Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #51 – A Cracked Windshield, More Cruise Planning, & Parties!

 

Sunday, December 15^th., 2024……  I was up and going with the dogs this morning. I had until 9:00am so I was in no hurry. Penny will be coming over to go out to breakfast. She heard of a place in Corvallis that is supposed to have good gravy. I vaguely know about that place and know where it is but never have been there. I texted Cat to let her know that I would be out and about later and to take her time checking out and heading back home. She texted back that she was up and would be leaving shortly. Penny came by and we drove to Sharon’s Café, in Corvallis. The place is a ma and pa place (which I like!) and we got seated and ordered coffee and breakfast. I wanted to try their gravy so I had it on my potatoes along with eggs and bacon and toast. It was pretty good. I will be bringing Cathye back here. While we were eating, she tested and said to call her so she could talk on the car’s blue tooth. After we left, I called her and we talked for a few minutes. Once we got home, I called her again and she was about 30 minutes away. She wanted to talk to me before she got home because she had a ’booboo’ on the car. She said a rock hit the windshield yesterday and this morning it is a 5-inch crack in the glass! When she got back, I unloaded the car for her and then checked out the glass….

Yep, it will need to be replaced soon. Oh, well… I’ll call my insurance tomorrow. She unpacked and we spent the rest of the morning resting and watching tv. Until later, when we went to our Sunday class. After class, we went to GameTime with the group. After that, it was spa and bed.    

Monday, December 16^th., 2024…… Nothing on our agenda today. We did our normal Monday routine – walk and feed the dogs, gym, and breakfast at Kevin’s. Rain has been off and on these past few days. The temps are warmer – for us anyway! Today’s high would be 52°.  Still overcast but we have sunshine and clear skies predicted for this week. I spent some time working on the blog and catching up on my taped Mecum auction. I also worked on updating our spreadsheet for the cruise. We are flying in to Auckland 2 days prior to the cruise (so we can acclimate). We leave PDX at 4:00pm on Monday 2/24, leave SFO at 7:50pm. Because of the time zones, we get to Auckland on Wednesday 2/26 at 5:50am.  We have a zoom meeting later this week and I have some questions, especially about our hotel in Auckland. I found and printed our reservation confirmation for 2/26 and 2/27 but we need to know what their check-in policy will be. We know we have a driver picking us up for transfer from the airport to the hotel, but we don’t think we can check in that early. We need to know if we can at least drop luggage there until we can check in. I’m guessing there are others in this situation but we don’t have that info. Last time on the zoom call, we learned that there are folks coming in early like us, others that are stopping in Hawaii for a few days and some flying in last minute to check in.  I’m guessing that as we get closer, we will need to call the hotel directly. That brings up another point. We need to sign up for international calls with Verizon. Lots of things to do!  

Tuesday, December 17^th., 2024……  We slept in this morning. It’s still dark now at 7:30am and with our blinds down, it’s like night in our room, so we don’t want to get up!  But no rain today!  The sun is shining! After walking and feeding the dogs, we went to work cleaning house. Cat is having her annual girl’s Christmas party tomorrow, so we did a deep clean this time. Corey asked to come over to do some work for some extra cash. We had him rake all the leaves out front. We don’t have large trees, but the ones we have are dropping like crazy and the driveway and beds on each side are pretty thick. He took the truckster out there and got several loads which Cat had him deposit on her raised bed in the backyard. She says that will insulate everything in there for the winter. Once we were done with the cleaning, Cathye was pooped out, so I went to the class today by myself. After that, we ate and rested for the evening. Spa and bed.

Wednesday, December 18^th., 2024…… Today was our zoom call and also Cat’s Christmas party for the girls. I was going to the Club meeting, so the girls would have the house. Our call was at 4:00pm which worked out because my meeting was at 6:00pm and Cat’s party was at 5:30pm. On the call, we got most of our questions answered. We knew about the weight limits for the cruise (none) but since we are flying, we have a 50 lb. limit before overage costs hit. We also knew that we were only allowed 44 lbs. for the land tour after the cruise. So, because we don’t have to dress for any of the dancing on the trip, and we will do laundry on the ship, we plan to be under the 44 lb. limit for the entire trip. Boy, it was fun hearing from the others about luggage. When we went to Alaska on the cruise, we drove directly to Seattle to board the ship, so we didn’t have weight limits and we packed everything we wanted. But, we weighed them anyway at home and both were under the 50 lb. number. Lindsey also talked about vaccinations (none needed), medications, flexible flights, dining for the group, and adaptor/converters for our devises. Aside from getting the adaptors, I think we are more prepared than most of our fellow travelers. We have to have visas – actually they are called ETA’s (electronic travel authority) for both New Zealand and Australia. We have done those and have documents printed. After the meeting, I emailed Lindsey copies of what we have just to verify that we have all we need. After we were wrapping up the meeting, Cathye’s girls starting arriving. A bit later, I headed off to my meeting. We go to Sum Yan where they let us use their banquet room. Of course we eat there! The meeting was lightly attended so it went pretty quickly. I reported out about the progress on the New Year’s dance. We are 90% ready! I still have some orders for decorations and party favors coming in from Amazon but for the most part we are ready. As for us personally, we need to go to Costco to pick up the hams. But with all we have going on the rest of the week, we probably won’t be able to go until next Tuesday!  I got back from the meeting and sat with the girls for a few minutes before they started to wrap up.

It was a busy day. Another one tomorrow.     

Thursday, December 19^th., 2024…… As I said, today was busy as well. We had the groomers for the pups and then massages for us. We went together to drop off the dogs, then came back to clean up from last night. We went back to pick them up, then I headed off to my appointment. Emily schedules 15 minutes in between our massages, so when I was getting dressed, Cat showed up. I left and came home to the dogs. After her massage, Cat always stops in next door and picks up Thai for dinner. It’s always good!  

Friday, December 20^th., 2024……  We had the kids coming tonight. They will be here at 3:00pm. Cathye bought family tickets for Glow, which is a Christmas light exhibit at the fairgrounds in Eugene. We had never been before but heard it was pretty good. And since the great grandkids said they wanted ‘an adventure’ for Christmas, this was perfect!  Cathye bought them grinch coverups and gave them to them and we were off. We had a time slot starting at 4:00pm. We would decide to either eat there, or wait and go somewhere afterward. We got vip parking right outside the door. I brought Cat’s walker for her to use because we didn’t know how much walking was involved. Vikki is at 16 weeks now, and, with twins, has gained so she would take it easy. Plus, she wasn’t feeling well. Cat snapped a pic of them in the car with Vikki bundled up and relaxing….

When we got inside, we got some hot chocolate and started in. I think we all enjoyed the whole experience, especially the kids because they had tons of interactive exhibits, but it wasn’t as large as we expected it to be. We saw and played and then rested

 

and then left. The decision was to head to The Olive Garden for dinner, which was maybe 10 minutes away. We got there before the crowd and had a really nice dinner. The kids had never been before so they especially liked ordering from the adult menus! Not the cheapest meal but it was all for them as a gift, so we were happy for that. They will be coming over on Christmas day but not until after dinner, so this was it for them from us!  Vikki left the table a few times, to go out for a smoke we guess, and had one while the rest of us were loading into the car. Once we got home, they loaded up Vikki in their car and they headed home. They are now back living in Salem so they had a little drive. Vikki said she was ok but just tired. Cat and I watched tv but both of us had a hard time keeping our eyes open, so, at 9:30pm, we headed off to bed!   

Saturday, December 21^st., 2024…… Today was the day we were going to take in the car for a scheduled windshield replacement. But, Cat heard from her niece (Heather) that she and Charley were coming down to spend time with her dad, and would Cat be home? So, I went to Keiser by myself. I had been there before when we replaced the windshield on Cat’s Tacoma a few years ago, so I knew where to go.  I had a 2:00pm appointment today, and Keiser is just above Salem, about 50 miles away, so I left about 12:30pm. I was early and just as I was getting there, I got a text asking me if I could come in early. I was there around 1:40pm so they took me right in. I waited in the lounge and they finished just before 3:00pm. When I got back home, everyone was still here. I think Cat said they were staying with her dad until Monday. A bit later, they left to go to one of Heather’s friend’s house for dinner, and we had leftovers from Olive Garden and settled in for the evening. Cathye asked when I got home if I wanted to go out tonight to the Club visitation in McMinnville, but after driving 100 miles (and I would have to backtrack and go past Salem another 50 miles), I said ‘no thanks, I’ll pass’. Plus, it was raining up north.  So, we stayed home and relaxed for the evening. Tv and spa and then bed.