MMM in the Americas 24-25

It's our longest stay, and Anne and Dave have been so generous sharing their home, food, car, and time. It's absolutely meeting our expectations of slowing down, hanging out, and doing homely things like cooking and sewing. It's so cosy and comfy! Their house is in a rural subdivision about 8 minutes drive from the town of Silverton, which is about an hour south of Portland amongst rolling hills similar to South Gippsland in Victoria. But greener - it rains a lot in Oregon state!

Mark and Anne met in Galapagos in 1998 and have stayed in touch (this is one of Anne's super powers), and I've been connected with her for a few years online. She and Dave missed out on our wedding in 2021 due to COVID.

It's been great getting to know both of them and their 2 Boston terriers. Anne is on leave from work so we got busy with a big sewing project (details to come). She's also done other community work for the local arts Centre and a co-op art gallery 'Lunaria' she exhibits in. Anne is so full of energy and is super generous, always making or doing things, usually for other people or the community. Mark has been accompanying her to swim laps most mornings. I went with her to 'first Friday', held monthly, at Lunaria - essentially late-night shopping with wine and snacks on offer while customers can talk to the artists - Anne introduced me to lots of the other artists and we had great chats 😀.

Dave is super nice, humble, skillful and funny 🤣 . He's been busy in the kitchen - he loves cooking and makes delicious meals 😄, and in his workshop - fixing various motorcycles and the car when it broke down. He also took Mark to the shooting range, for a ride in the old Datsun, and to the massive Costco store in nearby Salem (quite an experience, I heard).

We also went into town for the Goblin Walk for Halloween. This was essentially a mass trick or treat event in the middle of town, where businesses gave out treats to kids, as families paraded around in amazing costumes. I loved all the excellent dress-ups 🤩.

We've attended yoga and Pilates classes while here, and everyone is soooo friendly! Sara has been at every class, and convinced me to try Pilates, which has been great. We went out for coffee and discovered she lives in Anne & Dave's neighbourhood, so went over to say hi during our afternoon walk today; lovely to meet her husband too and see their HUGE hot rod car workshop.

I did another post about some gorgeous walks we did nearby, too.

We still have a few days left here, so I'll do another post to wrap up our stay here.

Update: the sewing project was a memory-quilt for Mary, made of several of her husband's shirts; he had died several months earlier due to illness. It felt really special to hear about him and be a big part of the quilt project. Anne presented the quilt to Mary in December (after finishing) while I was on a video call from Galapagos!もっと詳しく