We’re back at one of our favorite places, Buckhorn Springs where we’ll spend Thanksgiving with Lauren’s family.  It’s so different in the wintertime with the leaves off the trees.  Everything seems much quieter and even more peaceful.

Wednesday night Paulina (Lauren’s older brother’s new wife from Chile) made the most amazing lasagna, complete with made from scratch pasta.

One of the highlights of spending Thanksgiving day with the Sargents is participating in the afternoon project.  You never know what it will be until you arrive.  This year it was felling trees and tending bonfires in an effort to control the invasive Mountain Pine Beetle that is destroying the pine trees.

Here’s the Sargent/Haynes family portrait.

Then after a productive day’s work everyone comes in for a good, old fashioned Thanksgiving feast.

And the end to a perfect day.

 

 

On Tuesday, after a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes and fresh orange/pomegranate juice with Paul and Diane, we continued our trek south to Ashland.  If you are ever on I-5 near Eugene, be sure to stop at Lane Community College exit 189 for gas – even if you don’t need gas.  This is the coolest gas station ever and Justin and Lauren stop here every time they pass by.  It has a green roof, bio diesel fuel (as well as regular gas), kombuca on tap, all snack food is organic, fresh, organic pastries/sandwiches, great coffee…..

After the long drive, we rolled in to Ashland and landed at Caldera Brewing Company for a refreshing beer.

If you’re ever in Ashland, check out the bar.  Lauren’s dad felled the tree on his property, milled it, dried it and did whatever it is you do to make it a flat, long piece of wood and transformed it into the bar at Caldera.  This table and a few others are also from the same tree.

Oh, and the beer and food are great, too!

 

Early Sunday morning started out with lots of wind and rain but by the time we walked down to the coffee shop with Justin and Lauren it had stopped raining which was great ’cause we had a big day ahead.  At 10 we were at the Ballard Farmer’s Market.  The fall produce was beautiful.  Here’s a sample.

And more

We stocked up on bread and apples and cheeses and headed north to catch the ferry to Kingston.

After all the morning rain and wind the views of the Olympic Mountains were spectacular.

Our destination was to visit our good friend Bob who Chris worked with back in the 80’s at the WA State Dept. of Ecology.  Two years ago Bob and Jennifer moved from Olympia to Port Ludlow to be closer to the Olympics.

And their views from here are amazing.

We had a great visit with Bob and Jen and Bob’s son Dylan and more friends from Ecology days Tom and Cindy.  Here’s a great picture of us that Cindy took from Bob’s deck.

 

 

 

We’re all together here in Seattle.  YEA!!!   It’s pretty chilly but not as cold as it’s been up here.  The fall colors are a real treat.  We’re having a grand time with Justin and Lauren.   Chris is getting his IPA fix and has a goal of not eating any white sticky rice while he’s here.

Yesterday we had brunch with friends Sheila (taking picture) and Spencer who are tandem riding friends from way back.

From there we spent the rest of the day wandering around Ballard mostly micro-brew hopping.  But we did check out the Ballard locks which are always entertaining.  This time the big lock had been drained for cleaning and maintenance.  It’s amazingly deep.

We also did a lot of walking.  This is such a great picture of the northwest.

And this is a winter plant covered in bright purple berries.  Very pretty.

 

It’s Thanksgiving time and I have some great news.  The Haynes family will all be together for this holiday!  Chris is flying in to Seattle on Friday from Japan and I am flying up from San Diego.  Justin and Lauren will meet us there.  After a few days in Seattle visiting friends, we’ll drive down to Ashland and have T-day with Lauren’s family and fifty of their closest friends and relations.  How’s that for something to be thankful for.

Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my surfer quilt I’m just finishing.

And a picture of fall in Coronado.  It’s a good thing we have calendars.

 

Chris has been going on some amazing bike rides in and around Iwakuni.  A few weeks ago he took off on his own following the Nishiki River upstream.  He stopped along the way and snapped this picture which looks so very Japanese to me.  It’s really beautiful.

Then last week Chris went to his first USO concert and saw Chris Daughtry.  Chris is staying really busy at work and trying to catch up with himself at home on the weekends, with a few bike rides and dinners with friends.

My life is pretty quiet here in Coronado.  I’m in the process of moving out of my apartment across from my mom’s ’cause it’s just way to expensive (for one person with no furniture) to be camping out here.  I’ll be moving across the island to a house very close to where we lived when Jeff and I were in high school, on Coronado Avenue.  Actually, I’ll be sort of house sitting (rent free) for an ol’ high school buddy.  The house needs a lot of work and cleaning so I’m just trying to make it livable for awhile.  It should be interesting.

Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out how to work this “intuitive” new computer.  Oh, and check out this weird Navy ship that’s been parked across the bay.  It’s huge and very odd looking.

Until next time – Happy Fall!

Life in Coronado is good although I sure miss Chris and wish he were here.

Well I had big plans when I got back to hop right on the computer and get all caught up with our wonderful Corsica trip but my dear old computer had other plans.  It’s very old and traveled around the world with me.  The trip must have done it in.  Whenever I tried to do anything it seemed to develop a very high fever and started behaving very strangely.  So before it pooped out completely I decided I’d better buy a new computer.

My son Justin convinced me to switch from the pc world to the mac world saying “you’ll love it” and “it’s really very intuitive” and he and Lauren just switched and are really liking theirs.  So I’ve been spending the past many days trying to learn the “intuitive” world of apple.  And I must say that once you learn everything about it, it will become intuitive.   I do want to thank my dear son for answering his phone and patiently explaining how to do whatever it is I’m stuck on at the moment.

My other challenge has been how to access all my Corsica pictures which I faithfully downloaded everyday of our trip into Picasa on my old computer.  I am having a hard time understanding how to access them on my new computer – but I think I’m getting closer.

Meanwhile, my brother, Jeff has been visiting from Boston.  He’s always fun to have around.  He came to visit our mom of course but also to compete in the Super Frog Half Ironman Triathlon here.

Here he is getting his bike ready.

Taking up a dare he got before he left Boston, Jeff chose to make this a “Real Man’s” triathlon.  He did the 1.2 mile swim – without a wetsuit.  (Very warm water but rough seas with big swells and strong side current, more like 1.5 miles.)  Then a 56 mile bike ride on the Silver Strand – on his fixie (above) fitted with aerobars.  (Very strong headwind.) And 13.1 mile run – barefoot.  (Half on the beach and half on really torn up old military pavement where he donned socks with duct tape.)

According to Jeff, one of the handy things about running barefoot in these races is that you can take a quick dip in the sea to cool off along the way – which he did.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.  Chris has been trying to get organized in our house in Japan in his spare time which is only about an hour a day but it sounds like things are starting to come together for him.  Hopefully, I’ll be back onto the Corsica adventures soon.

Greetings,

We are now back “home” after an amazing trip of cycling in Corsica France.  Home, of course, is a relative term these days.  I am back in Coronado to care for Motsi, who at 96 is still “hangin’ in there.”  And Chris is back in Japan for a 3 year stint with the Department of Defense at the Marine Corp Air Station in Iwakuni.

Our flights home were a bit interesting.   Due to the Air France strike, Chris’ flight from Paris to Kyoto was cancelled but he was able to work with Air France and was soon on a Turkish Airlines flight with a stop in Istanbul which was pretty cool.  And for me, after flying from San Diego to Japan a couple of months ago and then from Japan to France and back to San Diego I can now say that I have circumnavigated the globe!

Meanwhile the rest of our group is still wandering around Europe trying to find their way home.  I wish them the best of luck and hope to see them again some day.

As for blogging about our Corsica trip, I tried and tried every day to write about our travels but the internet connections were ok for checking emails but not much else. So as you saw I just had to give up.  Now that I’m home and back in the real world I will slowly catch up on all that blogging.  But in the meantime, here is some other news.

Last month our son Justin and his wife Lauren celebrated their honeymoon by bicycling down the Danube River and had an amazing time.  They highly recommend their tour company Hooked on Cycling.  http://www.hookedoncycling.co.uk/

The price was unbelievable and their accommodations and meals were amazing as you’ll see in the pictures below.  They also attended a friends wedding in Sweden and visited another friend in Amsterdam.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/110002295433389965197/posts/2ztiBEEe83c?cfem=1

As soon as they returned to Ashland, Oregon, they moved to Seattle, Washington where Justin started a new job last week for a company called Socrata.  And not only that, he was on the evening news last night.

http://www.king5.com/story/tech/2014/09/22/seattle-tech-firms-software-engineers-shortage/16080847/

You’ll just see him talking to someone about in the middle of the segment.  Pretty neat.

So that’s the news from the home front at the moment.  Stay tuned for more on our wonderful Corsica adventures.

 

 

Biking is great and challenging.  5,000+ feet of climbing every day.  Beautiful scenery.  Great food and drink.  Very s-l-o-w internet when we find it.

So many great pictures that will just have to wait till we are back in civilization.

 

Bonsoir

The riding begins!

We are ready to go.

If you bike from Lucciana to Bastia along the coast it’s only about 25 flat kilometers.  We, however, took the circuitous, mountainous route of 70 kilometers or 45 miles.  This route contained over 4,800 feet of climbing often with a steady 5-7% grade for miles and miles with a few 12-15% grades thrown in for fun.

We stopped for lunch at an interesting old church built in 1280.

Check out this amazing lunch.  Fresh Corsican cheeses and meats.

 

Then back on the bikes for more riding.  And more amazing views as we descend out of the mountains and down to the sea to Bastia

and our destination.

A shower and a nice cold beer.

Some interesting sights in the town square.

And the end to our first official day of cycling.