The nice woman who gave us her window seat on the plane-ride home early yesterday morning turned to me as we finally de-boarded and said, "Is your baby always so happy?" After I made out with her right there in the aisle, I said, "Um, yeah, he's usually pretty good." And, folks, he is, he was. Our trip to Portland was lovely. He slept through the majority of both flights, and only awoke long enough to suck down a bottle or two and smile at some strangers. Even the hardened redneck who was our seatmate on the flight out turned to me at one point and said, "Well, my fears were for nothing."
I also did a lot of hand-wringing and panicking for, yes, nothing.
And Portland. Ooooh, Portland. What a ridiculously cool place you are! Not exactly the boring, flat, brown landscape I'm used to. There are mountains and trees and roses and hills and vineyards and beaches and, also, no sales tax. Did you know about this, Internet? You can just waltz into a store anywhere in Oregon and know right away if your debit card will be denied or not! Also, you can't pump your own gas in Oregon. It's kind of cute, in theory. Oh, look, it's raining. I'll just sit in my warm car while this nice attendant takes care of my errands for me. Life is hard in beautiful Portland! But, at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m., when you're already late for your flight and the rental car is on empty and the only on-duty attendant is having an intense conversation with a homeless man, it's far less cute. It's also not cute at all to try to pump it yourself (because the situation was dire!) and being yelled at by some bystander, "YOU'LL GET ARRESTED IF YOU DO THAT!" No one likes to be threatened with arrest that early in the morning. BEFORE CAFFEINE.
Small blemishes, though, in an otherwise perfect city/state.
I have so much more to say about the trip and Kyle's first vacation (he ate sand and snow, on the same trip!) and the friends we watched get married and the friends who let us crash at (and tear apart) their adorable home. I have things to say about the fantastic bloggers I met for dinner on Wednesday night and all the delicious and incredible meals we had during our trip, but I want to wait to say all that until I have pictures uploaded to include. So, be patient with me.
Until then, a brief glimpse into our first family vacation (but not our last, oh no):
We were in town for a wedding I was honored to be in (for my college roommate) and on Thursday night, Cherie and I joined the bride at a fun Peruvian tapas bar for her bachelorette soiree, and because Cherie's husband couldn't get out of class, Mike stepped up to watch all three babies while we inadvertently ate cow heart (oh, that's not a euphemism or code, although I WISH IT WERE). This picture captures the scene as we were leaving. Mike with a magazine and a beer. The babies plotting their coup. But, he survived! As did the babies! And we survived digesting heart by downing a bottle (or five) of some tasty Pinot Gris.
