Day 2 - Adorable Portland

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." --Mark Twain

The goal on Day 2 was to experience as much of Portland as we could in one day. I was curious as to how the kids would handle this venture. They generally don't love the big cities. They hated Seattle. And grumpiness abounded during our 24 hours in San Francisco. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that we pulled into our San Francisco hotel late at night only to discover that we were in the shady part of town. We spent the next hour counting rats running across the pipes in the parking garage as well as police sirens. We stopped at 15. All of this while praying for Neil's life as he and Ryan stood in obscure corners of the parking garage trying to get Wi-fi so we could find a new hotel. 

Or their chagrin may have been a result of the next evening, when after watching the 4th of July fireworks on the bay, we realized that the streetcars were shut down due to excessive traffic, so we ended up walking 27 blocks up and down the 90 degree streets of San Fran at midnight in nothing but our flip-flops. What I refer to as a family adventure, the kids call child abuse. Oh well.

So we don't have a very good track record when it comes to urban America, but I thought that Portland might be different. For a big city, Portland is very intimate. It is clean and quaint. Even the homeless folks are charming and polite. The children seemed to take to the city. There was virtually no complaint. I believe we did an awesome job of capturing the essence of the city in a short time.

We rode the public transit. We got pretty good at sniffing out Max stations, although we always arrived just as the Max was pulling out. Oh well, it just meant more time to rest our feet and catch up on some reading.

We enjoyed this particular stop, where the whole street was covered in punctuation marks. Perfect for this booky family.

No, that is not photo-shopped, that is indeed a question mark etched into the sidewalk. Love it!

Our first destination was Washington Park where we were excited to see the Japanese Tea Gardens. We thought we would walk through the city for awhile and eventually catch a shuttle to the park, which sits perched on a bit of a hill. We walked, and walked, and walked yet some more, never coming across this so-called shuttle. This was becoming a little reminiscent of San Fran. We finally stopped to get our bearings only to realize we were standing at the foot of the back end of the 400 acre park. That's what I love about these big cities. If you walk long enough, you're bound to end up at your destination.

It did take another half mile of traipsing through the back forests of the park before we stumbled upon anything familiar...The Holocaust Memorial! How delightful! That was one of the sights on my list. Neil and I visited this sight last year, and I really wanted the kids to experience it. 

It is a simple monument really, placed in a lush green setting.  The poignancy of the quotes scattered across the rock, touch and break your heart. I don't know if the kids really understood the magnitude of this destructive period in our history. I don't think I even understood how many lives were affected. More than the Jews were targeted. The mentally and physically handicapped were euphemized, as was anyone else who was different. 

This symbol of the cherished items ripped from the hands of the Jewish people as they were whisked off to their deaths hit the kids pretty hard.

It's important to teach our children the significance of such a dark time in our history, so that they will have feelings of tenderness and tolerance towards all of God's children, and so that such atrocities will not be repeated.

  This statement was found scribbled on a little piece of paper in one of the concentration camps. We all had our little cries this beautiful morning in Portland.

Now we were off to the Japanese Tea Gardens...but first, a stop in the Rose Gardens.

The Japanese Gardens were pricey but beautiful. Running through the gardens with the kids was a little different than when Neil and I meandered through just the two of us. Not quite as much slowly moving from place to place, becoming one with nature and God. It was more like a sporadic bouncing from one spot to the next with a determined mother demanding that the kids stop for an occasional photo. Oh well, I'll find Zen in my way, and let the children find their's in their own way. 

I've always been a bit of a neigh-sayer when it comes to the whole Asian meditation thing. But I must say, it really was relaxing to the mind and body to be among this perfect balance of stone, wood, water, and plants. Maybe the Asians have something here. 

We were now starving! We followed the sign that pointed us to a Max station. Well, apparently the arrow meant that if you walk that direction, eventually, at some point, in maybe five miles, you may come across a train. After walking a mile, uphill, we decided to walk back to the gardens and catch a bus. Getting from one place to the next in big cities is always a treat.

Thank heavens for a pod of food carts. Grilled Cheese for Jess, Teriyaki Chicken for Sabrina (sadly, there was no fried chicken), a gyro for Neil, and tacos for the rest of us.

We made friends with these little guys whilst enjoying our lunches.

Final stop of the day, and the most anticipated, was Powell's Bookstore. It is the third biggest bookstore in the country and covers a square block. There are rooms and rooms of floor to ceiling book shelves. In a time where everyone carries a kindle, I take heart in gems like Powell's. It gives me hope that books will never be dead. We walked into the store, everyone scattered, and we met up again two hours later with our spoils in hand. 

We ended the day with heavenly milkshakes from Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe. It was a great end to a full day.

Day 1- Nothin' but Drivin' and Eatin'

"The Americans have found the healing of God in a variety of things, the most pleasant of which is probably automobile drives." --William Saroyan

Friday, we deemed a travel day. Nothing but driving, driving, and more driving. The goal was to get to Portland by the end of the day, and to enjoy some delicious food along the way. We scheduled our stops around favorite eateries. We bid an enthusiastic good-bye and good-riddance to the heat and road work that has been plaguing Utah, and we were off. We didn't stop until Boise. We drove 5 hours straight, without so much as a potty break. I'm telling you, traveling with big kids is glorious.

Upon arriving in Boise, we indulged in some yummy neapolitan pizza from Flatbread Pizza, a little gem discovered by Alicia and  Ryan a few years ago. I was too busy stuffing my face with fondita fondue to take any pictures.

Then it was back on the road for three and a half hours of what we lovingly refer to as "the ugly part of Idaho". Jonah fell asleep instantly. He was wise. He missed nothing. The rest of us listened to music. We welcomed a change from boring sagebrush to lovely pines as we crept up and over the Blue Mountains. At this point, Jessica was picking a jam for each member of the family. I don't remember everyone's hand-picked jams, but mine was "Walking In A Winter Wonderland" by Annie Lennox, Neil's was the theme from Chariots of Fire, Sabrina's was something from the Les Miserables soundtrack, and Spencer's was Shining Happy People by REM. At this point, we began to descend upon that patchwork quilt of farmland known as Pendleton Oregon. We love Pendleton for Roosters restaurant.

Naturally, we were hungry again, so we stopped for bowls of our favorite homemade chicken noodle soup, with homemade noodles. Spencer claims that it's "almost" as good as his mother's homemade chicken noodle soup. He won brownie points for that comment. 

Sabrina ordered what would be the first of a steady stream of chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, and chicken strips. I shudder to think of how much deep-fried chicken product that girl consumed over the coarse of the vacation. It's all she would eat, so what are you going to do?

Jonah ordered his second helping of Macaroni and Cheese for the day. We had to get confirmation from the waitress that it was indeed Kraft macaroni and cheese and not anymore of that hideous gourmet stuff made from fine cheeses like the pizza joint offered. The adults were more than happy to finish off his macaroni at lunch, but he had his dinner all to himself. His macaroni came with fish crackers, so he basically had a big plate of orange for dinner.

By now our tummies were full beyond capacity, which was indicative of what the rest of the vacation would be like. A whole lot of face stuffing.

Before getting into the vehicles for our final stint, we took a traditional Roosters photo. This photo is always one of my favorites, because we are all smiles as we anticipate the adventures that lay before us.

We were now down to the final three hours of our drive. This is where the drive gets fun. We look forward to passing the tree farms and the multitudes of windmills that didn't used to exist. And we wait patiently for our first glimpse of the beautiful Columbia River. When it makes it's first appearance in all of its massive glory, then I know that I've arrived, and the drive is nothing but a pleasure from that point on. And we watch as the temperature gauge steadily drops. It's a beautiful thing. In Boise, the temperature was at 104 degrees. By the time we arrived in Portland that evening, it was 74 degrees. And that's how it is done my friends. Twelve hours of focused driving will take you from a hot desert to a cool green oasis. We got to the hotel tired but excited. We were pretty sure that one great week lay before us, and we were right.

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." 

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Forgive my lack of blog presence lately, but we just returned from a most blissful vacation. I have all sorts of lovely details and photos to share.

I just love me a good road trip. We hopped in the van and drove up through Idaho, along the Columbia River, down the Oregon coast, dipped into California, then pushed through that ugly vast wasteland we refer to as Nevada, and landed back into our driveway yesterday evening. The loop amounted to about 2500 miles when all was said and done.

There is no DVD player in our van. We rely solely on a plethora of music to keep us entertained on our journey. We listened to everything from Enya, to Simon & Garfunkel and Queen, to Depeche Mode and U2, to Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, to Beethoven and Dvorak. 

It was about as close as you get to a perfect vacation. There was  the perfect balance of relaxation and sightseeing, pre-planned ventures and spontaneous stumblings, city adventures and nature therapy, challenging hikes and putting our feet up in front of the fire. I love when vacations come together better than you ever could have planned. There was delicious food, fun conversation, cool temps, and gorgeous scenery. We made enough delightful memories to hold us over to at least the end of the year, when the travel bug bites us again. And I will tell you all about our adventures a little bit at a time. It would require forgoing food and sleep to recount it all right now, and I can't afford to give up either one this week. It's a good thing we enjoyed ten days of complete undisturbed family time, because the next few weeks are going to prove exhausting I'm afraid. 

As I grow weary after packing my 200th box, I'll stop and remember a carefree week in a beautiful place, and maybe that will give me the strength to keep going.

A Garden Party

"After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul's indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer." -William R. Alger

In two days, it's Mom's 60th Birthday. We celebrated a couple of weeks early. I have two amazing sisters who can put together beautiful parties. Every detail is carefully thought through, and the food is always absolutely delicious.

Here is the watering station. Just about every kind of flavored water you could think of.

Here is the dessert table, complete with darling Swedish checkerboard cookies and Swedish gingerbread cookies. The cupcakes were divine, just the right amount of almond extract.

And here is the candy table, featuring many of Mom's favorite candies. She is a sucker for black licorice. 

Everything was decorated in beautiful teals and burlap. Angie and Alicia had raided Mom's scrapbooks and printed beautiful photos of her life.

The spread was fabulous. Delicious BBQ, veggies, salads, salsas, corn on the cob, and corn bread. One half of the table was more Mexican fare, and the other half was more Southwestern. I frequented both halves.

The venue was Alicia's darling backyard, where the shade and privacy is plentiful.

There stands the birthday girl with all of her daughters and daughter-in-laws but one.

What I have not mentioned and failed to get a single photo of, was the massive cloud burst that hit about 45 minutes into the shin-dig. Our family doesn't make big plans very often, but when we do, you can almost always count on a crazy storm. The weather forecast assured us that all would be well, but this is the Fellows family we're talking about here. We remained confident, as it began to sprinkle, that this minor inconvenience would quickly move along. Tony put up his awning over the food table, just in case.

Suddenly, without warning, oh I suppose there was warning, we were just too busy enjoying our tacos and sandwiches to notice, the heavens dropped every ounce of moisture they had been harboring onto our little celebration, as the wind began to rage. Part of the group made a run for the tiny back porch, the larger part sought shelter under the tiny awning. And then the rain really came. About twenty people were trapped under this tiny awning with two tables of delicious food. The rest of us stood on the patio in stunned silence. No one dared make a run for it. We were all in our garden party attire, and a sheer drenching was imminent. Some of Mom's co-workers had showed up at the party just as the cloudburst hit and were stuck under the canopy with family members. They began to introduce one another and get acquainted.

It became apparent that the rain was not going away anytime soon. I was in Alicia's kitchen, putting the cupcakes in a safe dry spot, because heaven forbid the desserts get ruined, when I looked up at the window to behold quite a sight. The awning was coming toward me, as were the twenty people under it, as were the two tables of delicious food. The frantic guests, after getting to know one another better, had devised a plan to get themselves, as well as the food, to shelter. Everyone grabbed a table corner or a canopy post, and on the count of three, everyone lifted and began walking briskly toward the house. The cackling coming from us porch onlookers must have rung through the neighborhood, because it was hilarious. 

Any formality that the guests might have been suffering from before, had completely dissipated, and everyone now worked quickly to move the food and the party into the house. The beautiful garden party was now a tiny living room party, but no matter. The food had been preserved, so we were all happy.

The rain did eventually stop, then we all worked together to move the party back outside. The men messed with burlap, trying to get it to look as pretty as it had looked when they arrived. But none of that was important. It was getting dark, and the temperatures were now cool and comfortable. The evening began a garden party, and it ended a garden party. Mom was able to blow the three candles out, each candle representing two decades, on her lovely marzipan cake. She and her sister were probably the only ones who enjoyed a slice. As children, their mother would come home from work, on their birthdays, holding a marzipan cake from the bakery. The rest of us ate about five cupcakes.

Mom joked throughout the evening that the crazy storm was a fine representation of her 60 years of life. Since her childhood, Mom has made delightful plans for her life, only to have them altered by severe storms. She has always had the remarkable ability to pick up the remnants of her dreams, move them to another location, and begin work on a plan B. Mom's life is the beautiful  execution of one Plan B after another. It is her resiliency that allows her to shed a small tear for the dreams unrealized, begin work on the new dreams, then look back and laugh at the comedy of it all in the end. And that is why I love her. And that is why I loved this garden party gone wrong, but not really, everything about it went completely right. A vast majority of the delightful people at that party would not have been there if it weren't for the storms and the Plan B's of Mom's life. The night couldn't have gone more perfectly! Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!