Mary learns the ways of wine.

Capi and I wanted to get out and do something, so we met with some friends and went on a wine tour.  Here is a view from the parking garage ourside of Beaverton.  Look at the view here.

But the views at the first winery we went to was even better.  So beautiful!

So many wines to choose from.  The two young ladies at this winery were so helpful and fun.  I think we all really enjoyed it here and I'm looking forward to taking Mark here sometime soon.

Capi enjoying the sunshine.

Mary enjoying the sunshine.

Those views!

The gangs all here!

I didn't take many pictures at the next winery.  I"m not sure why, and the funny thing is this is one of the pictures I took.  Really? I didn't think I'd had that much wine.....

Our driver was great.  And the young lady in the picture works at the winery: she's the daughter of the owners, has grown up on the winery, and we all just adored her. 

Hi Capi!  If you get the chance, check this place out.  I highly recommend it, and the previous winery.

Liked the looks of this!

 Oh you silly, silly girl!

Yes Mary Jo: Mary is drinking wine!  Can you believe it?  Still mainly a beer kind of gal, but am willing to learn to like me some wine.

I guess I'm not walking over here.

We weren't impressed by the winery in Hood River, but the view is always nice here.

Here we are, our tour is done, and ready to head out to dinner.  Wonderful day!!

Oh the places you'll go in Holland!

Time to start updating more pictures from our trip (my Dad loved them, so I'm loving putting them out there for him to see!).  We went to the old city in Holland.  Look at the church we came across.  Wow.

 Mark read the provided guide.  Lots of good information.

For instance: this is a painting of a young woman who was being pressured to marry a pagan king.  She didn't want to, prayed, and overnight God grew her a full beard so the king wouldn't want to marry her.  But sad to say she was crucified.

I loved the colors used in the church.

Lovedthe art throughout the country.  Loved it!

I was drawn to the buildings.  Wouldn't you be?

This is a resturant.

 Mark got pretty excited: he'd seen this cannon in a book and ran down to check it out.

This is one happy husband!

 We discovered a bridge.

On the other side of the bridge was a carnival. I adored the tent!!

 We couldn't figure out what this sign meant.  Did it mean that it was dangerous and you had to hold your child's hand at all times?  I later asked Cari and she said this meant walking only, and no cars or bikes.  Oh.  Glad it wasn't dangerous.

We wandered over to check out the chapels.  Or should I say what remains.  The castle here was taken apart to use the materials for building other buildings (believe it or not), but they did stop with this part of the chapel.  Thank goodness they saved part of it!

Impressive.

I found this very interesting.  SO glad they didn't tear the entire chapel down.

This is the other chapel for the castle.  The only parts of the castle that remain are the two chapels.  That was sad to realize.

This is a modle of how the caste looked.  I sure would have liked to have seen it intact. 

 \So glad this chapel is still intact.

Wandered through the park

Admired the art.

We started back to the train station.  I loved exploring Holland!!

Street Art in Amsterdam

One thing I really enjoyed was the street art.  So many colors.

 
 This was one of my favorite pieces.  Loved the colors and the subject!

 Happiness!

This is near Cari's place.  So many different types of art!  And notice the phrase 'if only I could...'  I'll be back to that.

Go Rapture!

Yelling!

Hmmmm......

 This was near by one of the churches we toured.

Remember the phrase in an earlier photo?  This is a very popular street artist.  Last year on our first night in Amsterdam Cari took us to his art show.  He's doing quite well.

In fact he has a showing at this time at Weiden & Kennedy.  I love it when people follow their passions. 

A tree falls in Amsterdam

During my last week I met Cari for lunch.  As we walked to our destination we discovered a tree that had fallen.  Amazing! 

Thank goodness not much damage was done, and no one was hurt.  But lots and lots of folks were like us, taking pictures and such.  Cari said she's not seen anything like this since she's been in Amsterdam. 

We made it to lunch.  The small bottles of sparkling ice tea always amuse me. 

They provided candy hearts in Dutch.  Loved that!  Going to have Cari send me some next year!

As we sat at lunch the crews arrived to fix the issue.  They were on the screne quickly.

We walked over the bridge, taking pictures from a different viewpoint.

View across the street. 

We ended the lunch with lovely, lovely chocolates.  Oh my, Mommy likes going to lunch with Cari.