We went on our 2nd Alaskan cruise (the first was 11 years ago) with my brother, sister-in-law, & 2 nephews this past week. It was their 1st cruise and I think they liked it. In my opinion, Holland America has the best food. We were blessed with beautiful weather on this cruise and 11 years ago. I think we actually brought the nice weather home with us.

Seattle:

Juneau: (where good friends of another sister-in-law, picked us up and gave us the royal treatment of taking us to Mendenhall Glacier and to their lovely home and out on their boat - boy, were we ever spoiled!

Glacier Bay:

Sitka:

Ketchikan:

All dressed up:

Oh, the food:

The ship (Holland America Zaandam):

10 on 10: Elena's 50th Birthday Weekend Celebration in Las Vegas

Additional photos can soon be seen on Pam & Elena's blogs

Spring Release 2009

Release of wine, that is.. We spent a nice long weekend touring wineries in Eastern Washington with friends, Rick and Karla. We toured 12 different wineries with the aid of the book Wine Trails of Washington. We even met the author, Steve Roberts, at Basel Cellars. We also ran into friends at Portteuss Vineyards and Rick's doctor at Leonetti.

Silver Lake:

L'Ecole No. 41 (old french schoolhouse built in 1915):

Reinenger Winery:

Leonetti's:

Columbia Crest:

Our friend Jacques on a very short 5 day visit from France. We enjoyed dinner at Tosoni's and Teatro Zinzanni.

How 3 frenchmen eat their soup...

Cousins Miles & Wes

OK, this a little self indulgent, but hear me out. Yesterday I had a wonderful birthday spent with my daughter Jenny, her best friend Jane, precious grandson Wesley, and hubby Joe. We lunched at PF Chang's in Bellevue Square. Joe went back to work and the 4 of us went shopping, but first a stop in Nordstrom's family lounge (which is really nice) where Jenny nursed Wesley. He was all smiles all afternoon long and lots of people stopped to say how cute he was. We ran into friends of Jenny, Brianne & Scott with their 2 month old Will (I had gone with Jeff & Jenny to see Will the day he was born); so that was a pleasant surprise too. I got new jeans courtesy of Jeff & Jenny.

But here's the heart of the story: 10 years ago on April 20th Joe and I were driving in our then new F150 pickup to pick up Jenny from her just completed freshmen year at Pepperdine. All the way there we heard the terrible news of Columbine unfolding. We arrived on April 21st and had dinner with Jenny & Jane who had both completed their freshmen year at Pepperdine. It was really cool to all be together again 10 years later on my birthday, with the addition of Wes. Now:

Yippee!!! Dessert choices:

Then (10 years ago):