Arts and Entertainment

The Willamette Valley is a 150-mile long valley in Oregon and was the terminus of the Oregon Trail. Some made it, others settled along the way, some branched off and went to California in search of gold. Others died, and some were born on the trail. I have always been fascinated by the Oregon Trail.

The terrorist attack that happened recently in Sri Lanka is horrific. But, if we are not familiar with a place or the people who experienced the horror, it quickly slips from our mind. Sri Lanka is a great destination and the people were very welcoming.

I spent Easter in Portland, Oregon, with my son, Jim. One of the things I wanted to do was to check out the Shanghai Tunnels so Jim booked the “Underground Walking Tour.” I had read that, in the 1800s, sailors were not eager so sign up to work on a ship headed to far-flung ports so a contractor would get sailors drunk and put them on a ship headed East.

In the early ’90s, shortly have my son, John, moved to Las Vegas we made a road trip to San Felipe, Mexico, never imagining the decades later he and his wife would buy a beach house there. It was a can’t-pass-up deal mainly because housing prices plummeted when the housing market went south so there were great deals to be had.