Portland with princesses

We had a fun, if not completely exhausting trip to Portland.  We rode the train out with the Howells on Saturday (Sabrina, Eric, Maddie and Otis), and the older girls had a lot of fun together.  They were princesses during most of the train ride......see above picture of the wands, and they anointed me their queen.  They had fun looking at some of the sites that we were passing, water, trees, farms, horses, etc.....  They were also kept busy with some shows (thank god!).  The youngers were a little bit more difficult.  They enjoyed walking back and forth in the aisles, falling occasionally, and crying just as often.  One and half year olds are just not the easiest travel companions. 

When we got to Portland, we checked into the Monaco, which was a magnificent hotel.  The girls loved the room, exploring it kept Ruby busy pretty much the entire trip.  We wandered around downtown Portland a little, ending up walking through a market and exploring the waterfront park with amazing cherry blossom trees.  There was also a speed addict rapper that kept us entertained for awhile, amazing how fast your rhymes are when you are speedballing!  We met up with Kim, Ben and Lucy on the walk, and eventually Ruby and Lucy explored the park together, even holding hands at one point.  Those kids love each other!

We went back to the hotel to freshen up, then went out to dinner at Mama Mia, an Italian restaurant which is owned by the same people who own Mothers, a famous Portland breakfast joint.  We got a nice big table in an almost entirely separate room, which was nice since we had six adults, and five children!  Busy. 

The next morning was the race, which I wrote about in the next blog entry.  After the race we met up with Gab and Per, and their beautiful baby boy, Tycho.  He is a big baby, and I have huge love for the chubby babies because of Ramona.  We went out to breakfast, which was another strangely successful breakfast with children.  The waitress had pink hair, so she was automatically in with Ramona.  Gab and Per seem like such well adjusted parents, relaxed and comfortable.  It was good to see. 

I went back to the hotel for a nap, and Justin went on a three hour stroll with Ramona (in which she fell asleep, and he saw most of Portland).  After naptime, we walked to the Pearl District, stopped in at West Elm, and then headed to Bridgeport Ale house for an early dinner (I'm talking 5:30 people).  The food was good, the atmosphere fantastic, and the beer was even better.  However, our little princess had some potty problems(no need to go into it), so we didn't hang out long.  We stopped at Whole Foods on the way back so we could get Ramona a cookie (because we promised her a cookie if she tried to go potty at the restaurant), and I got myself a cupcake, cuz hey........I ran a half marathon!  We ended up at the hotel nice and early, and enjoyed bath time and early bedtimes for all.  Today was a really fun day.

The next day was raining.  Ick.  We walked with the Howells to the Pearl Bakery, which is FANTASTIC.  I had a gibassier, which I think is code for "fancy donut".  I'm sure it beat the buns off those Voodoo donuts, which I am way too impatient to wait in line for.  Then Sabrina and I wandered around Powells for a little while, since no trip to Portland is complete without a stop at Powells, in my world.  Then we hung out in the hotel until the natives got restless (I'm not sure who the natives are, the children or the adults).  We couldn't figure out what to do with the remaining time before we had to catch the train, so we ended up hanging out in a mall that was a few blocks from the hotel (I know, I know, but it was raining!  We have little kids!). 

The train ride back was pretty disastrous since nobody had a good nap that day, Sabrina and I were in recovery from the run, and because we were sitting next to some uber hip girl with leggings and no dress on who constantly talked loudly on her phone about all the guys she had been hooking up with.  Ew.

All in all a successful trip.  If you made it this far, I'm impressed!