my holidays!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I had a wonderful time in San Francisco. I stayed with Nandita, my college roommate and old friend, and her husband Jochem. I was lucky enough to have 8 whole days with them. It was the perfect combination of hanging out in my pajamas (new fleece pj bottoms from gina & elaine!) until 3 pm watching movies and running around doing stuff. We ate lots of great food (homemade mac n' cheese, Dutch gourmetten, Ethiopian, Thai, tapas, pomegranate margaritas, homemade lemon curd, a big pan of lasagna and homemade yogurt). There's too much for me to go into it day by day so I'll give some highlights of my trip.

-On Christmas Eve eve we saw A Christmas Carol. It's a classic and I really enjoy seeing plays.

-Christmas Day we spent at Nan & Jochem's place. Nan's sister, Shilpa came over and we opened gifts and ate good food. I talked on the phone with my family and we watched A Christmas Story, the new Christmas classic. For dinner we did gourmetten, a Dutch tradition. It's similar to fondue without the pots of oil. Everyone cooks their own food (marinated meats, little meatballs, veggies) in little pans over a cooker thing. It's kinda wordy to explain...look at the photos! It was delicious and lots of fun.

- The next day Nan, Shilpa & I rented a car (living in the city they don't need a car) and drove north, over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. First we had lunch in Sonoma which was cute and then drove up the Napa Valley to Calistoga. The town is famous for their water. We went to a spa where we had mud baths (my first ever and so cool...actually it was very warm), swam in the mineral water pool and relaxed in the natural hot springs jacuzzi. It was fantastic. From there we went to one of the zillions of vineyards in the area for a tasting (delicous reds!) and then to a sushi restaurant for a great dinner. Nan was tired so I drove us back to the city and was excited to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge myself.

-We walked around the city taking lots of photos. One day in Golden Gate Park where we went to the DeYoung Art Museum and then downtown to SFMOMA and another walking around with Shilpa & her boyfriend in their neighborhood in the Mission which is full of colorful murals.

-We saw my friend Colin's salsa band, Rumbache, play a show. I've known Colin since I was 15 but I haven't seen him in 4 years so it was great to hang out with him. I even danced and learned some salsa steps which was really fun.

-On my last day we walked over the Golden Gate Bridge which none of us had ever done before. It was a beautiful sunny day and amazingly it wasn't even windy. The views of the city and the bay were fantastic and we took lots of photos.

I flew back to Portland for New Years. Actually I was only in Portland for about 14 hours (most of them sleeping) before I got in Elaine's car and we drove up to Mt Adams to spend New Years in Trout Lake. Elaine plugged in her crock pot when we arrived which was already to go with a big pot roast & potatoes inside. Dave & Elaine taught me how to play Liar's Dice which I loved. We went in Wampler's wonderful sauna which was raging hot. We had to continually dump big cups of cold water on ourselves. After the sauna we had a fire in the snowy backyard which was really fun. Snowpants make it easy to hang out in the cold snow!

A zillion people came over for dinner and it was a great time. Everyone hung out and played games (cards, more liar's dice). Around 9pm or so we motivated to head over to the Trout Lake Country Inn. This was the last night that it will be open with my friends running it. We found out that the owner of the building is going to be reopening the business himself in February. He was kinda of a dick in the way he treated my friends so I don't know how much local support he'll be able to get. I doubt I'll be going there. Jerk!

The last night at the Inn was fun though. There was dj which was just okay, I much prefer seeing musicians on stage but it was still a great time. We played more liar's dice and talked on the porch while Jason lit off tons of fireworks. The woodburning stoves kept the place nice and warm.

The next morning a zillion people came over for breakfast, too many really to comfortably be in Wampler's small house. Elaine and I helped clean up some then headed back to Portland.
So that was my holidays (as brief as I could be). I hope 2007 brings us all good things-good long hikes and wonderful meals and great photos and smiles and love. I look forward to all of it. My goal for this year is to go snowboarding for the first time (which I'm supposed to do tomorrow on Mt Hood with Gina-YEAH!) and to climb a mountain. I'm going to take a mountaineering field skills class in the spring through the college. At the end of the term the class summits Mt Adams. YEAH! I'll keep you all posted of course!
much much love for a new year!
xoxo,carolyn