Merry Christmas Everyone Brenda has been busy recapping all that we've been up to in 2011. We hope your 2011 adventure was a bunch of fun, too. Christmas Newsletter 2011   After 14 months, it is time to break camp and un-occupy Portland, but WOW, what a year this has been.    Biking: I will begin by telling you about our biking adventures.  To date we have biked 75 days and 930 miles.  Portland is definitely the biking capital of the Continental USA.    Some of our most fun rides were the organized ones.  Our first organized ride was on June 18. The 30 mile Petal/Pedal ride went through the Willamette Valley on a cold, wet Spring day. It was advertised as a journey that will make you fall in love with Oregon!  Hmmm?    Probably our most fun organized ride was the Bridge Pedal.  It was on August 14.  We, along with about 20,000 other bikers pedaled across six of Portland’s bridges. This is what we call Xtreme Biking; the word Epic also comes to mind.   Then, there were the Sunday Parkway rides, five total rides: East, North, NW/Downtown, Southeast and Northeast.  The streets are closed off to automobiles. Food booths, live entertainment and activities were at all the break spots. We were able to do four of these fun rides.  The ride on August 28 will be a forever fond memory - we pulled Lilah Rose in a Burley carrier attached to Co-Motion tandem and Steve and Andrea rode our Trek tandem.    Trips: We made it to Nashville/Knoxville one time this year. We had a great visit with Jonathan and Harriet the last week in May.  We went to The Tennessee Renaissance Festival located near Franklin. Our visit to Knoxville was super too.  We got to spend some good time with Daddy and Zoe who are doing great.  We went to Tom and Nancy’s cabin in Townsend, which is always fun and had a pizza night at Connie and Joe’s.  The weather was really nice so I was able to get some desperately needed sunshine and Vitamin D.    We did our fourth “Singing at Sea” cruise in February.  There were 26 fantastic Southern Gospel and Bluegrass Gospel groups that entertained.  No changes in the port of calls, Freeport, Half Moon Cay and Nassau.  It was a great week and we are signed up for the 2012 cruise.  We are thinking we may take a couple of our instruments and be a part of the talent show in 2012.    The 4th of July weekend, we traveled to WA to visit with John’s cousins in Seattle and Gig Harbor. It was fun getting to know some of John’s PNW family.   In September we went to Hawaii for an early 25th wedding celebration - “living the dream”. We cruised the islands on the NCL Pride of America: two days in Maui, one in Hilo, one in Kona, and two in Kaui (The Big Island).  We visited Lahina where we sat under a Banyan tree and ate at Forest Gump Shrimp Co. In Hilo, we took a bus tour of the volcano. And of course, we went to a Luau that included a train ride through a working plantation.   The last day on the ship we cruised up the breathtaking Napoli coast line. On our last day in Honolulu we toured the USS Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor - a very moving experience.   The next week we drove to Bend on the Oregon high desert where we spent the night before going to Crater Lake, famous for its deep, blue water.  The PNW is a huge area of wonderful and beautiful things to see and enjoy.    In October we did our California adventure.  Five nights in Calistoga at the north end of Napa Valley, a block away from the Silverado Trail (must do for bikers).  We spent three days on the 58 mile Road Less Traveled - very bike friendly and perfect weather.   On the fourth day went to San Francisco and biked from Fisherman’s Wharf across the Golden Gate Bridge down (!) to Sausalito. Now that was a thrilling ride!! We and about a hundred bikers took the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf.  Returning to Portland, we spent three nights on the coast at the Newport Belle B&B Paddle Wheeler.  It was wonderful.  We took one very nice bike ride along the jetties at Newport and did a little whale watching at DePoe Bay.  No whales sighted, just lots of sea lions and rare birds called Oyster Catchers.  Food – fresh & oh so good – Local Oceans, The Original Mo’s and Tidal Rave.   On our way back to Portland, we went to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where John got to see The Spruce Goose.   In addition to our big trips, John has kept me aptly entertained: lots of exploring Portland outings, day trips to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Air Museum, Mt. Hood Railroad Excursion, visited The Japanese Garden and The Chinese Garden and made several trips to the Woodburn Outlet Mall.   We were also able to attend five concerts: four Southern Gospel groups – The Crist Family, Jeff & Sherry, The Booth Brothers and The Triumphant Quartet - and The Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Rose Quarter Arena (a Christmas present from the children).    Portland Visitors: Our first visitors were Jonathan and Harriet.  They spent a few days with us in early June.  We did the tourists things - lighthouses and the falls along the Columbia River Gorge.  We also did the City Portland tour via the Max (light rail) and the downtown street cars.   Our buddies from Cornerstone Christian, Bob and Sue Black came for a week in early August.  We went to the Vista House, Multnomah Falls, Bonneville Dam, three of the capes and Cannon Beach.  It was a great week.   The last week in August, Steve, Andrea and Lilah Rose came for a visit.  Since Steve and Andrea lived in Portland, they pretty much showed us around.  It was great fun to wake up to the pitter patter of LR every morning.  She is undoubtedly the cutest, sweetest granddaughter ever!!   Our Portland Church: We are enjoying worshipping at St. John’s Christian Church.  John and I have led worship several times. We entertained for a fund raiser at the church in the Spring and again this Fall for what was going to be our “farewell pick and grin”.  We sang in the 2010 Christmas choir, the 2011 Easter Choir, and are excited to be a part of the 2011 Christmas choir before we move back to TN.  We will really miss Betty Fischer our super talented music director, our Sunday School Class, Pastor Glenn and Cathy and our Portland best friends Loren and Karen Lee.    I was in BSF and completed the study of Isaiah.  It was an awesome study, lots of it way over my head, but I certainly felt blessed by the end of the study.  And, I am currently in BSF studying the Acts of the Apostle.    Our Cat: Joe Cat has had a very good year.  He has so enjoyed being the ONLY cat.  I don’t know how I would have made it without him to keep me company while John was at work.  JoeCat has two sets of cat sitters and they both fight over who will be taking care of him. Our hope is that he will be able to blend back in and enjoy life with our Knoxville cats.     We had a late summer and now we are having an early winter – so I guess it is time to say goodbye to Portland and the PNW.  It has been an amazing year.  There are so many things I will miss about Portland, but Rocky Top is calling us home. In closing, we will be packing up our instruments, tandems and JoeCat and be TN bound on December 18.  We wish for all of you a blessed and Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.   Merry Christmas Y'all Brenda and John