London 2011

Betty and I made a stop in London for a visit with my friend Marianna. It was so nice to be able to stay with Marianna and Pat. Instead of just doing tourist attractions, we did some things that Marianna knows and loves. We went to tea at the Dukes Hotel, joined her at a pub with her American friends (that's the picture of us with the hats on), went to Borough Market (fun and amazing), cruised on the Thames, went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey, went to Greenwich, walked the Regent Canal with Marianna and Pat on our way to a Camden Town tour, took a downtown walking tour, and just had the greatest time. It was so relaxing staying at Marianna & Pat's place and eating some wonderful dinners there. I just loved their espresso machine (I really did) and I always looked forward to getting up to a magnificent up a coffee each morning.

Camden Town
Regent's Canal

Princess Anne was going to have dinner here in the evening.

Abbey Road

This is were we stayed.

Camden Town

Borough Market

At the Pub for a drink

Tea at Dukes Hotel

Portland in March

I went to visit Portland (Chris, Jess, Maryn & Lucy) in March and I am now finally getting around to adding these pictures to my blog. My problem is that I can’t limit the number of pictures that I wanted to post. We did so much and had such a great time. We went to the Tillamook Factory, explored a park with friends, went to the Oregon Museum of Science, did lots of fashion shows, went shopping (their favorite was Ikea), played games, did indoor water play and foot massages (Maryn and Lucy loved this). I had such a great time. The fun just never stopped. 3 and 5 is a perfect age for fun. So, here are the pictures without too much comment.

Good times at IKEA

Oregon Museum of Science

These are the little chickie toys that I brought them from Mexico.

These pastries were so good. It's a must try if you are ever in Beaverton.

This technique is called something like, underdogging. Only young mothers can do it or the swing clobbers you. Jess is running under Lucy on the upswing.

Aren't these pretty? They were blooming by the front door.

Foot Massage time!

Here weare at Tillamook!

Let the fashion show begin!

Here is Maryn looking quite lovely.

Lucy has a special sense of fashion. She not only wore this bathing suit out on a cold day when we were shopping, but she also slept in it.

Here we are at The Gap. Maryn is still in her fashion mode. Priceless!

Oh, this must be the tea party for the stuffed animals.

Ixtapan dela Sal in February

This is the second year I've headed to this spa in Mexico with friends in February. It is such a wonderful luxury and fun time. We have massages daily, facials, hair treatments, manicures, reflexology, golf lessons, salsa classes, morning walks and much more. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it is like. One of my favorite events is the open market on Sundays in the local town. It gives a real sense of life in this lovely town. (I'm really slow at posting this, but I decided that I needed to do it. At the end of the year I look at my posts to see what I have been up to and I needed to include this.)

Here is Cris, Linda and me standing by one of the many fountains near the pool.
This was after I had my hair styled. We thought we should take pictures before we messed it up.

This was taken while we shopped in the town of Taxco.

Here we are headed into Taxco. It is about an hour from Ixtapan dela Sal.

One of my golf lessons. Since I only play in Mexico, I was pleased to find out that I could actually hit the ball fairly straight. One of our yummy lunches!

We had cocktail hour in one of our rooms every evening. Here I am with Cris, my roommate.

Linda, Carol Y. and Cris in town at the marketplace. The next group of pictures are all from our visit to Ixtapan on Sunday. It's colorful and busy.

Here we are having drink before our last dinner at the spa.

This was one of our spa lunches outside by the pool. It's pretty easy to get used to spa life. I highly recommend it.