PDX and more
We had a good time and great weather! (Much better than the rainy dreariness of the past two days.) We arrived on Friday, while N & K and the kids were still there. We made yummy Boboli pizzas, had some drinks, and chilled. On Saturday, we of course went to Voodoo Donuts, then we headed south to Klamath Falls, where we were staying for our trip to Crater Lake. We had planned to do some geocaching, but by the time we got there it was almost dark, so we just went shopping for a little while and spent some time in the lovely hot tub before bed. Leah promised to get up at a decent time so that we could still do the geocaching, and she did. The first few we did were totally easy finds (e.g. the ubiquitous lamp post skirt cache), and we laughed about never before having so many finds by 10am. Then we were on to the awesome, creative caches, such as this one:
We were 7 for 7 before we headed up (and I do mean up! several thousand feet up!) to the lake area. I don't think it is possible to truly capture the amazing blue of Crater Lake, but the pictures did turn out better than I expected.
On Monday we headed downtown, forgetting that our favorite restaurant is closed Mondays... grr. But if we hadn't been in the area, we would have missed the chance to spot Luke Perry! ;) (Apparently filming an episode of Leverage.) We did some shopping and went to the famous rose gardens:
Before heading home on Tuesday, we went back to Mothers, luggage and all, just because we couldn't miss crunchy french toast and the mac & cheese du jour. When we got to the airport, we volunteered to stay back because our flight was oversold, but in the end they didn't need it (or maybe picked just one traveler, I'm not sure). So we didn't get flight coupons, but we did get free drinks on the plane just because we had offered. Did you know that Delta is mixing mojitos and margaritas at your seat these days?
There are lots more pics if you wanna see them.
Since coming home, we have been kinda busy. We did get to sleep in on Wednesday, then we went out to buy me a car. I have not owned one since probably 2003, but I need one for my new job (teaching at two different buildings). I was debating between buying a used car, and having no payment, or buying something like a Vibe/Golf/Caliber. Leah was very much on the side of buying new... she says it is because she wanted to make sure I had a reliable car for my first year, but I think it is because she is a car snob. ;) Anyway, we set out with no particular dealer in mind, nor decisions made, and then decided that, just for fun, we would first go to Mini, because we know and love the salesperson and finance manager there. A few hours later, we drove away with the LAST Cooper base model (i.e. not S-model or convertible or Clubman) on the lot. I still can't quite wrap my head around it.
Oh and get this... it's a stick. I guess I am officially a clutch driver now. Wheee!
Yesterday we did a lot of errands - Leah cleaned the garage, I helped out at the end, and then we drove stuff to Goodwill/Best Buy (love their electronics recycling program!)/etc, and went grocery shopping. Plus, in the morning, Leah went to her dr appointment (got some Veramyst) and picked up the very large amount of CSA veggies while I did laundry and uploaded vacation photos. Now I really need to go do some cooking and baking!