Our California Trip Itinerary

We're going to California...just want to share our itinerary...for fun so you can see where we are, and so you can find us if need be!

Sunday: Eugene, OR...we're staying in a residential neighborhood in a studio cabin that we found on Craig's List. Then we'll head down the Coast Highway to...

Monday: Jughandle Creek Farm, Caspar, CA...near Mendocino, ool la la, maybe to the local nude beach

http://www.jughandle.creek.org/main_entry.htm

Tuesday-Thursday: Redwoods Haus Bed and Breakfast, Stinson Beach, CA

http://www.stinson-beach.com/

Friday: The Red Victorian in the Haight District, San Francisco, CA

http://www.redvic.com/

Saturday: Heading back up I-5 and probably ending up in exciting Red Bluff, CA

http://www.lamplighterlodge.us/

Sunday: Up to Ashland to check it out...then to the Wolf Creek Inn

http://www.thewolfcreekinn.com/

Monday: Portland! The Mark Spencer Hotel

http://www.markspencer.com/

Beach Sunday...

Joseph and Dad, digging in the sand.

Thimbleberries and Me

Just a shout out from Joseph..."Here I am peeps, up here at the Cabin, eatin' Thimbleberries...my new fav food."

The Egg and I

Oooo, I just finished my delicious book, 'The Egg and I' by Betty MacDonald. I admit, I am on a Betty MacDonald kick and I might continue the streak. I loved this book...most of it anyway. It was very harsh on Native Americans...I suppose it was part of the times, but hard to swallow anyway, but for the most part it was witty, interesting, hilarious in parts, and smartly old-fashioned. The book chronicles Betty MacDonald's life on a chicken ranch on the Olympic Peninsula. She lives the life of a regular farm wife...stoking 'Stove', canning, gardening, sewing, washing, bearin' a babe, and visiting with the colorful neighbors on the Mountain. She has lots and lots of gripes, but I think somewhere deep down inside she loves it...more than someone who was born into that kind of life would...she's from a cultured city family and I think she appreciates the 'hard life' and all of its quaintness, where others wouldn't...despite the fact that she complains the whole time. In fact, the book is really one big long complaint, but for some reason it's brimming with positivity and charm.

and coming in first on my summer reading list...

'The Egg and I' by Betty MacDonald

Starting with the first sentence:

"ALONG with teaching us that lamb must be cooled with garlic and that a lady never scratches her head or spits, my mother taught my sisters and me that it is a wife's bounden duty to see that her husband is happy in his work." ...doesn't it sound downright devine? Especially after finding out the Ma and Pa Kettle where character spin offs...AND that The Egg and I was made into a move starring Claudette Colbert and Fred McMurray!

Lazy summer days...

Is so nice eh? Just enjoying some hot summer days...

what's in a name?

announcing the new name for this blog...vivre d'amour et d'eau fraîche...to live on love alone. Now I realize that it might be a major faux pas to suddenly make a blog title change, and I thought about starting an altogether new blog, but I wanted to find something that would express the intent of what I've already blogged about. Though perhaps a little pretentious given that I don't speak French, vivre d'amour et d'eau fraîche, looks so beautiful to me, and fills me with more love, so I'm doing it, and it beats the snot out of 'Dakota's Blog'. Watch out, because I'm getting a little tired of this template too...I haven't found a new one that I think suits the site yet, but don't think you went to the wrong place if it suddenly changes.

and...on that farm there was a Joseph...ee I ee I Oh.

For the 4th of July we went and stayed at the Betty MacDonald Farm on Vashon Island. What an absolute treasure! Betty MacDonald wrote the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, The Egg and I, and Onions in the Stew.

http://www.bettymacdonaldfarm.com/

We explored the island for two days and these are two of my favorite things that we found.

Though the Straus Family Creamery is in California, you can buy bottled cream and half n' half and exchange the bottle. It's sweet! You can taste that the cows are grass fed! I love it! It came from the cool coffee shop next door to my second favorite thing on Vashon Island...

The second thing is Chilkat Traders Antiques. They have an amazing collection of art books, quilts, cool old paintings (including two drawings by Andy Warhol @ $12,500 each)...pottery, native american blankets and baskets, and vintage Betty MacDonald books!

Kick up yer heels!

OK...I must admit that this is a little test...me thinks maybe I have alot of 'Lurkers'...is anyone out there? I'm aiming this test at the Shameless Sisters...please please comment! Are we going to the Hen Heather?!! I'm excited to dance with real cowboys.

Splish Splash

Joseph went swimming for the first time today! We went down to Colman Pool, which is salt water piped in from the Sound, and swam all around! Joseph loved it and splashed all around and played with other babies.