Where the Wind Blows

The “Hot Now”sign just went on. Here we are at the Krispy Kremes in Beverton Oregon. We are “stripmall schooling” at the moment. It is somewhat difficult for the kids to concentrate when the aroma of fresh doughnuts permeates the classroom. Evander is up watching the doughnuts come down the conveyor belt, and Emma is trying to work without the books she didn't bring.
This weekend Paul is working with a friend and we're going where the wind blows us. Our first stop is here at the Krispy Kreme. They do need to have different seats here. The bench seat pushes my upper body forward enough to feel that ever so slight muffin top roll over my jeans. I will not have another doughnut.
By the way, I was sorely dissapointed that they not longer give away the free hot doughnut. Those of you who know I love “free” I'm sure you are feeling my grave disappointment. Oh, did I mention that music is playing in the background. Do you think it's Doughnut Radio?

Earlier in the day, we found ourselves in Hillsboro at Paul's job site. I realized we were in my dear friend Fiona's neighborhood, so I gave her a call. Our spontaneity of plans were such that it happened that she and the kids were available to have lunch with us. The destination for lunch was the Panda Express, located in another strip mall. I wasn't raised in the Hillsboro area, but I imagine this was another “pave paradise and put in a parking lot”. Also at the strip mall was a Fred Meyer's. We traversed the Fred Meyer's shopping for a few things, stopped in at The Perfect Look for a quick trim for Van, and then met our friends for lunch.


It was difficult to end the fun with our friends, so we spent much of the afternoon at their home. During our marathon conversation, my friend had commented that she felt comfortable about her house not being impeccable while I was there. That was quite a compliment. Not only have we been friends for over twenty years, we can share even our dirty dishes. Of course, I did more talking instead of jumping in with the dishes but our “fly-by” was very rewarding. She offered to take the kids for the night, but Paul was to work late, and the generous offer would have to be taken up another day.
So we moved onto the East, and settled into the Executive Tower of the Portland Hilton. The kids and I roamed around downtown a bit, and tried to catch up with “Aunt Kes”, my nephew's wife. She works near the hotel where we stayed, but we missed her, as she leaves work early to miss those notorious Portland traffic jams.

We stopped at a Starbucks, and I tried with all my computer skills to log onto my blog. This being my first “play by play” to inform you all of our happenings on a three day trip North, I left the place frustrated that I could not magically connect to the Internet.

Saturday, we started off at a slow pace. Paul had finished his job late the night before, so we hung out at the hotel until the afternoon. We ventured out with our destination being OMSI, but couldn't even find a place to park! We are so spoiled by having museums mostly to ourselves during the school week, that we decided to move on. 

We headed to the Pearl District. Our draw was to the REI. As we drove by I noticed someone was climbing the climbing wall. That was enough to lead us that direction. So after a quick stop for coffee, Evander was the one who was up the climb.

 

Our next destination was our friends store "Upper Playground" at 5th and Couch. It's not my genre of clothing but the concept of the art in the gallery and on t-shirts was quite intriguing.  Our friends weren't there, but we were about a block away from an old high school friends parent's restaurant, "House of Louie." But she wasn't working either. 

We had intended to try and get together with some of my younger nieces and nephews on Saturday, but do to short notice and illness, we ended up having dinner with my "little" nephew, Matt, and his wife Elsa. 

We ate at Elsa's other kitchen, The Spaghetti Warehouse. It's always a treat being able to spend time with them. We had a bit of a wait for our table, so Elsa and I made a terrific team playing in the game room. It's a good thing neither of us are very competitive. 

Sunday morning, I accidentally packed away my camera. So I have no photos, only a report of our happenings. We made it out of the hotel to the Pioneer Courthouse Square. We had our breakfast in the Starbucks at the Square. The big city is quite busy, and international compared to our berg. We listened to others converse in Spanish while we read the paper. We also listened to a man talking to himself. Probably the most interesting was the group that was meeting with "Free Tibet" bumper stickers on their back.  On the way back to the hotel, we passed them as they were singing a very somber prayer. Such strange crossings of cultures. 

Our last stop downtown, was a trip to Powell's Bookstore. The kids seemed to enjoy this about as much as walking downtown. Although, we did leave with a few books, which they immediately started reading in the car.

We then headed East for a quick visit with Grandma Lois. She was kind enough to feed us a lunch before we drove South to Eugene. So ended another of our unplanned, where the wind blows trips.