The first leg: Portland

Is that a fairy in the garden?

Ruby, reunited with her first man crush after Daddy, our friend Andrew.

A trap, constructed by Ruby with Andrew's assistance.

Elephants!

The girls traveled like troopers all day on the first leg of our R&R, with a brief respite in Seattle to pick up a car and grab some fish and chips at Southcenter Mall, of all places. The food court there looks out upon Mt. Rainier, which was hiding that day, although we had seen it in all its monstrous glory from above before landing at Seatac. The mall felt like home, in astonishing ways--home because it was a familiar mecca of American consumerism, and home in a GDL kind of way, because easily a third of the people there were speaking Spanish. We walked out into the parking lot and I kid you not, the first vehicle I happened to fix upon was a gigantic black Escalade with a silvery decal declaring its owner's love of Guadalajara, Jalisco. I hate to sound like a sappy character from Grey's Anatomy, but seriously? Yes, seriously. Anyway, we hopped in the car and headed south, past Tacoma which has apparently gotten quite a face lift since I last drove out of Seattle that way, past Olympia, down the Colombia, to PDX, where we spent the next few days indulging in too much of everything, in that glorious, northwest summer at its height kind of way. We finally got our hands on some of Pok Pok's famous wings, which apparently do deserve the acclaim they have earned, and practically made ourselves sick grubbing takeout from Chennai Masala and Hoda's. There was home brew and excellent wine and greens from the garden and zero sales tax and a trip to the zoo, all of which which added to the fun. We just generally lounged and lingered at the home of our dear friends Andrew and Robyn, catching up and playing with girls and enjoying the respite from our minor rat race in GDL.