Catching up

Well, it's almost Thanksgiving and we are enjoying the prospect of a few calm days to get a breather.
Today, with remarkably clear and warm weather for mid-November, we ventured out to visit Cape Falcon - a beautiful ~5 mile hike. Turned out the beach of the neighboring Oswald West State Park is a very popular surfing spot - even in the middle of November. There were dozens of surfers out there.

In other news: Villebrew, our little coffee cart in Villebois, finally reopened yesterday as 'black arrow' coffee - we are delighted!

What else? Jacob visited yesterday for another game of chess. For those who care, the world chess championship is currently going on between Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Fabiano Cuarana (USA). We are not playing quite at their level...yet.

Saturday took us to Champoeg State Park: always a pleasant walk!

And I don't think we have added a picture of our latest Lego addition:

George (and Abby) kept a watchful eye, to make sure we assembled everything properly.

The collection so far...

Zurich, Heidelberg, Gruenstadt, Bordeaux and back

(early) Friday evening: Lego is still a popular pastime

Like last year - though I just realized that I didn't add a post about that trip - I had to spend a few days in Bordeaux at ESI's laser research facility. But this year I needed to extend the trip to Zurich and Heidelberg, which meant I had to spend the weekend abroad (Michaela - and I, too - was not pleased). But given the proximity of Heidelberg to Gruenstadt, I got to revisit my old stomping grounds and spend the weekend with my parents. Not only that, but my sister's family had long planned to be there that weekend, too. And not only THAT, but Nani's family of five would be there, too! Full house! And while I am certainly not used to the chaos and dynamics involved of being around 5 kids, I had a great time catching up with everyone.

Friday evening: everyone has arrived.

Saturday: I got to know several new games !

Sunday morning: time to say goodbye (front to back: Phryne, Anian, Zoe, Raul, Leon, Juri, Helga, Jan, Julie, Malte Nani

Touring Christian's 'new' home (with partial foundations from 1720 A.D!)

My parents: still smiling after hosting 10(!) guests over the weekend - very impressive.

Time tested tradition: farewell meal at Kaefer's at Frankfurt Airport

ESI's research facility in Bordeaux.

No need to starve in Bordeaux, of course. This Mango foam dessert was particular delightful.

Random photos

While sipping my morning coffee I was digging through my photos. Here are a few of the better shots. Many of them are of the pets - they are just so photogenic (no bad hair days!). 

Two good boys waiting for breakfast:

Lots of napping:

Jan being silly:

We started playing with gold foil in my lab:

An artist lest this on my office door. I bet it's Pepper (just his legs are a bit too short!).

And I got surprised with this gorgeous clock at the end of one of my classes:

I took this photo with my phone. Surprising just how well it turned out!

Billie and Rod had to leave for California for four days, which means I had Sailor and Maggie with me (while Jan was in Europe). Here's Billie dropping off Mags:

Maggie and Pepper butt-to-butt after the morning walk and getting some love from the students:

Sailor, Maggie, Abby & George:

Abby was keeping me company yesterday while I was prepping for class. What a love bug!

Oregon State Fair

Yesterday we visited the Oregon State Fair on the Salem Fairgrounds for the first time in 8 years!
It was a lot more fun than I anticipated and couldn't help smiling while we walked through rows and rows and halls and halls of prize winning farm animals.

There was also a dog jumping competition that was a lot of fun to watch:

Something that we missed last time (or I just didn't recall) were the exhibitions of all the winners of school competitions (science fairs, photography, arts, baking, tailoring, etc.) - very cool!

Lunch in LA

Last Sunday: get up at 4 am (not unusual for Michaela, but it was for me), walk with Pepper, breakfast, drive to the airport, get the 7:25 AM flight to LAX, get a Lyft to downtown LA and arrive on time at 11 AM at 'the counter', our chosen restaurant for lunch with Markus, Babette, Sophie, Joshua and Amrei, who were on their first full-family trip to the states.
Over customized burgers & fries we got to meet Amrei for the first time, try to reconcile our memories of Joshua and Sophie with their current age, and catch up after oh so many years: good times.

Left: Sophie, Joshua, Markus, Right: Michaela, Jan, Babette, Amrei

After a brief walk through parts of downtown (and a lift ride up the Marriott to enjoy a view from above) it was time to get back: Lyft, LAX -> PDX (flight was delayed, of course), got home by ~ 8 pm.

Monday-Friday: time for our new carpet installation! After thinking and talking about the need for new carpet (or tiles or hardwood or LVP) we had finally settled on carpet a few months ago and after some more delays, it finally got installed last week!

And after a lot of furniture moving, noise and clean up, we got a shiny new carpet!





So after all that we took it easy yesterday, hanging out with Pepper in our hammock in the back yard: