After leaving Quebec, we drove on clear roads up the Saint Lawrence and then south to the Bay of Fundy.

We are greatly enjoying CBC radio. Very interesting local stories (first nation tribe in BC goes on traditional diet and loses weight/ MacMillin Cup Curling Championship) and then a short snippet about a Canadian recording artist, then a full song. Of course, lots about Eliot Spitzer, too.

Inn on the Cove, Saint John was lovely, if a little kitchy. The main house was built by Alexander Graham Bell for his gardener. We stayed in the annex with a fabulous view of the bay. The lighthouse across the sound flashed in the room every 15 seconds. Not bright enough to be annoying...it was actually very comforting. Just us for dinner with the owner/chef.

The next morning the sun rose right through our window. We walked to the end of the quiet road and back before breakfast when it was still very brisk. The tide was 40 feet below mean water. We hopped in the car for the market in Saint John...one of the oldest in Canada. We picked up PEI muscles for a song, along with garlic, shallots and parsley. Driving up the bay on back roads was a bit touchy. Tough weather buckles the pavement and the plows hammer big holes. We made slow progress, but we were rewarded with great views and managed to keep the oil pan.

We stopped to check out a provincial park boasting some rather odd rock formations sticking out of the murky Bay of Fundy, carved through millions of years of extreme tidal action. It was closed but allowed people to proceed at own risk (and without a ticket!). Recent rains had turned all the deciduous trees into a crystal forest.

From what we have seen, Halifax is gorgeous. We arrived right at that magic, purple-hour after the sunset. Our room at the Marriott Residence Inn is large with a baby kitchen. I ran up the street for a nice (but relatively inexpensive) bottle of white wine for the muscle broth; Polly got us settled in.

Probably against their will, the muscles cooperated, opened up and were delicious. We skipped from American Idol to Dumb and Dumber to Curling (Manitoba giving Alberta a run for their money, eh?).

Off to bed and ready for a new day of exploring Halifax...One more night here, then driving to the Cape to visit Mary Hampton, Newport to visit Andy and the old stomping grounds then off to NYC for a Saint Patty's weekend to remember...or not.

Love
Kenny

After a long night with howling winds and LOTS of plowing outside, we sprung the clocks forward, ate our complimentary croissant-cheese-jam breakfasts (hung in a basket on the door), and ventured out into the snowy, snowy cold. The weather was better, but still challenging (hoods required... excellent stroke of luck that I am now favoring Mom's frumpy-yet-functional Woolrich blue coat from the 1980's) Not as much wind as last night, pretty cold, still snowing. You gotta hand it to this city- they are ALL OVER the plowing. They have plows for the road, of course, but also plows for the sidewalks and the little baby alleys. They love to plow! Quebec is VERY EUROPEAN and VERY OLD... but you probably already knew that. Everything is in French, everybody speaks French, so it feels kind of like Chamoinix, in some very flat French Alps. We wandered all over the Upper Old Town in the morning, checked out the oh-so-imposing Hotel Frontenac, the city hall, Parliament, and a big old walled fort aptly called the Citadel. Did you know that this year is Quebec City's 400th birthday? We ended up in a very snowy park that hadn't been plowed, realized that anywhere we stepped we were up to our hips in snow, and carefully picked (and crawled) our way back to a plowed road. We considered donning our skis after watching a guy hiking the tops of the old city walls in his snowshoes, but by that time most of the city was getting slushy and we figured skis on top of old city walls would be too scary. The locals say this is the most snow they've had since 1950--- 4 meters throughout the winter, and probably 2 meters now (much, much higher in the snowpiles... see photo of Kenny standing as high as second floor of old building). We ate some lunch in our hotel room, had a little rest, then headed out again around 5pm. We checked out the lower part of the old city, wandered around on the banks of the St. Lawrence River/Seaway (which had by then changed directions and, chocked-full of ice, was somehow flowing upstream), and ended another long walk at "Le Patriarch," a restaurant recommended by our hotel. We were one of two couples in the place, sat next to a nice little gas fireplace, and proceeded to try quite a few french-Canadian delicacies.... shiitake ice-cream with foie gras, truffle-egg torte, rare caribou loin, lobster bisque with tarragon souffle, "wild game" consumme, maple/apple marzipan with cranberries, among other tasty treats. We left a bit poorer but quite pleased with the cooking and presentation, and now we're back in our hotel, packing, warming up, and getting ready to head for New Brunswick! Tomorrow we end up in St. Johns on the Bay of Fundy, at a place called "Inn on the Cove and Spa." Don't let the name fool you... winter rates were quite good for a "basic" room. Hopefully the weather will behave as we drive north and then east. We switch to Atlantic time! -Polly

A teary goodbye to Portland and we are on the road again for more adventures!

Last Thursday (has it been almost a week already?) my office at PGE took me out to lunch at a lovely restaurant in the neighborhood called Veritable Quandary. I chose the restaurant based on name alone...and chose the pizza simply because it had figs on it. It was one of those times in life where things are going so well that you indulge based on thin reasoning but it always works out to be very nice.

In a rare turn of events, Polly ate lunch with us. Unusual because she is usually being courted by lawyers at PC during the lunch hour. Polly had met most of the PGE crew before, but only in passing. Thanks to those guys for a wonderful summer. In true Kenny fashion, my last goodbye was not my last goodbye. I was invited to a cocktail hour the next night, so while there were hugs all around, they were only feints. One more appearance before I took off.

Thursday night we had dinner at Roy Tucker's house with Rose and Tony. Roy is a UB Law alum and originally from western New York. His wife is from Queens, a great athlete and very lovely. Shasta, the dog, was very entertaining. Lest you think all the coincidences are on Polly's side, Tony, a physician who lives in Portland, is originally from Lake Jackson, Texas. Ok, the similarities end there. We gave the old name game a try, but, since he is a little bit older, my sister would probably have better luck.

Friday morning I dropped Polly off at the office using the car. Strange how that feels when you both bike-commute into the city. I dragged four heavy boxes into the post office. Their trip back to Buffalo would be by mail truck and probably just as direct as ours. Laundry, final sweeps of the upstairs...what else?

To thank Natasha for a letting us take over a little more of her life than she was probably hoping for when she got involved with us, we took her out to dinner at the nicest restaurant we could think of, Hurleys. We were in front with the matre d' discussing our "lost" reservation when Ivan Gold stepped in. Long story short, while it looked like we might be headed elsewhere for a while, we were eventually seated. From his table, Ivan sent us an invitation to indulge in the wine of our choice. The chef's tasting menu was all surprises, so we don't know what we missed. Instead, we ordered every starter off the menu (we called it the guests' tasting menu...it paired nicely with the wine.

No deserts or fancy cocktails, we had to get up bright an early for an early start on the road.

This was our weekend in the PNW. We met C&D and the M&M's at Big Creek campground, 12 miles from Mt. Rainier National Park. Natasha joined in the fun. Highlights: C&D's mansion of a tent, a new cookstove that grills AND boils water, Kenny's fire-art, Kola and his potpourri leaf-coat, and lots of baby laughs.


Yummy banana rice cereal....














Fire and a slow shutter.














The mountain is out.




















C&D on the left, P, K and N on the right. Cosy.
















We head to Santa Rosa on Saturday, Rolling Hills mid-week, then we turn east.

If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dophins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you?

You'd be wrong though.

It's Hambone.

-Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Last weekend we convened in Chiloquin, Oregon for a Hampton family vacation. Em and Carsten and baby Jo had just returned to Sasebo, so they were busy having their own family reunion, but the rest of the gang made the journey from Lakewood, Santa Rosa, Seattle and Portland for a weekend at the Lonesome Duck Ranch.

Kenny, Polly, Charles, Diane, the M&M’s and Donna met up in Portland on Wednesday evening and made the trek to Crater Lake on Thursday, arriving at Lonesome Duck in time for dinner. The rest of the crew (APGO and Mark) arrived mid-day on Friday just in time for leftover pizza and a dip in the river. Friday and Saturday were spent on the Williamson… fishing, swimming, canoeing, snoozing, taking walks, and wildlife watching.

Mark treated a few of us to a half-day guided float, where Marlin picked out the right flies and Kenny and Charles landed some pretty darn big fish. Paul and Polly mostly practiced, but they got a few bumps on the line and maybe even landed a little guy or two.




Everyone had fun with the M&M’s, who are now working on their first teeth and some homemade banana and rice cereal. Sunday afternoon those us who aren’t retired or clever enough to be teachers headed back north for work, while APGO and the elders stayed behind for more relaxing and fishing.

We hope to see them in Portland and Seattle next weekend. For now, check out some great photos of the Hampton Reunion.

Five-four-three-two-wait.

Starting at the explosion would not do justice to the effort that went in to making this event happen.

It all started a long time ago when people thought it would be a good idea to harness the power of water to create electricity. And it is a good idea except that it and all the other strains have taken their toll on the diminishing salmon population. Even with fish ladders installed, 100 miles of the river were essentially unusable for salmon spawning habitat because of this dam obstruction.

Marmot Dam on the Sandy River is about an hour outside of Portland. For weeks and months prior to me getting out here, PGE has been planning to demolish the dam. Its useful life is at an end and they recognize it as a major environmental roadblock. The mission at Corporate Communications was to make a big deal out of it. To this end, hundreds of guests from conservation interest groups, elected officials and the media were on hand to witness the first explosion. It would be a blast weakening the concrete wall for heavy machinery to come in after and break up. If you were expecting a massive flow of water (like in the Emerald Forrest...remember that movie?) to follow you would be mistaken. That, of course, would be irresponsible however cool it may be.

For technical details, check out this great site http://www.marmotdam.com/

Many people at the utility were instrumental in putting on this smooth spectacle, but none were more important than Mark Fryburg and me. Mark basically ran the event and I helped to facilitate parking...now you may say, "parking doesn't sound very important." But think about it... Good parking is an event's first and last public impression...besides they new guy from governmental relations was working with me and he seems pretty important in the office.


Look at this parking job!













ONE!


















I am in Carhart overalls, you will respect my authoritay!