Holiday wishes to our team and our readers

Christmas eve, the middle of Hanukkah, and the snow is still gracing our area. Thinking of all and wishing the best for the holiday, however you celebrate.

2 months till we are off!

Just feeling a bit of excitement. It is snowy and icy here now and thoughts of warm weather and tropical fruit sound lucious. It is coming together gang. Hard to believe how quickly our departure date will arrive.

I am not sure what it means

but only the Rotarians were able to break awayearly for the tour. Stewart Martin, Vicki Yates and I spent a wonderful Wednesday afternoon with Ryan Wilcoxen touring his work place, Clear Creek Distillery.

Though I admit I found these photos on the web, we got the full tour and tasting and left with our favorites for ourselves and gifts. It truly was interesting and fragrant - they had just crushed the pears - but my personal favorite was the scent in the barrel room. If only I had the kind of bank account to buy my own 1/4 barrel of whiskey...I sure would! thanks again Ryan- what a great afternoon.

Our latest meeting on November 15th...

...included a potluck of delicious foods. And apparently one really strong stinky cheese that got a thumbs down from Trish! Ha - it was a part of my grand plan to ensure everyone was willing to try new foods - and all passed with flying colors. After the "Does this taste bad to you?" comment, we all dutifully checked by tasting it! This group is filled with adventurous spirits. Yeah team.

It's a small world

Yesterday I was riding with a friend on the streetcar, when a group of people got on. My friend noticed one of them wearing a jacket with the Rotary insignia on it. We asked one of the group if they were with Rotary. As it turns out, they are members of the Greater Clark County Rotary Club--the club sponsoring Trish for this trip and the same club that has a water project in Davao. We chatted a bit about GSE and this particular trip. All of them spoke highly of Trish, and their excitement about our opportunity. They also look forward to seeing pictures and hearing about our trip to their project in Davao. For me, this little experience only reinforced the great sense of connection that Rotary builds between people, even in small ways like a brief, friendly chat on public transit.

Greetings from Neahkahnie mountain

A few more pictures from Manzanita

Beach Trip more images from our beach walk

It was windy...oh wait, it is the Oregon coast, of course it was windy.


Trish looked glamorous.


Marie did not.


Hey - check out Stewarts home!


Whose feet are those??


What a beautiful sunset. Let's go drink wine.

Thank you Stewart!

Special thanks goes to our very generous host Stewart. We stayed at the lovely spindrift inn, got some work done and made an amazing dinner on a two burner kitchenette!

Beach Trip 10/18/08

ok, so we are still here at the coast, in Stewarts amazing home after a fabulous breakfast. We thought that if Trevor wanted a reason to break from his duties, he might check out the blog updates....Trish and Ryan took some great shots and we may need to post more than one entry to get them all on here.

These shots are us climbing Neahkanie Mountain, the group on the trail, us at the top, the veiw from the beach looking up and then some fun shots of us. Thanks to Stewart for guiding us up the trail, all of his amazing generosity, and supporting our group in so many ways!

Countdown till Manzanita...

just a reminder:

I will bring my computer (with powerpoint)and everyone will bring photos on memory sticks or disc that we can pull from (if you have them on a camera card, be sure you bring a compatible card reader), and rain gear. I am an avid fisherman and the rivers need more water, so I am hoping for rain. Sorry! LOL

See you in the morning!

Looking forward to next week...

Hi everyone,

I have been sort of slammed at work, as can happen to us all I am sure. Still, I am really looking forward to meeting at Trevor's next week, followed shortly by our trip to the coast. Remember to bring a copy of your passport, the insurance form once you get it, and any updates on projects.

See you all then, and in the meantime, I think we need a Blog Bio from Heath and Trevor and John! :-)

See you soon

Old Timey Filipina fashions. Pretty!

I have a friend at work who is from the Philippines. We occasionally chat about this experience. He has been a wealth of information. When I told him that we were getting Barong's, he emailed his sister. She sent these pictures. He also gave me a little legend about the Barong's that I can share when we next get together.

Who are these people? Ryan

Hi! I'm Ryan.

I have lived in Portland, Oregon for 8 years. Adventure brought me here, and the area's natural beauty and agricultural bounty have kept me here. Farms from this region produce amazing fruit of all sorts. I work for a company that capitalizes on that bounty.

Clear Creek Distillery is a small, artisan distillery in Portland. We make world class eaux-de-vie, also known as fruit brandies, liqueurs, and a single malt whiskey. I have worked there for the past two and a half years in production and operations. On any given day I might be bottling product, distilling brandy, crushing fruit, delivering orders to our distribution points, or working in the tasting room. I am also responsible for inventory management. I make sure we have all our component parts for bottling and labelling and that we have the cased product we need for shipment.

In my free time, I love to read, walk through the city, learn new things, and garden. Though I live in an apartment, I have a friend in the neighborhood that lets me keep a container garden in her backyard--in exchange for some of the food it produces. Here are a couple photos of my makeshift garden and the chickens that live there too:

I'm extremely excited about traveling to Davao and seeing what life is like there.

Apparently I am still giddy!

Last from Marie

Still more - sorry - there are lots of pictures!!