Once again, we started the day with breakfast in the Anderson's kitchen. Glenda had homemade, delicious granola and smoothies. And, for the second time in a row (and in my life), I had French pressed coffee. Delightful. We lingered over our breakfast, even though we knew we needed to get on the road, because it was kind of hard to leave these awesome people. Before we left, they took our picture for their guest book, and we took theirs, and then it was hugs all around before leaving. The kids were sad to leave Malley the dog, too!
Last night, we had decided that we would drive to I5 and go to the first visitors center for Mt. St. Helens, which is not far off the highway. This way, we would see it, but not add several hours to our trip. The next visitors center, and one with a closer view, was 50 miles off the of the highway. Had we had more time in this area, or had we known it was this difficult to get to, we would have planned better. As it was, though, a quick view from far away was all we could manage. Now we have an excuse to come back, I guess!
From the visitors center, Portland was just an hour and a quarter away. I really wanted to have lunch at Pine State Biscuits. When I went to Girl and the Goat and sat at the chef's table, one of the chefs on the line used to live in Portland. I asked her where we should eat and Pine State Biscuits was one of her suggestions. Then, when a former colleague of mine, Jason, sent suggestions for our itinerary (his brother lives in OR), he told us to try Pine State Biscuits as well. So we went. There are a couple of locations, so I found the one closest to Powell's bookstore, which is another place we planned to visit. Pine State is a casual, order at a counter and find a seat place. It was super good! I forgot the name of my sandwich, but it was a thin piece of fried chicken, cheese, and bacon, served between a biscuit. There was sausage gravy on it and around it on the plate. Holy moly. Ethan got the pulled pork sandwich which he said was the best of his life. Will, who was wary of the fried chicken with most of the sandwiches, ordered the biscuit with egg and cheese. Then he saw my sandwich. Guess who then gave him half? Pretty nice wife because it was goooo-od. Eleanor at a quarter of her biscuit with egg. I am about to have the rest of it for my dinner.
After our tasty (and cheap - out of there for $20) lunch, we drove across the river to Powell's Books. It is a HUGE bookstore that takes up an entire city block and several floors. The place is divided into rooms labeled by color. It would take days to browse the whole store. We spent most of our time in the children's section. The kids each picked one book, and I picked up a couple things for a certain little girl who turned one today.
From Powell's we trudged our way through city traffic to get to our hotel. It took us 40 minutes to go 11 miles. Will dropped us off and then raced to the car rental place as we were close to being late with it (I called and you only get a 29 minute window from the time you say you will return it...lame). He made it, and the kids and I got kiddie cocktails in the lounge with the free drink coupons we had received upon check in. When Will got back, we all hit the pool. I swam a bit then left to get stuff organized/packed up in the room. We ate a hodge podge dinner of some things we still had from our travels.
Alarms will be set for 4:30 tomorrow so we can take the 5am shuttle to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:40. Brutal. We fly to Santa Anna airport (obviously) and then on to Chicago. With time changes, we will get in to Chicago around 5. Everybody cross you fingers that they are looking for people to bump and we can take a direct flight home.
Ethan, who does not like goodbyes, is having the hardest time with vacation being over. He just said, "So...tomorrow we are not doing anything fun like hiking or visiting someplace cool?" I reassured him that getting to our connecting flight on time will be a pretty decent adventure. It is always an adventure when traveling with kids, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
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