The Trip That Never Ends

It's like the song that never ends ... because it goes on & on my friends... (Remember that song?)

This is like the post that never ends ... because it too goes on & on my friends.


Preface to this post: The reason I write so much is
(a) because a lot has happened &
(b) I have a lot of pictures & I like to post them within the text, so I just have to keep writing & writing about nonsense in order to make that happen.

So, grab yourself a drink & some popcorn ... here goes:


Over the course of June, we spent a whopping four days at home. (Remind me again why we pay a mortgage.)

After our trip to Montana & Coeur d'Alene, we spent our four days in the comfort of our own home just long enough to celebrate Shad's first Father's Day.

Then, we booked it back down to northern Cali again so Shad could work. We were in Susanville, CA (80 miles outside of Reno) & I have to say, it's my least favorite market.

I actually used to live just outside of Susanville as a kid & I don't remember it being so freaky. Few people have teeth & no one owns a razor. I stayed close to the hotel & spent many hours swimmin' with Cashe-man at the pool & working in the room. It's so relaxing being on the road & not having the distractions of house chores. I think we need a maid.


While we were in Susanville, we hiked a few days & spent the weekend at Lake Almanor basking in the sun. (The toothless-wonders don't travel to the lake for the weekend, btw. Lake Almanor is a cute, little resort town.)


Shad finished his work early, so we decided to make a trip up to Portland to see my brother & his girlfriend, Ali. And why not? Over the course of the past month, we had already seen my Mom, my sister & her husband, my sister's in-laws, Shad's parents, all but one of Shad's siblings & their families, & my Dad, my Step-Mom, & a lot of my Cd'A family. Let's keep it goin'!


The drive from CA to Portland was incredible. Oregon is one of the most gorgeous states God created. We drove up Interstate 5 (not along the coast - which is how most people travel when they visit Oregon) & it was so scenic & green & just beautiful. If it didn't rain there so stinkin' much, I would move there in a heartbeat!


We got into Portland late & stayed up until 2:30 a.m. catching up with Matt & Ali (I haven't stayed up that late since high school! Man, I'm a ball of fire!) They live in the cutest, little 100-year old home with so much character, much like the North End in Boise or the University Area in Missoula.

Portland was truly one of the best experiences ever ... we woke up & each had a much-needed pot of coffee & went to the coolest restaurant: Slappy Cakes. It's the neatest idea.

It's similiar to a Melting Pot, but instead of dipping things in fondue, you make pancakes on your own griddle! You order your batter in a squeeze bottle & then you order all of the ingredients you want in your pancakes & tada! you have some fabulous, FUN, homemade pancakes!

Shad ordered B-O-R-I-N-G buttermilk batter with NO fun mix-ins. I, on the other hand ordered multi-grain batter with butterscotch chips, blueberries & lemon curd. Mmmmm... And Ali ordered savory mix-ins like bleu cheese & sausage. Suprisingly, the savory ones were quite tasty. We also ordered Bloody Mary's served with bacon slices in them - the bacon made me gag, but the boys liked it.


After breakfast, we hit the Portland Zoo & had a ball! Cashe's favorite exhibit was the goat exhibit (is it exhibit? That makes it sound like I'm talking about the fair, not the zoo.) Anyway, another thing I noticed about Oregon is that there are a lot of goats. On our drive up, everyone & their grandma had goats. So nevertheless, Cashe fell in love with the goats & bounced in his stroller a bunch as soon as he saw one up close. Perhaps we'll get him a goat for his first birthday. Oooh, or maybe I'll do a goat theme for his party! Brilliant!



Anyway, we walked & walked & walked for hours around the zoo & enjoyed all the animals. I'll leave it at that because some people can overdo zoos & tell you all the details of their zoo adventures & post hundreds of pictures on their Facebook pages of all the zoo animals, when really, does anyone care what the baboon looked like behind the glass? Um, probably not. We've all been to a zoo & we've all seen these animals a hundred times & besides, a picture never does it justice anyway - it's far more fun to see in person, so I'll save you some time & not write about how incredible the gazelles were (& rather, just blog a full paragraph about how unnecessary it is for people to post their 75 zoo pix on Facebook).


After the zoo, Matt took Shad, Cashe & I to his restaurant. He's a sous chef at Jake's Crawfish in downtown Portland. And let me just say, he totally spoiled us! Not only did we feel like celebrities there, he ordered us the finest of everything. The drinks, the appetizers, the food (brie-stuffed salmon - YUM), the dessert was PHENOMENAL. The wait staff came out & greeted us. The managers came out & greeted us. People from other tables were watching to see why we were getting such special treatment. When the meal was over, one of the waitresses (who wasn't even our waitress!) came over with a warm towel & washed Cashe's hands & face! As we walked out the door, it was as if the Queen had just eaten at the restaurant - they all lined up by the door & said goodbye & gave Cashe a little stuffed animal crawfish. It was such an amazing experience.


We were on the road again the next morning & headed back to Boise when I slammed my own thumb in the car door while throwing away some dirty diapers at a convenient store (yes, my own thumb - no one else did it to me & yes, it was the same thumb I dislocated while jogging 5 years ago. I need to just cut this one off & start all over.) Shad came out of the store & I was sobbing in the backseat with Cashe. He looked at me & asked, "did you just get a bad phone call??" I held up my purple thumb & showed him the blood seeping into my nail (uh huh, I look like a carpenter or a mechanic or something. Pretty.)


Once we were home, we began the planning for our big 4th of July weekend that included 8 family members traveling to town from all corners of the Northwest & we only had 2 days to get ourselves organized. Yowsas! We managed to make it happen though AND, it was a hit! I'll post about it later though & allow all of your faithful readers a little bathroom break. Meet you back here in five.