Thursday:

We stopped for breafkast at this cool little place. On the way up and out of restaurant, Hubby bottomed out the Dodge Magnum and we started dragging part of the uncarriage bumper along the road. We pulled over and jammed that shit back up. Take that, you shitty car rental people! REVENGE! (not really).

Uneventful trip to the Coast. We met up with HDH's family at the beach house my sister-in-law had rented for us. Quite the cute little house. Not too far from the beach. We stayed at the house with my husband's dad, stepmother, sister, her husband and their 2.5 year daughter, and our family. Upon original agreement, we were going to be sleeping in some loft room with no bathroom. This was not going to be okay. So I spent the better part of the first half of our trip pissed off we were getting shafted. We arrive and somehow manage to get a good bedroom with bathroom attached, AND a place for our kid to sleep. Not bad.

Stayed in that night. Brother in law cooked steaks and corn on the grill. Drank some, but not enough. Put everyone to bed, and HDH and I sat in the hot tub, looking up at the Big Dipper. Saw one satellite and a falling star. I made a wish - a good one, too.

Friday:

We went down to the beach. The Bug ran around like a crazy child. They built sand castles and jumped in the cold Pacific water. Saw some dead birds. Not so pretty. After the kid's successfully drenched themselves and everyone around them, we headed to Mo's for some clam chowder. My niece (again, at 2.5 years old) threw a temper tantrum that was one for the ages. Such a meltdown, she went to sleep with her daddy in the car while the rest of us dined. I hear the meltdown had something to do with being close to the ocean again and not being able to get in it again. Oh, the humanity. We got home, and she dumped out a one THOUSAND piece puzzle and walked off. I watched my husband and his father pick all of those pieces up. They all appeared to be blue, too. What a pain in the ass. We were supposed to go to dinner that night, but afterNiece's meltdown, everyone opted to stay in and have pizza.

There was also a very cool time on the beach around sunset, flying kites. Bug let the line go at one point, watched my brother in law run after to retrieve the Nemo kite. We get back to the house, and Bug is walking funny. I take off his shorts, and see the inside of his legs are chaffed with one big egg-sized blister on the thigh. HDH and his sister track down Triple Diaper Cream at a Walgreens about 15 minutes from the house. Slathered that stuff on his owie, hauled him to bed, and he slept like a rock.

Saturday:

We went to the Aquarium, looked at crabs, saw sharks, the works. We packed up our suitcases, had dinner, and headed back into Portland. Once at the hotel, we wandered around the waterfront, found an ice cream store, sat on a bench and watched the boats so by. The Bug and HDH decided, once back at the hotel, to watch Spiderman 3 on PPV. The Bug is still talking about the Sandman losing his fingers and, "MOMMY! MOMMY! SPIDER-NAN!!!".

Sunday:

Today. Oh my god. We get up early, only to discover there is some bike-a-thon going on and most of the bridges are closed. If you know anything about Portland, you know you depend mightily on the bridges to get around. If it weren't for HDH having lived here once upon a blue moon, we never would have found our way across the river and to the airport. While at the airport, we've heard a lot of people say how they missed the early flights due to the bike thing. It was quite impressive to see all the bicyclists, but damn. They messed up a lot of travel today.

And now, we are at the airport. The Bug has been playing with a pay phone. He just saw a military guy walked by and announced, 'hey, that's a BAD guy!'. We are all ready to go home and relax in our own space again.

Edit:

Home.

And photos to follow.