Portland
With the month and a half to get everything ready before departing to Portugal we wanted to see the family before leaving. Our first visit was to Portland Oregon to see Mary Kay's sister Leigh Ann her husband Allan and our nieces Natalie and Amanda. The weather was a cool 50 to 60 degrees with a couple of days with rain, for the four days we were there which was typical for the season, but little cold for our thinned California blood.
While here we will be visiting Mary Kay's mother Gloria and work out the transfer of her care to Leigh Ann. We visited Mary Kay's mother who is in a memory care unit with Alzheimer's and she looked healthy but did not recognize Mary Kay and barely recognizes Leigh Ann who visits her regularly. It is such a shame that Alzheimer's robs you of you memories and personality. Watching her mother deteriorate and knowing there is literally nothing you can to do make the situation better is hard on Mary Kay and her sisters. Soon you realize it’s all in the little things – like just keeping them company for a few hours which Leigh Ann and her family has been doing for the past years. We are both thankful for her regular caring visits that we know preserved some of Gloria's family connections for a longer time with the progression of the disease. Now Leigh Ann is taking over the responsibilities that Mary Kay has had concerning the financial and medical care decisions for their mother. We feel very fortunate that Leigh Ann is now there for us as well, freeing us to pursue our plans to move abroad. One thing that is evident in my joining this family is all Mary Kay's sisters have strong loving connection with each other and are ready to be there to support each other. We can thank their mother Gloria for instilling and nurturing that loving bond and it is a legacy that Alzheimer's cannot take away.
We were fortunate that we were able to see our nieces who have grown to be truly smart, and beautiful women who have a great sense of self. Amanda the youngest is moving in with her older sister Natalie who has been living on her own for a while and whose roommate recently moved. So there was the bustle of the transition in the house and some shopping for Amanda's additions to the apartment.
We were there for the annual Portland Winter Lights Festival that takes place along the river in downtown Portland. Portland is city that seems to appreciate quirk and art, there's something to be said for the festival. A number of the exhibits were amazing! There were static displays and projected displays as well as interactive works even the bridges were utilized as canvases for the laser art. I enjoyed a lot of the functional sculptures that were lit by fire and sprinkled into the plazas along the route people would gather around to share both the warmth and beauty. Overall it was really creative and well done and you could see people quite enjoying themselves. There were tons of families engaging, many people dressed in outfits with lights and glow sticks. Enjoying the festival and walking along the river, experiencing these type of community events are the things l like best when visiting a city.
Phoenix
2/29 We packed up an 8'x 4' uhaul trailer filled to the top with all of Lauren's stuff that she left behind plus a few family items that she wanted of our things to take to Austin. Shiela is joining us to see if she gets along with Lauren's dog and can make her home in Austin.
Our first stop is in Mesa AZ to visit my older brother Jack and his wife Janice and my youngest brother Jim, his wife Andrea and our neice Marisa. While we are here we also plan to go to the Innings Festival that is going on that weekend. My brothers coordinated a joint lunch for all of us to see each other on Saturday. It was great to get together with them because it had been several years since we all saw each other which was at my sister Jeanine daughter's wedding in California. Jack and Janice have settled in to retirement and seem to be enjoying life. They are busy with their grand children and pursuing their hobbies. We are still new to the retirement stage and have been so busy getting things done to move to Portugal that it hasn't settled in yet. Jim and his family are new residents to Arizona and moved there two weeks ago from Santee, Ca. So they are still organizing their house and settling in. Our neice Marisa is 14 and is finding out what it is like to be the new kid in school like her father and uncles and aunt had to. The good news is that if she had to move the timing was as good as it could be. She will be able to attend all 4 years of high school in the same school where most of the long term friendships are usually made.
That evening we went to the Innings Concert in Tempe Beach Park adjacent to ASU campus. The weather was great for the outdoor venue, not too hot in the 70's. We were there to see Portugal The Man and Dave Mathews Band for the first night. We were smart to buy the upgraded tickets that had a private pavillion with seating, restrooms and its own bar. They also provided free water and sodas. It was purched on a hill so sitting there you could see and hear the artists on the big stage. We met a couple of guys sitting at our table who were in their 50s that go to the concert regularly. One flew in from Boston to see Dave Mathews for the 10th time. They were really into music and we had an interesting discussion about the evolution of music over the past 40 years and we discovered that we had very similar taste in music and shared many of the same perspective on various artists and music in general.Portugal the Man played for one hour. Prior to entering the stage Beavis and Butthead gave an introductory video with remarks claiming Portugal. The Man is greater than “The Beatles" and are the best band in the world. I have to say .... Beavis and Butthead need to hear more Beatles music....The band boasted of a 'computer free performance,' but played songs that had been heavily synthesized in the recording studio. The result of this was that a few songs didn't quite translate well. Any true music lover will tell you firsthand though that they will gladly make that sacrifice if it means they can listen to real instruments. Plus, Portugal. The Man's rendition of their older songs made up for this slight shortcoming. All in all they gave a good performance, that had interesting and irreverent special effects to enhance their performance.Dave Mathews Band was next. The set started with a dark version of “Don’t Drink the Water.” Matthews greeted the fans, ”What a wonderful place to have a festival.” The band was off and running and Matthews seemed to be in rare form as he relished the love coming from the huge crowd. He played amazing guitar and seemed much less shy than when Mary Kay and I saw him the last time. The band covered The Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Runnin’” and their keyboardist sang Rufus’ funky “Tell Me Something Good.” which translated well with the crowd. The band members had the freedom to deliver their epic, immense talent throughout the show. As much as we enjoyed the show, we remember them being much better when we first saw them in LA.The next day we took the train to the concert and saved ourselves $70.00 of uber fees. We were now old pros to the festival and had the lay of the land and knew where we wanted to watch Weezer perform.It started as a surprising raucous set from British rock and rollers, The Struts. The band burst on the stage like they were The Rolling Stones filled with attitude and glamour of the glitter bands of old. The frontman has the swagger to carry off one of the most fun shows we saw at the festival. By the time the glitter-faced singer got to “Body Talks,” the crowd was totally enraptured singing and swaying to the beat of the band. They gave a great rock & roll performance that had similar sound that reminded me of the short lived band Jet.We skipped seeing Death Cab For Cutie on the second stage to insure we had good seats in the pavilion to see Weezer. We had seen Death Cab a few months earlier so it was ok. We made the right decision because everything filled up 45 to 30 minutes before Weezer came on.They started the set with “Buddy Holly” and “Undone – the Sweater Song.” Weezer also performed several cover songs including “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Africa,” “Take on Me,” and “Lithium.” It was a concert that took on some rock nostalgia. They have such versatility and diverse music and are all amazing musicians. It was a great way to end the weekend.
Austin
We were on the road for two days and finally arrived at D'laine's house on Tuesday afternoon. We unloaded the all of Lauren's "stuff" there since she plans to move in in June after her lease expires.
D’laine’s dad was being indentured by his daughter to work on the installation of the new dishwasher for the place, so we got a chance to see him for a bit. They have done a lot of work on the inside of the house since our last visit and we liked the new kitchen colors of blues and greys over the previous yellow color. They showed us the additions of accent walls and décor changes that have made the house more personal and comfortable.
One of the other reasons we came was to see if Sheila could get along with Lauren’s and D’Laine’s dogs. Sheila was not in a very social mood and not interested in being part of a new pack. It became evident that Sheila was not going to be able to live with Lauren, so we need to look at other options
.We stayed in Lauren’s place for the three days were in Austin and were able to relax and decompress from the work we were doing to get the house ready to lease. We got a chance to have dinner with D’laine’s father at a nice BBQ restaurant and were able to catch up on things with him. All in all it was a nice low key visit.