Dee Hopper

My dear, sweet, humble, friend Dee Hopper is dying. I will be there for her this week to hold her hand and make sure she doesn't die alone in this world. All blogs of our trip will wait until I see her off to the Lord to be embraced in His ample arms.

CAMOGLI

This looked so typical in my mind of a european scene.This lady had some ladies underwear in her hand ready to hang. Everywhere we saw lines of laundry hanging out to dry, even inthe nicest of places.

This is the view we first saw of Camogli from the ferry.

One more shot of the mornings at the hotel "Portofino Kulm".

Camogli/ day two / aug.15th

Camogli

After we left San Fruttoso, we took the ferry to Camogli. This is the town closest to our hotel. Here we had the expensive dinner that we didn't really eat, the one with the fish eye. Here we took the shuttle bus back to our hotel.

There were some old, beautiful, buildings in the background. It was pretty hot, humid. We went home, showered off, and headed for the pool.
This is the harbor where we got off the ferry. Dad thought it was a great picture.

I had to show you the color of this beautiful water.

One last shot of SanFruttuoso

San Fruttuoso Aug.15th

This is San Fruttuoso

This is the abby we toured. Dad said it dates back to 989.

Another view. This place is only accessible from ferry boats or hiking in to it.

This is the view from above our hiking trail. We were almost there by the time we could see the cove below.

This hike really affected my quads and I was sore and stiff for the next three days. It was a beautiful cove and I would have preferred, in hindsight, to have taken the ferry over and spent the morning swimming!

leaving San Fruttuoso

Here we are leaving San Fruttuoso and hoping for another opportunity to swim in that beautiful water.

Italy day two

My first morning in Italy

Italy one

We left La Canada in the afternoon on Aug. 12th and after a two hour wait on the runway, we settled into really comfortable seats and a good book. The flights on our trip weren't bad really. American made us wait on the tarmac for 2 hours coming, and going for 1 hour with engine trouble, but Alitalia was very efficient and comfortable.

We took a taxi to our hotel in Manhattan because it was so late at night at a cost of 40.00 and so after that we just found the subway transfers to come and go to JFK at a considerable savings. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Manhattan from a travelzoo promotion both coming and going to Italy. We didn't want to fly directly to Italy from L.A. because that would have been a flight of what turned out to be 15+ hours.

When we got off the plane in Milano, Italy it was 8:00 am and with no sleep at all, we rented a car and got on our way to Portofino, Italy. Dad had really wanted to go there after studying his Michilin guide and I'm so glad we did. It was just beautiful.

This was the first thing we discovered after resting in the hotel for 3 hrs. This is the Port of Porofino and it was a bit of a drive from the hotel. We only saw it this one night since we stayed at the hotel only two nights. The first night was here in the Port and the second night we explored San Rocco. In the background you can see a portion of the huge yachts in the harbor.
It felt majical that first night in Italy. After planning this trip for a few months, we were really here. We stayed only a couple of hours before returning to our hotel and finally sleeping a full night. I loved getting up with the sun those first few nights in Italy.

Here is my first video after finding a store that sold us a disk for our camera. The streets were filled with tourists. My first impression of Italians was that they dress up for the evening. Americans have become so casual about our dress. The Europeans still dress up to go out for an evening. Also I was amazed at the percentage of Europeans who smoke. Smokers everywhere.

Very sad.

old house histories

When I was getting ready to go on my mission, my parents were renting an old house on 2nd st. I worked at Fred Meyers and had my check deposited in the credit union each week. I had saved 1200.00 dollars toward my mission. My parents wanted to get into a house and this house in the picture was built by the students at the local high school under the direction of their teacher. They didn't have the money for an earnest money and asked if they could use the money I saved for my mission for the earnest money and then they would send me my monthly check each month. That is how they bought thier house on Lake Front Rd. back in 1976. Pretty cool huh!

When dad and I first got married dad wanted to build a house and since my brother Steve was a builder, he built it for us. Steve and Cheryl built the yellow one right next door to us, (below) and we lived in the grey one around 2 years. Leah came home to this house when she was born.

Steve and Cheryls house.

Japanese Gardens

Even though it was 95 and roasting hot, we had to go to the Rose gardens, and Japanese gardens.

Portland Rose Garden

Chuck and Julie

I LOVED seeing my little brother and his wife Julie. Dustin happened to be home from school as well. Boy is he tall. And Melanie and her three little boys were there too. I don't think I've seen Melanie since she got married. She's so much fun to talk to.

Oregon trip

We played lots of games while visiting mom. Here's mom beating the pants off us in Yahtzee. She got a Yahtzee every game!

We saw lots of beautiful coastline. We also went to the outlet mall and got Laura settled for Korea.

Carson's visit

What cute kids we have - grandkids too!!! It is such a joy to have them here to visit.