 4 kids. It was an incredible weekend. The kids are so much fun to be with. They are all their own people and personalities now and it's amazing to see how much they have all grown up. Tyler and Hailey, the oldest of the pack, are both 14 this year, with Hayden and Ireland the youngest at 5.

We had great fun playing Laser Tag, hiking in the red rocks near St. George, swimming, playing kickball, playing Mexican Train, and just hanging around Amie & Dean's beautiful home in St. George having fun and getting caught up on each others lives.

Hannah and Megan hid under our bed one night and jumped out to scare Shaun and me. We enjoyed the next couple of hours with them telling stories and giggling while we all tried on each other's clothes. They both promised to come visit us sometime and hang out in Portland.

There were a few glitches-- Shane and Janese blew a tire on their van both coming from and going to Denver. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in either incident, though both were a significant investment in time and money. I cut my finger grabbing a knife while doing the dishes and had 6 stitches in my right middle finger. For a couple of days, I had a large lime green bandage on my middle finger. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing. The kids all enjoyed each other's company and played well together.

The pictures were taken on a hike we all (19 of us!) did near St. George in the red rocks. It was beautiful and a fun way to spend a day. The kids caught frogs and polywogs, climbed trees, climbed rocks using a rope (which required lots of courage for some of them) along the trail.

Shaun and I flew in to Las Vegas and spent a day there before St. George and after. We didn't win, but had fun playing "Hot Shot" penny slots and eating strawberry shortcake at the Grand Luxe Cafe.

Jason & Santi's wedding

On August 23, Shaun and I were honored to attend the wedding of Shaun's nephew Jason and his partner, Santi in Berkeley, CA. Jason and Santi have been a committed couple for almost 11 years, and are wonderful young men. It was important to us personally both to honor them as a couple, and to support the progress that is being made to allow gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. California will be deciding in the November election whether or not to overturn the right for gays to legally marry. Hopefully California will be victorious, as was Oregon, in maintaining equal rights for all residents. The issue is about granting the same rights to ALL humans and not denying basic rights to gay people that other Americans have. As Shaun and I get older, it's important for us to have the right to make medical decisions for each other, have fair inheritance and tax rules apply and to be eligible for each other's social security benefits. Our hope is that in November, candidates who support equal rights for all Americans will be elected and we can start focusing on the economy, ending the war, ending poverty and homelessness and other things that really matter. In the meantime, CONGRATULATIONS Jason and Santi!

Whitney's Summer Vacation

We have been totally enjoying Whitney's visit. She is such a joy to have around. We have kept busy the past 10 days doing all kinds of stuff around town as well as coloring, singing and dancing at home. Her favorite thing was singing karaoke at Josh's pool hall. She sang Bette Midler songs in her Bette t-shirt (that Shaun modified from a plain old blue t-shirt--isn't it amazing!???!!) and hat. She could hardly contain herself at the movie watching Mamma Mia--every once in a while, you'd hear her burst out in song, and the whole row was shaking because she was dancing in her seat!!!

10th Anniversary

On July 19, Shaun and I celebrated 10 years together. Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. We went to Tacoma, WA to see glass art and then went on to Port Angeles, WA where we took the ferry to Victoria, BC for a couple of days. We visited Butchart Gardens which was just beautiful, and enjoyed exploring downtown on foot.

Vespas

Last week we sold our Vespas. It was very sad. We let our practical selves rule over our sense of adventure! We both had less than 400 miles on our bikes in a little over 3 years, so we figured it was costing us about $100 a mile to ride them! We also decided that since I'm always an accident waiting to happen, even walking on flat ground, we were flirting with disaster every time we got on them (after all, there was the broken leg in motorcycle safety class!).

It was a good time to sell. Scooter dealers can't keep stock, so demand for used scooters is high. A young man, Scott, bought mine to use as transportation. It took him 4 days to borrow all of the money he needed and he was thrilled to have a way to get to work. A lady named Kimmy bought Shaun's pink and white unit....mostly because she loved pink and she thought the matching jacket and helmut were just over the top!!!! It took her about 90 minutes to borrow all of the money at 9:30pm from her relatives. They were all small business owners and cleaned their tills for her that evening. Kimmy was clearly about the recreation and fashion so we related well :) The evening was bittersweet--we loved the Vespas, but in our retirement we're making tradeoffs in how we spend our time and money and what risks we are willing to take.