There wasn't a lot of excitement this day, mostly housekeeping and airport stuff.
We did some laundry at a laundramat, packed up all our stuff, and drove North to Portland.
However, a couple frustrating events took place this day...
1) We drove around for 30 minutes looking for a gas station and couldn't find one. Not a one. Of course when we returned the rental car (half full) the friendly rental car guy said there was a place two minutes from there. We were cutting our flight close and couldn't take the time to go find it. 6.99 a gallon. Ugh.
2) We had so much stuff...I think we checked 5 bags and had 5 or 6 carryons. Traveling with a baby adds considerable amounts of stuff. It was a hassle lugging this crud through the airport.
3) Clara's off and on crying for 3 hours of the flight. She finally crashed the last hour of the flight. The other passengers shot looks at us...they were about as unhappy as Clara. Luckily - we didn't see any big alligator tears from them. The flight was not very full and by the end of it, most passengers had moved towards the back of the plane. We were sitting up front.
4) Waiting for the hotel van to pick us up from the airport took a looooonnnnng time. Then, when it finally came, the driver crammed in about 10 too many passengers. Poor Clara - she is beyond tired at this point. It's 10:30 pm.
Needless to say, we were all ready to go to sleep when we finally got checked in around 11:00 pm.
The next day we got up and took a bus ride home. Clara came down with a stomach bug (which Tom and I would later get) and through up all over both of us. We felt so bad for her - she was miserable, exhausted, and looked terrible. She ended up falling asleep for the majority of the bus ride.
On a more positive note, Tom and I both felt this was a great trip!! We were very pleased with how it all worked out and were happy to see a different part of the country. It was fun traveling together and taking Clara on her first family vacation. She really is a good traveler. and Tom and I learned she is much more flexible with her sleeping that we originally thought. Thank goodness! It's fun to expose Clara to things we love - hiking, the outdoors, seeing new things, and in doing this, we hope she comes to love these things also.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and reading about our adventures.
