Playing Catch Up

Our two months in the States is over and here we are back in beautiful Costa Rica. It is absolutely wonderful to be here again! But I do face a challenge in trying to summarize for you all the joys and sorrows, adventures and misadventures we had in our travels.

Our first two weeks were spent with my mom in San Angelo in West Texas, where some of the all-time best barbeque can be found. And find it we did, rather often. Our favorite place was Bodacious Barbeque where the chopped brisket and baked beans are a standout.

Chili Relleno at Henry's

But we also wanted some Tex-Mex, chock-full of the spices and chilies that we miss in Costa Rican food. Armenta's, Los Panchito's and Henry's all fit the bill; we enjoyed enchiladas, tacos, chili rellenos and nachos to our heart's content.

One of the main attractions for us in San Angelo is Sealy Flats Blues Bar and Diner, where live music is on stage most every night. Lucky for us, my old friend world-class blues diva Candye Kane was playing there just a week into our stay. With help from her outstanding band, featuring that killer lead guitarist Laura Chavez, Candye brings the house down every time she steps on stage decked out in one of her sparkly, spangled costumes. We made it to the club for two of the three nights she performed and loved every minute.

Candye and Yours Truly

But it was soon time to head for Portland where much less happy duties awaited us. With Layne's sister Annie in the last stages of cancer and suffering as well from Alzheimer's, we knew that her time with us was limited, and indeed, she passed away only days after our arrival. Then the sad task of planning her memorial service fell to us and a few other loving relatives, culminating in a beautiful and remarkably celebratory event honoring her life of love and devotion to family and friends.

Fun in the cold!

Our work in preparing and conducting the memorial service meant canceling our trip to California to see my son Damian and grandson Kai, a missed contact that we deeply regretted. But we did manage to drive to Central Oregon for an overnight visit with Penny and Joel, very dear friends from our horseback-riding days in California. Although the weather was a bit chilly for Layne and me, accustomed as we are to the tropics, Penny served up delicious food as always, and Joel entertained us with his wry humor. It was as if we had been together only the day before.

Upon our return to Portland, we found time for a few walks enjoying the beautiful fall colors and watching a family of muskrats gamboling along Fanno Creek trails.

But soon it was time for us to return to Texas where we planned to spend most of our two-month stay helping my mom with some of the projects around her house and getting the upstairs in shape for our eventual residency there next spring. Now that my mom is a woman "of a certain age," Layne and I feel that we need to be with her to make her life a little easier. She's a very independent person and we respect that, but we also know that some things have become difficult or painful for her so we plan to step in to ease the load a little. Besides, it's free rent!

Even in the last days of our trip, we managed to squeeze in a very brief, but utterly wonderful visit to rugged and scenic Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. Our good friends Sally and Leonard, expats we met here in Costa Rica a few years ago, last spring decided to return to the U.S. They bought a luxurious big RV and are now serving as volunteer hosts at national parks around the nation, feeding their unquenchable taste for adventure. It was our good fortune that they had just begun a gig at Big Bend and when they invited us to visit, my mother urged us to go. She had visited Big Bend some years ago and she assured us it was not to be missed, especially with well-trained hosts to guide us. And by Texas standards, it was not all that far away: only a four to five hour drive!

So we rented a car and drove across the boring West Texas landscape to Big Bend, which turned out to be a stunning park of amazing geologic formations and extravagant desert vistas. Our first afternoon there, with Sally doing volunteer work in the Visitor's Center, Leonard drove us for miles around the huge park, all the way down to the Texas-Mexico border of the Rio Grande and Santa Elena Canyon, a truly astounding panorama of vertical cliffs running along the shallow meandering river channel. 

Our guide Leonard points out the geology

 Solitary hiker at Santa Elena Canyon: Mexico on the left, Texas on the right

The next morning all four of us made the drive up to Chisos Basin, a magical valley at 5400' elevation held in the embrace of huge rock formations and monstrous volcanic peaks such as Casa Grande, which towers over the Basin at 7300 feet. As we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and the view through the "Window" to the desert far below, we had the good luck to see a mother black bear and her two cubs scrambling down the side of a nearby hill. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera was dead and Sally's shots on her phone didn't quite work but what a thrill it was to see these animals in their own habitat and to enjoy spectacular Big Bend National Park.

Soon it was back to San Angelo and last preparations for our return to Costa Rica and the happy reunion with our adorable puppy Winston. No longer the little insecure fellow we left in the excellent care of our friends Chris and Sue, now he's all grown up and well deserves his nickname: The Moose!

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Chef Chris and his "Loco" Hot Wings

July 22, 2013 -- an auspicious date: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a baby boy, heir to the British throne (poor kid); the Pope arrives in Brazil (yawn); there is a full moon and my Tarot deck worked its magic for me. I was all ready to write a blog, complete with photos, when I discovered that the transfer cable for my camera was not in its storage place. How could that happen when I only use the thing here in my office and always put it back in a small bag full of other cords? Where could it be? I looked high and low literally, on shelves above, in cabinets below. I even called Layne to ask if he had moved it somewhere before leaving on his trip, but he had no clue.

The Six of Wands, Trust

Finally, in an act of metaphysical desperation, I did a Tarot reading on the issue, asking three questions: How did it go missing? Where is it now? And how can I find it? The three cards that came up were mysterious and vague, as Tarot often is, but the last card, the Six of Wands, seemed to offer a clear message: Trust, the card said. Trust the Universe and trust yourself. So... trusting that indeed I do not remove the cable from my office, I came back in here with a fresh eye and almost immediately spied the black cord peeking through a plastic container where I keep bagged spices. I had apparently scooped it up with the herbs when I put them away. As Layne put it, "'Woo' strikes again!"

So lucky for you, I have photos to share of the last outing of the Santa Eulalia gang, plus a couple of new groupies, Joni and Mike, and occasional gang members Darlene and Glynn. Of course, we were missing my darling Layne since he is on an emergency trip to Oregon to help care for his sister Annie, who is struggling with a number of health issues. The toll on family members as they share the load of caring for her reached a limit and they had called asking him to come. He left two days later and will be gone another three weeks, leaving me and Winston to take care of each other.

As you may have deduced from reading our various culinary adventures, the Santa Eulalia gang has 

Chef Chris and his sauces

several excellent chefs among its members, one of whom is Chris, whose cooking skills are top-notch. When he learned that Bar Las Brisas near his and Sue's home had a big grill available, he got the inspiration to treat his local neighbors to some of his Hot Wings and in the process get better acquainted, become a real part of the barrio. But, as these things often do, the idea grew to include the Santa Eulalia bunch and why not throw some of Marcial's sausages on the grill as well.

Chef Chris offered three different homemade sauces: the mild, the picante and the "loco." All were outstanding but I really think they mislabeled the loco. Seidy and I had already agreed that the medium level, the so-called picante, was over-the-top hot. She and I were slugging beer, tequila and ice water to cool our poor burning tongues. How could we possibly stand to taste something even hotter? But when we finally broke down and decided we owed it to ourselves to taste the loco, we found it milder than the medium. Chris assured us that it was just our palates having gotten accustomed to the intense spices, but I... don't... think...so.

Hot Wings comin' up!

But no complaints from this quarter! It was a very fun afternoon with Sue serving plate after plate of the delicious morsels. As Chris and Sue, Stephen and Marcial offered samples of hot wings and Italian sausages to the locals sitting at the bar, I told Marcial he was trying to "go viral" at the barrio level. If Ticos learn how good his sausage is, they will no doubt flock to his booth at the feria.

Two Cute Bald Guys

Joni, Stephen, Bonnie & Mike

Bonnie & Joni share a laugh

All afternoon Las Brisas' dance music inspired our lovebirds Marcial and Seidy to put on a little floorshow for us. Joni and I both took videos of the couple and when she showed her footage to Marcial, he said that was the very first time he had ever seen himself dancing. The wonders of modern technology arrive belatedly in Costa Rica.

Poor Winston had to stay home alone while I was gone and needless to say was overjoyed to see me when I returned about an hour after dark. The next day my landlords/neighbors mentioned that he howled miserably while I was away, so I guess he made his feelings quite clear on the subject of my being gone at night. Since their dogs bark incessantly whenever they leave the house, I'm not too concerned for their sake, only for Winston's. Pura Vida as applied to dogs!

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Our Cups Runneth Over!

If good friends are one of the great treasures of life, then Layne and I have been showered with riches in the last few days. After renting a gas-efficient Chevy Cruze last week and heading across the Cascade Mountains, we have had the good fortune of spending one night, including a mouth-watering home-cooked dinner, with our friends Sue and Christine in Crooked River Ranch, then breakfast with a beloved niece Cari and her two children, Jordan and Phylicia, followed by two uproarious nights with our long-time pals Penny & Joel at their beautiful ranch in Central Oregon. To top it off, we spent a wonderful evening on Sunday with other dear friends, Penny’s sister Ruth and her Sardinian sweetheart Antonio. Our cups runneth over, literally and figuratively!

        

Heading down out of the mountains towards Sisters, Oregon, last Wednesday we stopped off at the Museum at Warm Springs, a multi-media exhibit honoring, preserving and sharing the cultural and artistic heritage of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, including the Wasco, the Walla Walla (or Warm Springs) and the Paiute Indian tribes. The excellent dioramas and photographs, historical collections and archives, taped narratives by Warm Springs elders and poignant descriptions of the relentless devastating changes endured by these native peoples bring to life in a heart-wrenching chronicle the difficult and tragic period of Native American history that followed the intrusion of white settlers into the West.

Warm Springs Tule mat summer home, 1800

By the mid-1800’s, thousands of pioneers were crossing Oregon Indian lands, radically altering traditional ways of life for the Indians. In 1855, the U.S. government negotiated a series of treaties which established the Warm Springs Reservation, appropriating some ten million acres of land from the tribes while giving them the territory along the Deschutes River and granting them the rights to fish, hunt for game and other foods in their accustomed places. Federal policies were aimed at forcing the Indians to assimilate and to adopt what was essentially an alien culture, giving up their traditional languages and practices and adopting a foreign infrastructure of religion, schools, sawmills, agriculture and such. Only after Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 were these three tribes able to enter a period of self-government as a consolidated unit on the Warm Springs reservation. If you are ever in the area, this museum is worth a visit.

Layne, Jordan, Cari and Phylicia

After coffee and quiche with Cari and the kids on Thursday, we arrived at Penny & Joel’s in time for the first of several fabulous - make that splendiferous!! - meals by that gourmand Penny. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of indulging in some white wine as we whiled away the afternoon visiting on the patio, then moved on to gin and tonic for the cocktail hour. By the time our incredible pork roast dinner with the fabulous cherry salsa was served, along with still more wine, we were all a little over the top. But a good time was had by all, as they say.

The next day, a little fuzzy from the previous evening’s festivities, we were off to a slow start but Penny’s spectacular broccoli and mushroom egg cupcakes were a good energizer. With our vigor restored, we headed into Bend for an afternoon wandering the shops, trying on hats, judging jewelry and art and enjoying a lazy lunch at Toomies Thai Cuisine. (Penny recommends #8, the spicy chicken dish with basil. I agree.) We ended up beside beautiful Drake Park and Mirror Lake, in the middle of town and close to the historic shopping district where several buildings remain intact from the town’s early-1900’s founding.

View from Penny & Joel's ranch

That night, following another sensational dinner of grilled flank steak, tomato and onion plus a wildly complex broccoli salad, Layne and I had the honor of initiating Penny and Joel’s new rustic fire pit, a foot-high metal ring featuring sculpted galloping horses. Through their silhouettes, the blaze is exposed in dramatic fiery profile. To properly anoint the new ring, of course, required a photographic record of the toast, for which Penny and Layne were happy to pose. “Be sure and get the red color of the wine,” Penny advised, as she helped direct the shot.

Penny's grilled flank steak and veggies... Wow!

It was sad to see the evening come to an end, knowing it was our last visit together for perhaps a year. Such a lovely holiday with such good friends.

And finally, after a rushed day of sorting through dozens of boxes and storage containers in our barn, Layne and I relaxed with Ruth and Antonio in Auburn over a tasty vegetarian Papa Murphy’s pizza. I must have been too tired to take photos but, trust me, we had a fine time!

Thanks to everyone who has hosted us on this trip, attended a party or just wished us well! 

Party Time in Portland!

It was an entertainment edifice unlike any I’d ever seen. We basically had a four-lane bowling alley all to ourselves. The unusual facility was called Players and was located just a block away from the excellent Tigard West Motel 6 where Layne’s and my children were staying this past weekend. The family group included my son Damian, his vivacious friend Santina and her adorable baby girl Zaya, plus my lovable 13-year-old grandson Kai and their dog Achilles; then there was Layne’s son Jess and his family, amazing wife April, beautiful Sierra and precocious 10-year-old Orion.

Sierra and April 

Damian had discovered the place and found that it included a large video game arcade, shuffleboard, billiards, food, drink and the bowling alleys, all under one roof.  After a big extended family afternoon party at Layne’s sister Annie’s house on Saturday, Damian and Kai had wanted to check out Players and perhaps bowl awhile. Soon Jess and April joined them and when Layne and I arrived, the post-party party was in full swing - literally, as everyone took their turn swinging, rolling, throwing or guttering their balls down the lane. The younger kids, of course, found the game a challenge so when Kai stepped up for his turn and knocked down eight balls, leaving a split, he groaned in dismay at the odds of getting the spare. But he lined up carefully, made his approach and threw the ball, slicing the edge of the left pin just enough to flick it over and knock down the other one. A perfect spare! An even more unlikely occurrence came when Santina urged me to take her turn, just to see how I could do. So discarding my wedge heels in favor of bare feet, I picked up a couple of balls until I found a nice red one I thought I could handle. Now mind you, the only bowling I’ve done in some 30 years has been on our Wii game so it’s not like I expected to help Santina’s score much. But in a moment of Zen I threw the ball, and as we all watched with mouths agape, that red ball rolled straight and true and slid into the pocket for a strike! Nothing short of a miracle.

Grandma Kat & Kai - photo by Kai

Both our kid’s families are gone now, Damian and Kai headed back to San Francisco, Jess and April already back in Spokane, Santina and Zaya on a plane today going home to Spokane as well. But I’m sure all would agree that it was a fantastic weekend.

After Layne and I flew in late Wednesday night, the fun began on Thursday when he and I and Damian and Kai went out in a drizzling rain to play a round of golf at the nearby King City course. But by the sixth hole, Kai and I had had enough of such cold, wet “fun” so we headed back to the hotel to dry out and dog-sit Achilles. Meanwhile, hardcore golfers Layne and Damian continued on for the full 18 holes, preparing themselves for the more difficult course facing them on Friday.

Zaya graces us all with her smile

On Friday with Damian and Layne out on the golf course with Layne’s brother Ray, Kai and I spent the morning together, walking Achilles, playing video games (well, I watched) and having a leisurely breakfast -- from a grandma’s point of view, the perfect way to spend time! The golfers eventually returned, Ray having won as usual, and Damian headed to the airport to collect Santina and Zaya. That evening, we all went out for some excellent Thai food at Pacific Breeze near Annie’s house. Precious little Zaya kept us well entertained, bestowing her sweet smile on us from her purple throne perched up on the table. With the arrival of Jess and April and their children by car later that evening, the family flock was complete. We were up late that night drinking wine, laughing, talking and strumming a clever “backpacker” guitar Jess had brought along and gave to his dad.

Layne and his new guitar

But the highlight of the weekend had to be the Saturday afternoon gathering of the clan and long-time friends from all over the Portland area. From the youngest, Troy and Julie’s energetic twins Berik and Bowen, to the family matriarch Hazel, who proudly claims to be “98 and feeling great!” -- the backyard was brimming over with laughter and chatter, footballs and water pistols, good food and good cheer.

Friends & family:  Photo by Santina - thanks, Santina!

 Even the weather cooperated with a picture-perfect blue sky and a nice breeze. Layne and I got credit for bringing the good Costa Rican weather with us but perhaps the honor really belongs to the simple magic of a loving family. Pura Vida to all!!

Oregon: To Escape From the Rain?

Abuela bugs in a swarm

Yigüirro birds are everywhere so I guess it’s official: the rainy season is upon us. Or as it is euphemistically known here, the “green season,” a term coined no doubt by the tourist industry. Of course, it is true that in coming months the whole country will be transformed into the greenest of greens, with flowers blooming and jungle canopies dripping with humidity, the exact image of a tropical paradise.

Yesterday afternoon the thunder and lightning began booming and blazing around us and a torrential downpour pelted the ground. Other than unplugging our laptops to avoid a power surge, Layne and I continued on with our work, unconcerned with the weather. But soon our upstairs neighbor Linda called to point out a unique phenomenon happening outside. At the first rain, she said, the abuela or grandmother bugs swarm and we should close our doors so they would not get inside. We looked out the window and were amazed to see a shimmering cloud of black bugs flying helter-skelter in the air just off our front porch. I tried but found it exceedingly difficult to get a good picture of the multitude of small insects doing their frantic seasonal thing in the rain. If you click to enlarge the photo here, you might get some idea of what a bizarre event this was.

Today the weather pattern is much the same as yesterday -- sunny and warm in the morning becoming muggy by mid-day, turning into rain by the afternoon. It seems like a good time to head back to the United States for a visit. Portland, Oregon, should be nice this time of year even though Texas, our other destination, is likely to be insufferably hot and humid. But part of the plan for our retirement here in Costa Rica was annual trips back to see family, so the rainy season seems like a good time to go.

Before we leave the country in mid-May, we plan to look at other housing options for when we return. We love so much about this apartment it’s very hard to consider giving it up but when we have company a one-bedroom apartment is too small for comfort. Now granted, we have not had much company so far but we are hoping to be a magnet for friends and family who would like to experience the beauty of Costa Rica without incurring big hotel bills.

An iguana neighbor

A resident gecko

Looking at other houses makes us really appreciate this place, however. The cleanliness, modern appliances, comfortable bed, nice furniture and swimming pool all make for a pleasant living arrangement. Plus, we are within walking distance of town but have the jungle right outside our doors. This offers us the enchantment of having wild things pay us a visit. This big iguana was wandering around the backyard recently and seemed happy to stop and pose for me on a log. We have our own little clutch of geckos keeping insects under control indoors. When our friends Sue and Christine were visiting, they enjoyed the rare experience of a horde of capuchin monkeys migrating through the trees out front. Toucans fly by, as do flocks of emerald green parrots, squawking loudly in flight. Even the nightly moonrise is spectacular here. And as for landlords, well, Odie and Eduardo are unbeatable. So we’ll see. If we don’t find a more perfect place that this, we will stay here and figure out other accommodations for guests.

Meanwhile, our residency has been approved! Tomorrow we go to Migracion to have photos taken for our cedulas, and we hope to receive them by mail before our departure date in mid-May. Having started this process just about one year ago, sending the completed documents to our attorney last July, we are quite pleased with the approval of our application in this time frame. At last we’re legal. Pura Vida!  

Crawfish Tales and a Great Blue Heron!

August 15, 2010

         Like Costa Rica, every place has its own unique flora and fauna, which brings the color and vibrancy of the environment and the ecology of the area to life. Geology, biology, geography, resources, elevation and climate all play a part in the natural history of a locale. Here in Portland, Oregon, where we are spending our final week in the States, the natural world has been greatly influenced by the city’s proximity to the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and the numerous smaller streams that feed into those two majestic waterways. A jewel of the Pacific Northwest, Portland lies between the Cascade Mountain Range to the east and the Coast Range west along the Pacific Ocean. It enjoys a “marine west coast” climate of warm, dry summers and temperate but rainy winters. The beautiful and fertile Willamette Valley just south of the city produces an abundance of vegetables, berries, grass seed, greenhouse and nursery stock as well as vineyards, which produce highly prized pinot noir and pinot gris wines.

Portland also boasts an amazing number of distinctive birds and wonderful trails from which to view them. According to the Audubon Society of Portland, some 500 species of birds migrate through Oregon during part of their life cycle and over 200 of these travel through the Portland Metropolitan Region annually. Layne and I had the incredible good fortune to see one of the most remarkable of those birds on our walk yesterday: a Great Blue Heron! The enormous creature was sitting on a log in the middle of the Fanno Creek, a 15-mile tributary of the Tualatin River, which flows into the Willamette.
Along the part of the creek that runs through Tigard, the small Portland suburb of Layne’s youth where his family still lives, the wetlands attract a variety of wildlife as the trail meanders behind new apartment buildings, crosses streets, then wanders back into dense riparian woods. Layne and I have made a habit of walking through this park each morning as he points out places of interest from his childhood. Today we passed under the roadway that Layne remembered as the site of crawfishing in the Fanno when he was young and he pointed out parts of his old newspaper route. We lost the trail briefly then found it again as we headed back to our car parked at Tigard City Hall. Just as we approached the turn into the parking lot, we noticed the large bird sitting out in the creek, quietly watching for prey. As I crept slowly and silently along the back of the building to snap a few pictures, he turned his great beak my way as he observed my movement, but he didn’t stir from his perch. He must have been three feet tall with gleaming blue-toned wings and a pale breast. Even from our distant viewpoint, the heron was a splendid and dignified being.

         Three days later: This may be a case of time flying when having fun because we have definitely had fun here in Portland, but I suspect it’s more a case of the mad dash to the finish line in a race against time. In spite of my best intentions to get this posted, there has simply not been time in the last few days. First, we were focused on getting our Subaru Outback ad up on Craigslist, a task we thought we had completed on Saturday. On Sunday, however, we discovered that our ad had been filtered out by the Craigslist gremlins due to our use of commas separating the description of features on the car rather than listing them in a column. Having lost a day, we re-submitted the ad, then held our breath to see if it would appear online. Fortunately, it did. Still, it was Monday before any calls came in. As we soon realized, it only takes one buyer and that buyer showed up Tuesday morning and we completed the deal today! One more big thing to check off the list.

         Monday night found us chowing down on local seafood at Jake’s Famous Crawfish restaurant in downtown Portland, as guests of Tom G., a friend who lives nearby. Although the crab and shrimp cakes were not the best I’ve tasted and Layne’s Crab Louis was disappointing, the ambiance and the 118-year history of the place were distinctive. Perhaps we should have tried the crawfish! But Tom is always a fun conversationalist with his endless supply of anecdotes and stories of his world travels and our sampling of the local pinot wines was excellent, so dinner was still delightful.

         Last night we went off with Layne’s sister Annie to her regular Tuesday evening “Sex and the City Girls,” as Layne has dubbed this lively group of women. Much like the stars of the television show and movie spin-offs, Annie and her pals meet at a local bar to dish up the latest news on family, friends, men and memories, of which they have many from their long years of acquaintance. Last night was no exception as the six of us laughed over cocktails or club sodas, with Layne and me sharing tales of Costa Rica and them with hilarious boating dramas from thirty years ago.

         Our Costa Rican news included a last-minute report from our real estate friends yesterday that our charming chalet up the hill from Atenas was not available to us after all. Our landlady Hazel was fortunate to find a year-long tenant and had returned our deposit. But the good news is that Dennis of Pure Life Development has a few places for us to look at next week, including a nice-sounding apartment with a pool, a “rancho” for grilling outdoors and views of the Central Valley. Plus, it’s within walking distance to town, something we had wanted when we moved there. So we look forward to getting back to Atenas and finding the next cool place to live. We take it in stride: it’s all just part of our big Costa Rican adventure! 

Up the Columbia River Gorge to a Spokane Family Interlude

So here we are in Spokane, Washington, hanging out with Layne’s son Jess and his family -- wife April and children Sierra, a stunning seventeen-year-old beauty, and their adorable son Orion, now nine. Our six-hour drive here from Portland yesterday was unremarkable except for the trip through the Columbia River Gorge. Traveling through that geological marvel is a phantasmagorical jaunt back through eons of time. The 80-mile canyon forms the border between Oregon and Washington State and has provided a navigable sea-level route through the Cascade Mountains for thousands of years. In more modern times, hydroelectric power has been generated through a series of dams along the huge river, which spans a mile wide in some places. But the real thrill of traveling along Highway 84 as it winds its way alongside the majestic Columbia River is the awesome scenery, the dramatic waterfalls and the layers and layers of geologic history embedded in the sheer walls of the gorge, rising in places to 4000 feet. (Thanks to Bonneville Power Administration website for photo.)

         Human history as well is carved into those walls. Archeological evidence shows that humans have traversed this waterway for at least 13,000 years, including the Folsom and Marmes people who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia. In 1805 explorers Lewis and Clark traveled down the Columbia from its main tributary, the Snake River, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Native Americans have fished these waters for salmon for at least 10,000 years. One of the favorite fishing sites was Celilo Falls, a tribal fishing area just east of the Cascade Mountains where a series of cascades and waterfalls offered native fishermen a perfect site for dipnet fishing. Sadly, in 1957 with the completion of The Dalles Dam, Celilo Falls was completely submerged and native fishing there ended with the tribes accepting financial compensation for the loss.

         As we left the Columbia River Gorge behind and entered Washington, the terrain shifted dramatically. Instead of rugged basalt cliffs and lush green Douglas fir forests, we drove through miles of windswept but luxuriant agricultural land, filled with rows of corn and alfalfa and vineyards but with hardly a tree in sight. The rolling hills and dry ravines are part of the Columbia Basin, one of the highest lava plateaus in the world and which provides the drainage area for the Columbia River. Formed by repeated volcanic lava flows millions of years ago, the Basin now is home to numerous small lakes in which fossils, petrified wood and animal bones have been found. Nearing Spokane, which is situated at an elevation of about 2000 feet, the terrain changed once again, with pine and fir trees appearing as if by magic at this altitude.

         Still, the lava rock is never far below the surface as we found today in Lincoln Park, a lovely tree-filled urban retreat with a long asphalt walkway leading uphill to a small pond, filled with lily pads and cattails. Gigantic lava rocks and basalt boulders lined the steep trail and covered the ground at the top. The park is obviously a popular spot for dog owners. Just as we approached the water, behind us came the sound of doggie paws thundering on the roadway. We turned to see an exuberant yellow lab barreling for the pond, his eyes fixed on a few ducks paddling around. Undaunted by the failure to nab his prey, he soon leaped from the lake and ran off to shower his owner with water.

         Last night after our arrival, we all enjoyed a yummy barbeque of steak and chicken kabobs plus the requisite bottles of wine. Layne stayed up late with Jess and April, laughing and talking into the wee hours. Today's activities involved a little golf practice, a trip to the park for Orion and tonight will be another evening filled with good food, good wine and much laughter. It’s truly a joy to spend time with our family but Costa Rica is never far from our hearts and minds. As we search for shoes or glasses or some item of clothing in our luggage, we look forward to leaving this vagabond life and settling in again to La Pura Vida.