This week remembrance and renewal


Yesterday, thirty seven years ago, we got married at the Ronald Methodist Church in Shoreline, Washington. For many years we have spent our anniversaries at the Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive in Bow, Washington. Last year was no exception since we were back in the US for a visit. But this year, now that we…

TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip


There is no magic pencil – or pen, or marker, or brush – art is a process of repeated iterations. My name is theTravelsketcher and I am a Niffler when it comes to shiny new art stuff. Unpacking my art things from storage and from France makes it clear that I have more unused, or…

A week of thanksgiving


This has been a truly thankful week. Much of our time of course has been unpacking and we have made a lot of progress, it feels like home. Saturday we had lunch with my son and daughter-in-law in Lake Oswego, Sunday our daughter and son-in-law, then on Wednesday our friends came over for a pre-Thanksgiving…

Settling into the Pearl


We are settling into our apartment in the Pearl quite nicely and the sense I had early on of a bit of a Parisian feel has only grown. We can walk to most anything we need, we already discovered The Fields Bar & Grill which has a casual neighborhood feel – not the same as…

The Pearl, a world away from La Thebauderie


Tuesday we got the fobs, they don’t use keys these days, to our apartment in the Pearl District of Portland, a world and two centuries away from La Thebauderie in Normandie. Tricia’s view today, and her views two years ago. We like the Pearl, it has a bit of a Paris feel. The streets are…