All the Fixins

In honor of President's Day last weekend, we went to Macy's and went out for lunch at the Claremont Diner. I ordered this gut-bomb you see below. Yes, that's mayonnaise atop swiss atop grilled onions, with a chocolate malt standing frosty and proud in the background. Although I'm sure this "went straight to my hips" as the kids would say, my heart is still operational because I've been getting fit at the Oakland Y as of three weeks ago. It was a veggie burger, though it hardly matters. I didn't quite make it to the clean plate club. And a good thing--the mall is no place to head when you're stuffed to the gills.



Leaning back in the booth, digesting, we were kindly treated to a gaze at the slowly looping model train which decorates the upper echelon of the dining room. Choo-choo.

Emily

Emily made a big diorama of her grandma in a garden of color that now sits in the window of the ATA space on Valencia St. in San Francisco. Emily's drawings are already really beautiful, and lately she's a talented jeweler as well, but I was particularly floored by her genius in this project. I'm not sure what's the best part--her drawings turned three dimensional, her grandmother looking out for the city or her impeccable sense of color. They're all the best part.






To celebrate this artistic feat, Tim's band played for only the second time ever. And they were very good! There were so many friends. Everything was perfect.

Portland Finale

This is the last of the bunch. Promise.

Portland, Oregon

After we left Comptche, we drove almost 14 hours along Route 1 into Oregon. It was a long day. We stopped to say hi to John's Aunt Honey and Uncle Eric, who live on a sort of menagerie in rural Oregon, and then we spent the duration in PDX, itself. We'd both been before, but never with such worthy friends to stay with and never over Thankgsgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite no matter where you spend it, but may I especially recommend you find a year to spend that holiday in Portland. The drizzle, the bungalows, the comfy style of the city is perfectly and completely suited to a November vacation devoted to eating.

The next few posts will be a collection of the most photogenic moments of our trip. Just to put names with faces, we were visiting Jesse and Lauren, old favorites from Virginia and Mary Frances Wegmann, my better half. Hope you'll indulge yet another photographic reminiscence.











More soon.