This week in The Pearl – October 8, 2026


We started the week by getting jabbed, both flu and COVID. I don’t get anti-vaxers, we have been in a lot of groups of people around the world and vaccines have kept us from catching COVID, I know some who were vaccinated did catch it, nothing is 100%, but we always get our shots. With…

Thoughts from theTravelsketcher – Our national treasure


Many have correctly called our National Parks a national treasure, I could not agree more. We were in Lassen Volcanic National Park a couple of weeks ago – our parks are amazing. It is such a tragedy that funding has been cut for them, we need to defend our National Parks. Here are few photos…

This week in The Pearl – back home


We are back in The Pearl, we drove home Tuesday from Florence – it was such a peaceful and enjoyable trip. Last Friday we started the day with breakfast at The Blue Ox Cafe in the Redwood National Park. I was fancying pancakes, a once a year or so desire, and remembered that when we…

Thoughts from theTravelsketcher- How to sketch sea stacks


For the last week we have been driving along the Northern California and Southern Oregon coast, which is famous for sea stacks. As a sketcher they just call out to be sketched, so I have answered the call – check my upcoming Thursday blog for more of them. Without a bit of good technique the…

This week partly in The Pearl – September 24, 2026


Friday we met up with our friends Diana & Karen at the Portland Art Museum. We spent most of our time at a special exhibit of Aboriginal art from Australia. Like the USA they have a troubled history regarding native people and non-white immigrants. This piece applies to us all. Saturday morning Alexis and Joe…