Home again, home again

Well, we are home from our vacation.  My kids are still solidly on Portland time, having gone to sleep last night at 10:00 pm, despite our most valiant efforts to get them up there and settled at 8.  And they are now cozied up on their usual couch spot watching TV.  It is 9:00 a.m. 

We had a wonderful time and I, as many predicted, could definitely see myself living in Portland.  In fact, I was shopping at a vintage store on our last day and the woman and I were talking about the fashion of our generation-mostly 70s clothes...and the twenty somethings-mostly 90's clothes.  And we chatted about the movies Heathers and Pump up the Volume and then I mentioned that I was there on vacation.  She asked where I was from. After I told her, she said, "Huh! I can usually tell. I thought you were from here."

I felt pretty cool about that.  Which is pretty geeky and sort of sends me back to square one.  But I did let my mid-western accent come out for her for entertainment purposes and she laughed heartily.

Our trip was two-fold  1. Seeing Portland and 2. Seeing our very good friends who moved back there from Milwaukee this summer.  All of it was great.  Coen and Lucy will miss August and new baby Alexander and I will miss my kindred spirit unspeakably much.

Here is our first day: the children playing in the courtyard of our friends' house for many many hours.

Day 2 included a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts and the park. 

We also had dinner with my friend Mindy who I haven't seen in fifteen years!!!

Day 3: We hiked Multnomah Falls.  Pay no attention to Lucy's face. She had a great time AND made it to the top.

We finished the day with dinner at Porque No Taqueria

Day 4: Tad and Coen communicated with Lucy and I via Morse Code and computer at OMSI (The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

And upon Coen's insistence, we hosted dinner at our rental house.  Here August and Lucy are exploring the, as they see it, problematic cheese.

On our last day there, we ate at Slappycakes, where you make your own pancakes at the table.  I got indulge in some thrift shopping.  We checked out the Children's Museum, and we had dinner with our friends.  Coen cried for a good 1/2 hour at the end of the day.  I completely related.

But we're all settled in at home, albeit with no food in the house, but ready to be Milwaukeeans again.