"the house that Henry built"….

Pittock Mansion…..Portland, Oregon

this was the location of the beautiful home I posted pictures of a couple of posts back…

if you ever find yourself in Portland I recommend visiting and taking the tour..

I'm packing a small suitcase again….about to board a plane and fly to Chicago….

the weather can change on a dime there….I once went in the market to do a bit of shopping…

when I returned to the car?? the temps dropped nearly twenty degrees and this California girl had forgotten she wasn't in Kansas anymore….

so I'll pack a few layers, camera and cell phone cord…

this will be a special trip….

just Mom and I going back home ……….and to my most cherished memories….

there'll be friends…and family…gathered together all under the roof of an English Cottage home…..

I'll walk the neighborhoods with memories of my own….

the cracks in the sidewalks, the elementary school where I played with jump ropes pretending horses were attached….

the church bells, the trains, the smell still lingering from my Grandpa's pipe smoke soaked deep into the cedar of the basements walls…his oversized desk still there atop the braided rug…..

the kitchen drawers with the pull knobs first installed over seven decades ago alongside pantry shelves where metal tins stuffed with crackers were stored safe from humidity…

the breezeway where hopes of card games can still be played if memory allows, a board game played between Aunt and Nephew bringing back days of summer fun from childhood...

it's said you can't go back home….who said that anyway?

a plane ticket or private thoughts will take you right back….

I best get to packing that sweater….I'm on my way to Oz…..