Portland, Day 1

I am kinda anxious about posting this, as I feel like when I get started I sure as hell better finish them all up at once, but hey maybe what I really need is a kick in the pants to do this anyway. It’s been almost 2 months since our trip, I need to get them logged before I forget the details.

Also: yes, this is going to be a lotta posts. I thought about consolidating by areas we explored, because it’s lots of pictures and probably some boring stuff readers don’t care about, but considering (1) I have a very small following, including family who aren’t allowed to hate me SO THERE, and (2) this is for my own benefit and I’m not posting to please everybody else, I’m just gonna POST WHATEVER I WANT. Take that! You’re about to be inundated with loads of Portlandia, peeps.

Day 1: we stayed in Chicago the night before, had a quick dinner then to bed. So our room kinda smelled…weird, I hate to say? It wasn’t like it was a cheap hotel chain either. Like the smell bugged me so much that I couldn’t sleep. Slightly… pee-ish. Ew. We were at one of those ‘hotel campus’ type spots where you can do the stay-n-ride to the airport so you don’t deal with airport parking, the hotel shuttles you in and out, which is so convenient so I can’t complain too much I guess (clearly no one else in our room was kept up due to weird smells, based on all the snoring going on around me). Anyway: we got up early, threw our “Chicago only” overnighter in the trunk, and grabbed all our long-term luggage and car seats to lug onto the shuttle and then through the airport.

Something weird was going on at Midway, dudes. We stood in the longest line to check in that I have ever seen there (I mean, I have flown out of there a handful of times, so ignore me…). But! Everyone in the line was talking about how INSANE it was that day, so I guess it really was out of the ordinary. Thank god we decided to head out earlier than necessary. Even at security (and I probably should not talk about this but) they were so swamped that they basically just waved everything through. No shoes or coats off, no taking out your laptops, nothing. Just dump your bags on the belt and briskly walk through the machine as you are and KEEP THAT LINE MOVING PEOPLE. I even wore Linus in a baby carrier through it. Which: hey. Dragging two kids, several carry-ons, and 2 car seats through security was not something I was looking forward to, so I guess I won’t complain.

Eventually we got on a plane and flew for 4.5 hours, and shockingly: the kids did well. I say that not as a humble-brag but that instead some sort of stars aligned and Mercury was in retrograde or whatever and they both behaved the entire time by some miracle. I won’t attribute it to awesome parenting or planning or twee little bags of candies to our cabin-mates. It just happened, thank god. It was still a long flight and full of many preschooler questions and baby wiggling and Pete wanted to go to the airplane bathroom to pee about 6 times because apparently it was super exciting. My point is that even with decent-acting kids, we were all tired when we landed so GET US OFF THIS PLANE AND TO THE NEAREST BREWERY, OREGON.

We were in town for a family reunion, which was being held at a place in the Columbia River Gorge. Which is amazingly beautiful and well worth the short drive, if you ever find yourself in the Portland area. Anyway: we landed, collected all our stuff and our rental car, and headed out to the Gorge. We drove about 45 miles east of our destination – the reunion didn’t commence until that evening, and it was 11am when we landed. We needed to feed those kids and sample the local suds.

So we found ourselves in Hood River, at pFriem Family Brewery. We had read about this place long ago and bookmarked it, then decided it was the place to hit up. By some chance: it also happened to be their 2nd anniversary, so they were having a big shindig at the brewery that day.

We got in and got some beers at the bar, water for the kiddos, and put our name in at the hostess station. She took our name, then our number (gave us a side eye: clearly out-of-towners with that area code), then told us it would be about 45 minutes. No worries. The place was pretty busy and huge so I kinda waved towards the couches in one area and asked if we were free to walk around and check it out or sit over there while waiting, etc. She was all “sure, but please don’t sit at any of the dining area tables”.

Oh, okay. Because…? Duh who would do that, LADY? I was seriously at that point tempted to pull an Elaine-at-the-Chinese-Restaurant, but instead smiled at her nicely and shut my trap. Obviously us out-of-towners do not have the common decency to not walk up and beg for eggrolls.

That interaction aside, we had a great time. They have an upstairs room with games to play and nice comfy couches for lounging, and a beautiful set up. We checked it all out and before we knew it our table was ready.

This place was insanely family friendly, from the toy area for the kids (they also helped in a pinch when the kids would not leave the table because FOOOOOOOD IS COMING but also needed a nice distraction) to the changing station in the bathroom, fully stocked with diapers and other necessities in case the parents forgot anything.

The food and brews were also quite good. That rye lager, be still my heart! Scott and I split a tasting flight over our meal and enjoyed all the foods (homemade mustard and ketchup to boot, nice touch). If we lived here, we’d be here once a week no lie.

After our meal we hit up the park across the street, including taking a few quick walks into the river. It appears this little nook of the river is some sort of wind-surfing mecca.

Pete started a new-found love for rock collecting while at this beach.

At that point it was time to head to Menucha to the family reunion – we got there just in time to make all the introductions, get the keys to our cabin, and check out a few of the grounds before zonking out for the night.

More to come soon people! Day 2 started really really early, just a spoiler… (Thanks a lot, LIIIIINUS).