The Portland Report

A couple weeks ago, we went to Portland for the weekend. It was in place of being able to be with family for Christmas, and we had a good time (and saw family!). The drive went quickly and we arrived in Portland well before we could check into our hotel. So we stopped at a kids' salon on the southern edge of the city (I had looked these up ahead of time) and Darcy got a quick haircut and shampoo. Then we headed to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) where the main attraction was a T-rex fossil that did not photograph well. Their science play room, however, was where we ended up spending the most time. Darcy had a great time playing with water in the waterproof smock and crocs provided by the museum.

She also loved playing with the baby raccoons. Although I suspect they're supposed to stay near the hollow log, she dragged two of the four babies all over the play room. They took rides in a pulley-powered bucket and saw all the sights.

After that, it was time to go check into the hotel. We had splurged on a suite because it guarantees more sleep for all and Darcy, to our surprise, chose to have her bed set up in the living room/kitchenette room. After getting settled, we headed out in cold, heavy rain for sushi for dinner.

The next day was drier and we started out with doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnut. Someone had the great idea of letting Darcy choose her own doughnut and she ended up with a monstrous doughnut covered in FrootLoops. Yum! Then we wandered around the downtown area with a long stop at Powell's City of Books. (Yes, ok. We did some very tourist, very Portland things.)

After heading back to our hotel for a forgotten phone number, we then met up with my cousin Tina for lunch at a vegan place within walking distance of her house. This was after a very enthusiastic reunion with Mimi-cat. It was after lunch that things got very exciting. Tina, being the most excellent cousin that she is, had agreed to babysit Darcy! We dropped them off at the light rail stop so they could go explore the Children's Museum. Michael was tearing up just a little as we watched them walk away from the car:

With Darcy safely in the hands of the world's most well-qualified babysitter (Tina having a Master's degree in early childhood education and all), Michael and I painted the town red! Well, maybe not. We went back to the Powell's neighborhood and Michael browsed at a used record store and I browsed at kitchen stores before we met up at Powell's for some toddler-free book browsing. Neither of us bought anything, but it was very nice anyway and I discovered that a book I got really cheap sells for a hundred and thirty bucks at Powell's!! I practically own treasure. Or an obscure archaeology book. Your pick.

Following our window-shopping, we went out for an early dinner at Toro Bravo, a tapas restaurant. Oh, it was tasty! We sat at the bar after getting there when the website claimed they opened to find not a single free table because they had opened half an hour earlier. The bar was fine. We had, of course, papas bravas, plus the Singing Pig salad (no pig involved), a cheese board, and the salt cod fritters. We were feeling slightly peckish after that and the bar tender recommended the braised leeks with (the unpronounceable) salbitxada sauce. It's a romesco-like sauce of deliciousness. We ate that with a good bread and couldn't quite finish it. I think it would take a third person to finish that many leeks.

We were both anxious to see our girl (one of us maybe more than the other), so we drove back to Tina's house. The anxiety was not shared. It took a while for Darcy to even come downstairs and then she was wrapped up in her conversation with Tina rather than showing any interest in our re-appearance. Tina reported that Darcy was extremely thrilled about riding the "dinosaur train" to and from the museum and that she shouted "Wheeeee!" as it started through the first dozen stops.

The thrill has not worn off. Earlier today Darcy asked me, "Do you remember when I rode the dinosaur train to the children's museum? Do you remember?" She very fondly calls Tina "my corythosaurus" when talking about that afternoon. For some unknown reason, she calls all babies corythosaurus, and she made the leap that Tina, as a babysitter, must also be a corythosaurus. Personally, I don't see the resemblance.

The next morning was the wrap-up of our Portland trip. We spent almost an hour in the hotel's pool, which Darcy loved. After packing up, we drove half a mile to Portland's Ikea. Darcy usually just loves running around the children's section and trying out every kids' bed. This time, though, she was eligible to play in their supervised play area (Smaland). It has a lot of stuff including a big pool of plastic balls. She went there while Michael and I dreamed of furnishing a future house and bought a few small things we needed. We all had lunch there (oh, how we love their hard-boiled egg and shrimp open-face sandwiches!) before starting the drive home.

The drive home was mostly uneventful. We stocked up on Trader Joe's products in Eugene and then crossed over the coast part of the drive. It took a longer, but it inspired a day-time trip back up the coast the following weekend to see what we had missed. It's gorgeous and we can do nice, easy sections of the Oregon Coast Trail within half an hour of our house.

Now we're gearing up for the start of my job. Darcy will be going to her day care for the first time tomorrow, just for a trial run. The plan is for her to be there long enough to get the first lesson in "mommy and daddy will always come back to get you". Wish us luck!