Melissa (lissa), Tracy (tracylyn75),
Vikki (purplenorsemen), Dotti & Al

in Vancouver, WA
April 21st - April 27th, 2006

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What a great time with Melissa, Tracy (tracylynn75) & Vikki (purplenorsemen).  They arrived on Friday, April 21st.  Tracy, Melissa and I picked up Vikki at the airport.  We were so giddy with excitement.  Nothing beats Zonie get togethers!  We then headed to the Heathman to get the girls checked in. 

After checking in we went to Red Lobster for a delicious meal and lots of laughs.  We only ordered 4 cheddar biscuits since they are a redlight food for all of us.  I told the waiter do NOT bring anymore to our table.  I certainly did not trust myself to stay away from them and this way we all had one to savor and no more to tempt.  After dinner we went back to the Heathman and visited and planned our next day.

On Saturday we went shopping in Portland.  We found Powell’s Book Store downtown and parked in their parking garage.  Now…that was an interesting experience.  Tracy’s Five Hundred was not exactly the right size (that would be compact LOL) to easily fit into the parking space, let alone go up the ramp to the right floor.  We made it but there was a lot of backing up and negotiating of corners & poles.  Those “beeps” when backing up and coming close to an object were a big help in that parking garage :lol   We all found some great buys and left happy campers.  When we got to the car of course we were all dreading getting out of the parking garage.  Vikki did great as a “ramp agent” guiding Tracy safely out of the garage.

After Powell’s we went in the direction of Beaverton, OR to find a stitching store Melissa wanted to check out.  We never did find it after dealing with backed up traffic, getting on the wrong road which we thought was the right road (we were yelling and screaming with joy that we got out of the backed up traffic to no traffic until we realized the backed up traffic was the RIGHT road to be on).  Fun times!  The road we ended up on headed back to Vancouver so we stayed on it since we had a 4 pm appointment for a pedicure at a little place not far from the Heathman.

Melissa & Tracy are experienced customers getting the pedicure.  This is the first time for Vikki & I and we were a little leary but jumped in and agreed to get it done.  I’m game to try most things once.  The jury is still out whether I’d do it again.  Some parts of it were wonderful; other parts were not my cup of tea.

The girls doing our pedicure were Vietnamese so Vikki and I had a hard time understanding them and being the newbies we are we didn’t know what we were doing.  Melissa and Tracy were at the other end just relaxing and enjoying their pedicures while Vikki and I were waiting in anticipation and fear LOL of the next “procedure”.  Vikki and I picked our nail polish colors (I had a sparkly deep rose like color & Vikki picked her favorite color purple).  Poor Vikki – she did not even get warm water for her feet; they ran out but being the trouper Vikki is she went ahead and used the cool water stating that it was okay since she was Canadian and used to COLD!  When it came to putting Vikki’s polish on her girl put it on “French” so she only got a sliver of color.  I remember telling Vikki, “I’ve never seen polish put on that way before” and Vikki replying, “Me either, maybe they are going to fill in later”.  :lol  Later we learned the girl was asking Vikki if she wanted “French” and Vikki replied, “Whatever”, not knowing what the girl was talking about. I was a little ahead of Vikki in my pedicure so she was watching very carefully to see what was being done to me.  When my girl started vigorously scrubbing the TOP of my foot, which was NOT pleasant, there was quite the grimace on Vikkis face.  She was hoping her girl wouldn’t do the same and was relieved when she didn’t.  All in all it was an interesting, fun, sometimes refreshing experience.  Would I ever do it again?  The jury is still out.  Our toes did look B-E-A-utiful!  I really liked the way my toes looked.

We visited a scrapbook store in the same strip mall for a bit before heading back to the Heathman for a rest before meeting Al & LeRoy at Newport Bay for a wonderful meal & visit.  What a great way to end an already great day.

Sunday found us heading to Seaside, OR on the Oregon coast. LeRoy had to head back home since he had to work the swing shift so we all met for breakfast at Shari’s before we went to the coast. 

Tracy, Melissa & Vikki followed us there.  The weather was AWESOME; just gorgeous.  It was truly a perfect beach day.  Melissa, Al & I even rode the carousel there. What a blast!  We hit the shops and then had a great meal at a local restaurant, Girtles.  Afterwards, Tracy was not feeling well with a severe headache, so she, Melissa & Vikki headed back to the Heathman while Al and I stayed on hitting a couple more shops before heading home the long way through Astoria, OR. 

On Monday morning I headed to the Heathman for a last breakfast with Melissa, Tracy & Vikki as Melissa & Tracy were going home shortly thereafter.  We had a short but fun visit. I took Vikki back to my house and got her settled in before we headed out to a craft store and then to the Portland Train Station. Vikki is a train buff so she had a blast.  When we got home Al, Vikki & I walked to Sweet Tomatoes (Vikki’s 1st time) and had a great OP meal while getting in 4 miles.

Tuesday was a fun day with Vikki.  Carole (Burtrude) called us that morning to see if we were headed in her direction and could we meet her for lunch.  Of course we could!  Silly question!  We knew the meal would be OP and the company wonderful. Plus, it was on our way to the Clackamas County History Museum at the Willamette Falls which we were planning on visiting.  The lunch with Carole was great and the museum was very nice with a breathtaking view of the Willamette Falls.  We saw about 6 eagles flying around too which was an added bonus.

I fixed our favorite meal for dinner, Tortellini Soup, and we tried some new breadsticks and crackers we found at Trader Joes.  Another OP meal under our belt and it felt great.

Wednesday was our last full day with Vikki so we wanted to do something special.  We decided to ride the Mt. Hood Railroad since Vikki has quite the interest in trains and it is something that Al and I have been wanting to do but never have.  We had a beautiful day for it.  Vikki and I packed an OP lunch and we had a nice picnic at our stop in Parkdale, OR.  We then walked around downtown Hood River (small) and visited the little shops there. We met some really nice people.  Vikki and I love talking and meeting with people so it was great!

On Thursday it was time to say goodbye to Vikki.  Al and I had such a wonderful visit with her and thoroughly enjoyed her company.  Zonie get togethers are truly the best.  If any of you ever get the chance to spend some time with Zonies please do it.  You will not be sorry and what a great time everyone will have.  We sure did!