Pizzuti's Vineyard B&B

Charlene, Ansel, and Tony - Canby, Oregon

When we took the kids back to Salem last weekend we went on up to Canby and spent the night with long time Marshall friends Charlene and Tony. Charlene knew Terry (ansel's son) from college days, and had remained very close to Martina all these years. She and Tony usually travel over to Bend for the various Marshall Ann. and B-day celebrations.

Tony has his own little vineyard and vegetable garden behind their house and makes his own blend of wine from the grapes each fall. He says that is his therapy to go out and weed the garden and tend to his grapes. ( combined with being an avid Oregon Duck fan )

The weather was so nice the night we were there that we spent the evening on their patio visiting and sampling Tony's homemade wine.
Visiting with grandson Brendon, (or is it Brandon? sorry) son Mark, and daughter-in-law Mia while Tony cleans the pool.


Grampa Tony plays Ku Fu Panda

Here I am scolding the self timer on my camera ;o) Guess the camera got the last laugh!

Oh and did I mention the veggies and tomatoes they grow in their garden... and that leads to the canning and to the incredible Italian dishes that Charlene always fixes when we are there. Tony is the real deal as far as being an Italian. He, his brother and Mother were born and raised there, and immigrated to the United States when Tony was 9 years old. The boys didn't know anybody, didn't have any friends, didn't know a word of English and were thrown into the Portland, Oregon school system cold turkey with no one to help them learn the language or translate their Italian. The boys went to different schools so they didn't even have each other to hang out with or talk to. And guess what - - he learned English and survived, graduated high school, graduated from Oregon, passed the bar and is an Attorney at Law. <<< I'm smiling as I say... >>> Don't get him started on the subject of all the special treatment and bilingual programs we do for Hispanics. ;o)

Taylor learns to swim

It was important to me that Taylor who is 6 years old, get a jump start learning to swim. So while she was here last summer we went for a couple of private lessons at High Desert Oasis east of Bend. Kristie Lemon and her husband have a unique and beautiful swim and fitness spa nestled in the junipers and sage brush east of Bend. So for me, part of the reason for keeping the grand kids for a whole week this time was so that Taylor would have the opportunity to go for swim lessons 5 days in a row, so that each lesson could build on the next. In the top picture she is demonstrating that she has mastered floating, Below is a video, click the play button (arrow) to see it.

Congratulations Taylor ! You are AWESOME !!! Good Job !!!

Taylor and Kristie

Taylor and Tage in front of the wishing pool bridge. Tage, (pronounced Tay- ge, like sage with a T) turned 2 on June 14.

If you are in the Bend area, I highly recommend Kristie if you know anyone of any age who needs lessons or to take water aeobics. She is a terrific encourager, as well as instructor and has a magic way with kids and using fun to accomplish the swimming maneuvers. They also do personal fitness training and have a beautiful spacious room full of weight training equipment. Let's see, seems to me there is also a juice bar, massage room and sauna ;0)

Check out their website: http://www.bendfitandswim.com/index.htm

Sunday School traffic jam

Tage's first sunday school experience. He wasn't sure at first, but after he got the hang of it, he didn't want to leave when it was time to go.

Grampy Ansel with Pastor Ken of Westside Church as he introduces Taylor and Tage.

Happy Fathers Day Grampy Ansel with Taylor and Tage at Westside Church.

Fun with Grand Kids

Tage's favorite resting spot... on the "Mercedes Wheelbarrow", he's always ready to go... "Come on Mimi... isn't there something we need to use the cart for??? (note the parking block behind the rear tire :o)

Taylor helped Ansel feed the horses every morning.

Tage doesn't think much of Mimi's dinners. So much for the "you sit here until you eat this" method ;o) Click on the video below:

Helping Mimi plant petunias, and watering them too...

Sisters Rodeo - Slack

Sisters Rodeo was last week...

It's a great rodeo, but most often sold out, very hot and packed with people... It occured to me that they probably would be having slack on Thursday or Friday during the day and thought that might be a good thing to take the grand kids to and I knew Ansel would enjoy it. Going to watch slack would give the kids a dose of rodeo exposure without being tied to a cramped hot bleacher seat with who knows sitting beside us from start to finish... (meaning that seat mates might not appreciate a potentially wiggly, whiny, poopy two year old) so we drove up there, and sure enough, slack was going and seating for slack was free. Slack- ? my best explanation is that there are many more entries into a rodeo contest than you see at the paid performance. Rodeo planners have figured it out over the years that, you can have X-number of entries in X-number of classes that folks will enjoy sitting and watching for so long. So the runover entries do their runs during "slack" which preceeds the paid performance and then their scores and times are part of the overall rodeo. Tage and Ansel riveted to the bull dogging

Tage who turns two years old Friday June 20, was totally facinated with every event and every entry... his attention never wandered, he never stopped watching, and he wasn't ready to leave when I was. I think the format, of having the seats to ourselves and not dealing with the masses of people was really condusive to his having such a good time.
Taylor cheers and moans for the barrel racers. She figured out real fast which riders had the good times, and that when the barrel got knocked over it wasn't a good thing and she cheered accordingly.

We didn't really have the whole place to ourselves... there were lots of folks watching, they just happened to be sitting to our right, and across the arena. We got to see Joe Beaver (an 8 time World Champion) have a great Calf Roping run during the slack. He ended up 3rd.

next stop, Marion Forks Fish Hatchery

Marion Forks Fish Hatchery

We usually stop at the hatchery if the weather is half decent to let the little legs get stretched, and put some blood back in the buttocks. Truthfully, I don't think they make child safety seats very comfortable. Think about the little bit of material that covers hard plastic... I probably couldn't drive very far if I had to sit on that either. I think Ansel enjoyed the stop too. It was another first for him.

The Hatchery worker offered us a bucket of fish food to feed the bigger ones in the front pond. Taylor always enjoys that. This was the first time that Tage sort of knew what he was looking at.

Back in Oregon

Almost Home: After our storybook trip to see Big Brown and the Belmont Stakes Race, followed by a few relaxing days on Cape Cod, Wednesday June 11th we flew from Providence, RI. into PDX and drove to Salem to spend the night at Eric and Tiffiny's (my youngest son). Thursday morning we brought the grand kids, Taylor and Tage back to Bend. Well it was a leisurely drive with lots of stops along the way. We started out with breakfast at where else ???? Mcky D's... (Mimi strategically chose one that she knew didn't have a Play Area so we didn't have to say "no") Smiling for the self timer on Mimi's camera sitting on the next table

As we were driving up Highway 22, coming up towards Detroit Lake, we could see a lot of water being released from the Big Cliff Dam and Taylor wanted to see the water coming out of the dam... so since we had plenty of time and I went ahead and drove down there to get a good look at it.

Big Cliff Dam below Detroit Lake

Then as we got to the main Dam, Taylor said let's go look at this one too Mimi... so we pulled down there... to see what we could see ;-)

For those of you who have ever wondered what it looks like from the bottom of Detroit Dam. Here's the picture I got before we got shooed out of the very restricted area that we weren't allowed to be in. (but the gate was open, and there was no one there to stop us :-) Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River

My picture doesn't due the height and size of this 463' structure justice. I found the one below on the internet.

Small World

MASSACHUSETTS has really cool license plates:
I would be torn if I lived in MA, would I get a Nauset Light plate or a Red Sox plate???

SMALL WORLD:
Who'd a thunk it? Turns out my sister's best friend's husband who is a retired commercial airline pilot who grew up in Penn. spent a summer in his teen years in Riley, Oregon working on a hay ranch for a man who had race horses that Ansel knew !!!!
It was a treat one afternoon for Judy and Ted to drop by my sister's Cape Cod home and meet Ansel. I forget it was either Ted's dad or uncle whoe knew E.M. Bush who owned a large hay and cattle ranch at Riley, Oregon. They thought it would good for Ted to go out West and work in the hay fields for the summer. If I remember right, Ted took the train from Penn. to Ontario, Oregon and was picked up there. Riley is basically a post office, a two room elementary school, and a mom and pop grocery/convenience store and gas station 28 miles west of Burns, Oregon. I'm quite sure the population is less than 50. I knew the ranch well, it was one that Hoyt's owned, while I worked for them, it was know as the Green Valley Ranch. The ranch house was very unique, it had 9 bedrooms. Ansel says that Mrs. Bush ran an abortion clinic in Portland, and would bring women to the remote ranch to recooperate.

Bonnie and Judy graduated together from Nauset Regional HS. They were Nauseteers and have remained lifelong friends. While it was nice to reconnect with Judy, I was especially enamored with Judy's baby - an immaculately restored 1969 Mercedes 280SL with only 70K original miles.
Judy and Cyndy cruisn in style...

Touring with Dick

Dick loves his jeep. We found a just right step stool and Ansel was able to get in, and then Dick took us on a little tour. We even found a place to buy some old fashioned hard ice cream.

In years past we would have gone for a drive out to the "outer beach" to where the Outermost House, of Henry Beston fame once stood. The literary landmark was washed out to sea during storm of 1978. The outer beach was a spit of land that stretched half a mile or farther beyond the Coast Guard Station and was maybe 500 yards wide. There were several summer cottages out there nestled in the dunes. It was a great area for private cook outs on the beach, since you had to have a beach vehicle to get there. Now the area is closed due to the spotted plover living out there and they are an endangered species... well I didn't look it up, if not endangered they are protected anyway.

Coast Guard Beach looking south

Thumpertown Beach, Cape Cod Bay, Eastham, MA

These two pictures are from the bayside at low tide. The bay was a neat place to take young kids as you can see the little pools and sandbars. I remember razor clams that cut your feet and crabs that bit your toes... I preferred the ocean. Not sure if it was my adventuresome spirit... or that it was just what I was used to. We sort of had an attitude that the bayside beaches were for sissies. Ansel was intrigued by how far the water was, and that the boats were sitting on their sides. I wanted to go back and get a picture of the moored boats at high tide so he could see the difference, but ran out of time.
The moored boat belongs to a beach house to the right of the picture. It lives there for the summer, and when they want to use it, they take a dingy out when the tide is up and switch the boats, leaving the dingy on the mooring while they use the boat.

Summer thunder and lightening storms over the bay were always pretty entertaining. It was odd looking at the bay and not seeing the Target Ship on the horizon. There used to be a decommissioned Navy ship out in the middle of the bay. It was grounded there on purpose for military training exercises. Growing up, we called it the Target Ship, as it was used for target practice by the Air Force. If you go to the Cape Cod map in an earlier post, there is a gray area on the west end of the Cape, and that was Otis Air Force Base. Now I think it is Air National Guard. Anyway going to bay at night was another special night time thing to go to the bay for was to watch them practice after dark. Not sure the chemical make up of what they dropped from the bombers on the Target Ship, but they would flare and light up as they dropped and you could hear the boom. Over the years... 60 I assume, with the combination of the salt water and weather it has deteriorated into oblivion and is no more.

I just googled it... the "Target Ship in Cape Cod Bay, was originally the USS James Longstreet, a war time emergency cargo freighter. In 1943 it ran aground off New Jersey and was declared a total loss, so the Navy took possession of it and in 1944 placed it in Cape Cod Bay for guided missle bombing practice. Here are some pictures of how I remembered it from my childhood.

Sunset on Cape Cod Bay

Bombers dropping missles on the "target ship"

Pilgrims Progress

I grew up with "rotaries", here in Central Oregon they began installing them and they are called "round-a-bouts. They seem to think they created them. The rotary noted in this pictures is at the Eastham/Orleans townline.

Below is my beloved Nauset Light. The pic was taken with my cell phone during my last visit. The lighthouse was on the bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, 1/8 mile north of Coast Guard Beach at Nauset Beach (imagine that?). Back in the 90's due to erosion, it was literally within danger of being swept over the bluff into the ocean. A non-profit was formed to raise the funds to move it to it's present location. When Bonnie and I took Ansel to see the lighthouse, I asked him if he saw anything familiar? He snorted and said why yes there are all kinds of pictures of that lighthouse in my house.Then we took a drive to Provincetown. The town on the very tip of the Cape. It is a Portuguese fishing village. The number one priority for me, was to get a loaf of Portuguese Sweet Bread from "the" Portuguese Bakery on Commercial St. mmmm, the only thing close I ever had, is Hawaiian sweet bread. Mission accomplished, and the loaf of bread was eaten as a snack when we got home.

MacMillan Wharf, Provincetown Hah-ba :0)

This is the Pilgrim Monument... built in 1910 to honor the Pilgrim's first landing on American shores and where the Mayflower Compact was created. It is 252' tall with a 360 degree viewing area. I believe it is completely made out of granite. (New England is home to many granite quarries) Several times as a kid I made the trek up however many stairs there are to the top of this masterpiece. Forty years ago, in all it's majesty the monument could be seen on the horizon from anywhere on the Cape, now the trees make it impossible.

more Cape Cod

My family's home is 3/4 of a mile from Coast Guard beach and I sooooo took it for granted when I was growing up there. I thought nothing of riding my horse on the beach and in the surf all the time. Former Secretary of Defense, Elliott Richardson's family estate was near by, also within the Nat'l Park, and was a popular place for me to ride. They had lots and lots of open - cedar tree dotted pasture that overlooked Nauset Marsh. One time Mr. Richardson caught me, and told me I was trespassing on private property... I was a smart little tart, and whipped back to him that "hmmmm, this wasn't private property it was the Cape Cod Nat'l Seashore Park, and my Dad paid his taxes, and therefore I had every right to be there (on the Nat'l Park) He called my Dad that night, and told him he needed to do something about me !!! My Dad just chuckled.

Monday afternoon after taking Ansel on the mini tour down to Provincetown, Ansel was ready for an afternoon nap. So while he napped my sister and I decided to run down to the beach to cool off. It was sooo hot and the ocean water felt soooo good. It was probably 58-60 degrees. Amazing how that can seem refreshing but it was. I enjoyed watching these city kids run from the waves.

Cape Cod primer

The green depicts the Cape Cod National Seashore Park, and the red arrow shows

Eastham, where Nauset Light and Coast Guard Beach are. The town of Eastham is apprx. 3 miles wide.

Cape Cod, known as "The Cape" is shaped like an arm. The bicep part of the arm closest to the mainland is called the 'upper cape' and the fore arm, wrist and fist - farthest from the mainland is referred to as the 'lower cape'. The town of Chatham would be the elbow. This is all admittedly a little oxy-moronish since much of the 'lower cape' is actually north of the 'upper cape'. Cape Cod was shaped by glaciers on all sides and it’s really just a large sand bar. Cape Cod was discovered by Gosnold Champlain in 1607, the pilgrims arrived and looked it over in 1920, first mooring the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay, and sending a scouting boat to explore the Cape lands on the bayside. When they landed at Eastham, they had their First Encounter with the Wampanoag Indians... the bayside beach is thus named First Encounter Beach with a small monument documenting the event. The Pilgrims ended up sailing west across the bay to land near Plimouth, MA.

'Upper' Cape towns include Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. 'Mid' Cape towns include Barnstable, Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, and Yarmouth. 'Lower' Cape towns include Chatham, Eastham, Orleans, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet. For those curious, the Kennedy Compound is at Hyannisport (not shown) just west of Yarmouth.

Cape Cod, quaint little villages here and there...

Funny... those of you who know Ansel well, know that he often recites lyrics, from popular songs of yore... he remembered Patty Page very well, but couldn't remember her infamous song Old Cape Cod... he could almost do most of the Tennessee Waltz... but no glimmer of recognition of Old Cape Cod... of course growing up on the Cape... it was a banner song... I assumed everyone born before 1945 knew it.


Our destination is 5 MacPherson Way, Eastham, Mass.. My family home, that my sister Bonnie and her husband Dick now own. My father built the house in 1956. Both my mother and father were raised in Quincy, MA a suburb of Boston… Quincy is probably most well known as home to the John Adams. They purchased the 3 acres on Cape Cod in 1955 and lived in an army tent on the property while building the house. I am the youngest of four. My mother's sister, "Ah"ntie Bert bought the adjoining property and built a quaint little house 1/8 of a mile up the road. She was a single mother with two boys, so the six of us kids were all raised together.

When my mother died in 1995, Bonnie and Dick were able to purchase the home from the estate and keep it in the family. I suppose of all the siblings, I benefit the most since I live so far away and that is where I stay when I visit. Bonnie and Dick have done a considerable amount of updating and remodeling, but the house is basically the same. It sits within the Cape Cod National Seashore Park, which preserves the 30 miles of ocean shoreline from Eastham to Provincetown. The park was created in 1963 and it just about takes an act of Congress just to build a privacy fence. The Stevens house across the way, was built in the 1700’s. The town of Eastham was incorporated in 1651, farming of asparagus and white turnips was the main industry as Eastham didn’t have a harbor, oh yeah, I mean "hah-ba".

Ansel enjoyed meeting my sister and family. The first night we were there we had a delicious bbq dinner on the deck. Megan (the middle niece) and her family came over to join us and meet Ansel. Bonnie, Brandon, Scott, Blake Bruce, Megan and Dick

Ansel as close to putting his toes in the sand as he's gonna get. We just couldn't convince him that taking his boots off and pushing his bear toes down into the white sands was the thing to do... We are at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, this is on thet eastern shore of the Cape which runs north and south in the Atlantic ocean SW of Boston. We used tell visitors that this was as close as you'd probably ever get to Spain. (However I think Maine probably has us beat, but that's what we used say anyhow)Bonnie is explaining how much of the beach has been washed away by storms over the last 30 years.

The Coast Guard Station now serves as dorm and school site for educational groups to come for field trips. The Coast Guard stopped using it in an official capasity in the 60's. It is now a restored landmark.

Again... the scooter was a life saver. I certainly makes all things possible for Ansel to see and get close to... It was the best purchase yet. (this trip I kept the battery charger with the scooter)