Portland and San Francisco

As if I have not been on the road enough lately, I spent the first week in December in the west coast of our lovely US of A. Except, it was not so totally lovely that week. It all started when I flew into Portland on Sunday night, into hurricane like winds. You may not believe this, but I swear it is true. Just read the Oregonian:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/sunday.html

In Portland, I was visiting my sister Laurel. She was in transition between places to live, so we stayed at the Avalon Hotel, which is WICKED. If you go to Portland you simply must stay there.

We got to have dinner at Veritable Quandary, which was super yummy. And, we got to move Laurel into her cute new house near Hawthorne Avenue. It even stopped raining that day just in time for the move. Here are some photos. The U-Haul part was especially fun...



From there it was off to San Francisco to catch up with some old friends for a few days. The weather was: raining! It did get sunny the last day, which was nice. I stayed at Lory's house in Pacific Heights. She has moved into a new place which is just fabulous. Her shower pressure was a bit lacking, but she's had it fixed since and is super happy. I also go to see Mary Ragan, Corbin and Ho at their fantastic house in Menlo Park. And, I caught up with Michelle and Becky. We hit the Christmas party scene Friday, here we are all dolled up (except for me - that sweater needs to go).


When I got home after being on the road for two weeks, I was convinced I was done traveling until Australia and New Zealand in February. Since then, however, a couple of January Vegas trips snuck onto the calendar. More detail on these later.

Pawleys Island, South Carolina Redux #34

The day after Thanksgiving, Mom and I took off for Pawleys Island, South Carolina for a week with my uncle and his family. It's almost true that I've been going to Pawleys every year since I was born, but I counted and I missed 5 years in there someplace. So this was visit #34.

This year, we were lucky to have a first year visitor, Ms. Libby Anne Austin, age 6 months. Here are pictures of me and Libby Anne, and her and her mom, Amy.



Pawleys Island is an hour and a half north of Charleston and half an hour south of Myrtle Beach. They are famous for ghosts, golf, hammocks and of course, food.

Regarding ghosts, there are a few versions of the story, but the ghost in residence is widely agreed to be the Gray Man. He appears on the beach at Pawleys Island prior to hurricanes. Everyone who has seen the Grey Man says that he warns them to leave the island. Residents who are wise enough to actually take the Grey Man's advice always find their homes undamaged after the storm. Encounters with the Grey Man have been reported before every major hurricane that has struck the island for more than a hundred years. For more on this lovable spirit, go to http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/grayman.htm.

There are enough golf courses around Pawleys and Myrtle Beach that they say you could play a different one every day for a year. I played three of them, our favorite was the Tradition. A lot of my golf balls are still on The Tradition.


Pawleys is the home of the Original Rope Hammock. That was when all the hammocks were made by hand, not in China. You can still watch them being made at the Original Hammock Shop on Highway 17. All Pawleys Island beach cottages have a hammock. Our this year had three! They are pretty comfy once you get over the butt burn issues.


South Carolina food is some of my favorite in the world. Our top pick restaurant hands down is Frank's and Frank's Outback (www.franksandoutback.com). If you are ever in the area, you must try the place. There is simply nothing bad on the menu. The crab cakes, grouper, shrimp and grits and caramel cake were some group favorites this year. Here we are after a yummy meal.



I'd be remiss not to mention the college football drama which occurred on Saturday the 24th, the day we arrived, and December 1, the day we left. Both Tennessee and Clemson were victorious in their final regular season games, which causes a lot of celebration in our house. I'm still bitter about Tennessee losing the SEC championship to LSU and the Tigers' subsequent entry into the national championship, which is why I have not posted on the topic. I am happy for my Oklahoma pals, one of whom were at the game and even took time to educate me on what a "Sooner" is.



The next post will be about my time in Portland, Oregon during their "monster" storm (www.oregonlive.com/weather). Yes, I really did fly in an airplane during this thing...