No, it doesn't rain at the Oregon Coast!

At the beginning of last week, Tasha said that she planned to be in Manzanita on Friday night, April 20th for a birthday party for a friend ... and was wondering if the Manzanita beach place might be available. I figured, "probably not" but I'd try. Amazing! It wasn't booked, so I drove down on Friday afternoon ate supper, settled-in and went to bed at a fairly decent hour. Unbeknownst to me, Tasha slipped-in at about 1:00 a.m. and spent two nights prior to driving back to Portland late on Sunday afternoon.

As had been forecast, the weather was absolutely gorgeous both Saturday and Sunday -- with clear skies, no clouds at all, and lots of bright sun. Until later on Sunday afternoon there was no wind on the beach either! The two of us ate out at the Mexican restaurant on Laneda Avenue on Saturday night, and when near-by wi-fi signals were too weak for my computer, I drove down to the Manzanita Library for an internet connection (even after library hours).

When I packed-up, cleaned up and left on Monday morning the fog had rolled-in over Manzanita beach, but I'm guessing that it was probably short-lived since the forecast was good at least for one more day. But, with such great weather, we obviously had some nice sunsets! - rw

(And yes, we did visit Hug Point!)

Spring Snow in Oregon!

When I flew from San Francisco to Portland the day before Easter, the weather was clear and I could see out the window snow on the hills of the Coast Range at pretty low elevations. So, when Tasha picked me up at the airport she said, "Maybe it's not too late for you to go x-country skiing!" Sure enough, it wasn't. So, she talked me into going up to a snow-park near Mt. Hood (pix below) just one week later -- Saturday, April 14th (normally too late for x-country skiing).Again, we had great weather -- bright sun, blue skies and good quality snow for skiing. At my advanced age I didn't last more than a couple hours, but it was great fun.When I downloaded pictures onto my computer, I discovered pictures from Easter (below) that I thought had somehow been deleted. Tasha and I attended the 10:45 worship service at Newberg Friends prior to sitting with Mother while she ate her Easter dinner in the Health Center. Afterwards, we took her outside for a brief walk since Easter was the second-day-in-a-row for sunny weather in the Portland-Salem area. Then, at about 1:30 p.m. we both responded to a generous invitation from Gary and Susan Fawver to join their family for Easter dinner! Pictured at the bottom is Susan's strawberry--laden sponge cake. - rw

Birthday's and Early Easter in KL

This week we celebrated Rania and Reeve's birthdays and Easter a few days early since Ron was off to Oregon. We had a fun evening and enjoyed our time together.

"EARCOS" in Bangkok

"EARCOS," the annual SE Asia conference for international school teachers, was held in Bangkok during ISKL's spring vacation. Nancy was making a presentation to librarians, so I decided to go along. While Nancy was in sessions, I decided to take the Skytrain out to see the Jim Thompson House. Thompson, born in 1906, served in military intelligence during WW2 and ended-up being posted in Bangkok right at the end of the war. He fell in love with Thailand and Thai culture and settled in Bangkok permanently after his discharge from the army. His primary claim-to-fame is that he "discovered" some Muslim silk weavers working with hand-operated looms and developed the trade into a popular international export business. With some of the money he made, he purchased 6 small, traditional teak houses from various parts of the country and had them moved to Bangkok where he, an architect by trade, amalgamated them for his own house and quarters for servants.

The Jim Thompson House is located right on a canal (khlong), just opposite Baan Krua, the Muslim community where the silk weavers operated. The woman working at the loom was in a home/shop just across the canal.
Part of the fun of being in Bangkok was being able to spend time with good friends from Salem, John and Donna Phillips and Gary and Kathy Haney. The group is pictured below at a delightful French restaurant where we ate during our last night in the city. - rw