Greetings from the Wilds of Oregon

I love it here, actually.  When I was a kid, our preferred method of travel was a renovated VW Bus (called Brother Bus, sweartadog!) and the Pacific Northwest was our playground.  We would journey to Oregon, Washington, and Canada, camping outside when we could, or smushing the five of us (once it was six and a dog– we brought a friend!) into Brother Bus to get out of the ubiquitous rain.

As an adult, we’re shoving everybody into a rented Pathfinder, but the loveliness and the adventure hasn’t changed.

Yesterday, we met the charming, elegant and STUNNINGLY beautiful Roxie (and Bucky, the Roving Ram-porter, who is seen here, charming the socks off of Squish) for breakfast at the Bijou Cafe– breakfast was amazing.  As a family we tend to do a lot of swapping food– so Zoomboy got a big pile of strawberries on his nummy buckwheat pancakes, but that was okay.  Squish got yoghurt, but was not prepared for the organic stuff, so she didn’t have anything to eat until Mate fed her the strawberries.  Big T ate the yoghurt, and Chicken wrapped an arm around her mushroom/cheddar omelet and dared anyone to mess with it.  For us, that is a standard meal–but I think it might have been amusing for both Roxie and Mate’s father, Bill, to watch it in action.

From there we journeyed to Powell’s Used Book Store, and the world fell apart.  Mate’s father, Bill, had been feeling a little bit iffy at breakfast, and suddenly, he was feeling HORRIBLE (and looking the part.)  Mate was really alarmed, and we had all scattered when we hit the doorway of Powell’s.  Powell’s is a city block, three stories and something like nine different sections. It’s AMAZING, but Roxie and I spent a good half an hour chasing people through it trying to get together and get organized so Mate could take his dad back to the hotel.  Roxie very graciously offered to take four of us (because that’s all that would fit in her car)  back later.  Big T, Squish, and Chicken owe Roxie a BIG debt of gratitude, otherwise they never could have left the place with the pounds of books we managed to purchase.  (Zoomboy got some as well– in particular, a book about unlikely animal friends.  Zoomboy is all about unlikely animal friends!)

After saying goodbye to Roxie (*sniffle*) we rested up and then went out again.  (Bill stayed at the hotel– he says he’s feeling MUCH better this morning!) We visited Washington Park–both the rose garden and the Japanese gardens as well.  At the rose gardens, Chicken and Big T tried to smell every rose in the garden, for comparison purposes.  We all laughed at the image brought about by “International Rose Testing Zone”  (Think about it–*clear!* *explosion* *poomph* *rose petals fluttering to the ground*) and somebody gave Zoomboy a treasure hunting map for the Japanese garden–let’s just say it was not conducive to tranquility to have him tear-assing through the garden, screaming for the next thing on the list.

 Be that as it may, the world of Washington Park was lovely– it was tough to leave.

Today, we’ve got the Saturday Market and I think back to Washington Park for the zoo– but we’ll see.  First we’ll meet Bill for breakfast, and a lot of it depends on how he’s feeling.

And I need to mention book news here for a minute– Sidecar is out next Friday, and in the meantime, Chris, at Stumbling Over Chaos is offering a contest for a free copy of it, if you comment.  I’m REALLY anxious about the release of this one.  There are some beloved moments in this story–I’m hoping I did them justice.

And in the meantime, wish us luck!  We get home tomorrow morning, and on Tuesday, Zoomboy goes in to have his jaw evaluated… his lower jaw is freakishly narrow– it makes his enunciation difficult, and we’re going to see if he needs to get repaired before or after his mouth grows into his teeth.  Stay tuned… or, you know, just forget I ever mentioned it!  Wish us safe travels though– Zoomboy busted the back of his ear open on the escalator at the Portland airport… we really do travel loud, don’t we?