Home again, jiggety jig
Sep. 30th, 2005 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchaNotes on our travels
Flying out to Spokane was fun... NOT. I had just gotten a ticket to fly back with Lorraine, but didn't pay attention to the flight details. 3 hour flight to Phoenix, change planes with a 1hr45m stopover, then another hour-plus to Salt Lake City, and another hour-plus to Spokane, then an hour-plus to drive to the IL's home. Not a happy travel day, but Linc really did as well as possible. There was a few moments at the beginning where he thrashed and fussed, but he settled down and was a trooper the rest of the day. Snacks and toys and nursing and an hour on the Phoenix people-mover all contributed to a mostly happy baby.
Linc charmed the Spokane grandparents (Bill's folks, plus a great-grandma). The weather was lovely and cool, and the little town of Harrington felt like it was holding the last breath of summer for a few days before autumn set the stage for snow and ice. The baby especially loved walking around on all the mowed grass, down through the orchard, picking up windfall apples and pointing at birds and waving sticks around.
We got up at 4 am for the 6:15 flight to Portland to meet with the convention folks. That morning is a blur.
Linc LOVED the Portland Juggling Festival, but it's an absolute wonder he didn't get seriously beaned by one of the flying objects he was chasing. We had a lovely visit with Q and her beautiful daughters, A & W, who got along with Linc just great (despite Linc's propensity to try to poke out poor W's eyes periodically). They spent a lot of time circled around a bin of balls at the Serious Juggling booth, doing quality assurance tests tirelessly. Ben, SJ's owner, was very patient with the kids, and saved Linc from being ground to babyburger in an escalator in the Oregon Convention Center, where we were checking out facitilies for the 2006 IJA festival.
While he was at the fest, Linc learned how to stand up unassisted. He also learned how to crawl down off of things, feet first, plus some new words ("bird" is his favorite now).
Portland's Max lightrail system is a dream. Linc and I rode it several times, and it was quick, frequent, clean, simple, and FREE (for a "fareless square" downtown area). It also runs to the airport for a ridiculously low price (less than $2 IIRC) and even the homeless folks who hung around the stations were polite. Stupid stupid stupid Kansas City.
We stayed the last night at Rhys and Maria Thomas' home... folks who had also put us up during our road trip earlier this year. You'd have thought they'd have learned their lesson, but no, they let us come back. It was the PJF's afterglow party Sunday night, and we got to visit with some pretty fascinating folks, like the dude who writes emergency procedure manuals for Boeing pilots (he had some choice words about that LA landing gear incident),![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rebbyribs and rubrick, and a long conversation with a fellow who is becoming a medical doctor about family practice, obstetrics, and insurance-driven medicine.
Then we had a full flight to California... the woman who was stuck sitting next to me (with Linc on my lap) was openly hostile towards me because of the baby, who was nursing and fell asleep for about 1 1/2 hours of the 2 hour flight. She warmed up when he played peek-a-boo with her, but it really brought back all those feelings of being forced to play sports in school and then being picked last for the team when she sneered at him as she sat down. Not a fun moment for me.
My folks are having continuing and worsening health problems, and while I'm worried about them, they have made it clear that they don't want to discuss it with me. So I decided before this trip that I wasn't going to bring it up, and playing into their denial actually made for a fairly pleasant visit. I took my mom out to visit her favorite quilt fabric store and book store, and she seemed happy to get out (although the effort really wiped her out). Linc, once again, did a great job of charming them completely. The only hard part was that the futon we had to sleep on was in the living room, adjacent to the porch, under which something had crawled and expired. The stench was truly foul, and opening all the windows and doors didn't seem to make much of a difference. Hopefully their hired hand will excavate the carcass and give it a proper burial far, far away from the homestead.
Linc slept for about half the (3-hour nonstop! woo hoo!) flight home, while I nursed an increasingly sore throat and sneezes. Poor dear Bill lost the parking ticket, but we were able to talk our way down to a $7.50 (instead of $25) penalty. I was feeling sickly and just wanted to get home, so we bailed on visiting the Malay Cafe, our usual airport treat.
Upon waking Thursday morning, Bill said those three sweet words I was longing to hear: "I'll take him." Ahhh, blissful, deep, uninterrupted sleep! A balm to my poor exhausted, sniffly soul. I woke up to a gorgeous fall day, about 70 degrees and dry. Took Clay and Linc to Union Station, where we dashed through an excellent exhibit on Africa before seeing a 3-D safari movie (no 3-D glasses for poor Linc, who blinked at the fuzzy image for about 10 minutes before nursing to sleep). We didn't even get into the new railroad displays... we've gotta go back soon. And the movies are free for members now! Yay! Then we visited Lulu's Thai Noodles, and had very yummy spicy stuff (which I was craving, with my stuffed up nose). Turns out the baby likes Thai peanut sauce.
Then I gathered up Cordell, Wiley and Julia and we all went to the dog park for an hour. It was really nice, just hanging out with all four of my great kids, on a crisp and sunny fall day, in a grassy park with a bunch of very happy dogs.
Yep. Nice to be home!
(Pictures to follow soon... gotta haul Clay to his gym class)
Flying out to Spokane was fun... NOT. I had just gotten a ticket to fly back with Lorraine, but didn't pay attention to the flight details. 3 hour flight to Phoenix, change planes with a 1hr45m stopover, then another hour-plus to Salt Lake City, and another hour-plus to Spokane, then an hour-plus to drive to the IL's home. Not a happy travel day, but Linc really did as well as possible. There was a few moments at the beginning where he thrashed and fussed, but he settled down and was a trooper the rest of the day. Snacks and toys and nursing and an hour on the Phoenix people-mover all contributed to a mostly happy baby.
Linc charmed the Spokane grandparents (Bill's folks, plus a great-grandma). The weather was lovely and cool, and the little town of Harrington felt like it was holding the last breath of summer for a few days before autumn set the stage for snow and ice. The baby especially loved walking around on all the mowed grass, down through the orchard, picking up windfall apples and pointing at birds and waving sticks around.
We got up at 4 am for the 6:15 flight to Portland to meet with the convention folks. That morning is a blur.
Linc LOVED the Portland Juggling Festival, but it's an absolute wonder he didn't get seriously beaned by one of the flying objects he was chasing. We had a lovely visit with Q and her beautiful daughters, A & W, who got along with Linc just great (despite Linc's propensity to try to poke out poor W's eyes periodically). They spent a lot of time circled around a bin of balls at the Serious Juggling booth, doing quality assurance tests tirelessly. Ben, SJ's owner, was very patient with the kids, and saved Linc from being ground to babyburger in an escalator in the Oregon Convention Center, where we were checking out facitilies for the 2006 IJA festival.
While he was at the fest, Linc learned how to stand up unassisted. He also learned how to crawl down off of things, feet first, plus some new words ("bird" is his favorite now).
Portland's Max lightrail system is a dream. Linc and I rode it several times, and it was quick, frequent, clean, simple, and FREE (for a "fareless square" downtown area). It also runs to the airport for a ridiculously low price (less than $2 IIRC) and even the homeless folks who hung around the stations were polite. Stupid stupid stupid Kansas City.
We stayed the last night at Rhys and Maria Thomas' home... folks who had also put us up during our road trip earlier this year. You'd have thought they'd have learned their lesson, but no, they let us come back. It was the PJF's afterglow party Sunday night, and we got to visit with some pretty fascinating folks, like the dude who writes emergency procedure manuals for Boeing pilots (he had some choice words about that LA landing gear incident),
rebbyribs and rubrick, and a long conversation with a fellow who is becoming a medical doctor about family practice, obstetrics, and insurance-driven medicine. Then we had a full flight to California... the woman who was stuck sitting next to me (with Linc on my lap) was openly hostile towards me because of the baby, who was nursing and fell asleep for about 1 1/2 hours of the 2 hour flight. She warmed up when he played peek-a-boo with her, but it really brought back all those feelings of being forced to play sports in school and then being picked last for the team when she sneered at him as she sat down. Not a fun moment for me.
My folks are having continuing and worsening health problems, and while I'm worried about them, they have made it clear that they don't want to discuss it with me. So I decided before this trip that I wasn't going to bring it up, and playing into their denial actually made for a fairly pleasant visit. I took my mom out to visit her favorite quilt fabric store and book store, and she seemed happy to get out (although the effort really wiped her out). Linc, once again, did a great job of charming them completely. The only hard part was that the futon we had to sleep on was in the living room, adjacent to the porch, under which something had crawled and expired. The stench was truly foul, and opening all the windows and doors didn't seem to make much of a difference. Hopefully their hired hand will excavate the carcass and give it a proper burial far, far away from the homestead.
Linc slept for about half the (3-hour nonstop! woo hoo!) flight home, while I nursed an increasingly sore throat and sneezes. Poor dear Bill lost the parking ticket, but we were able to talk our way down to a $7.50 (instead of $25) penalty. I was feeling sickly and just wanted to get home, so we bailed on visiting the Malay Cafe, our usual airport treat.
Upon waking Thursday morning, Bill said those three sweet words I was longing to hear: "I'll take him." Ahhh, blissful, deep, uninterrupted sleep! A balm to my poor exhausted, sniffly soul. I woke up to a gorgeous fall day, about 70 degrees and dry. Took Clay and Linc to Union Station, where we dashed through an excellent exhibit on Africa before seeing a 3-D safari movie (no 3-D glasses for poor Linc, who blinked at the fuzzy image for about 10 minutes before nursing to sleep). We didn't even get into the new railroad displays... we've gotta go back soon. And the movies are free for members now! Yay! Then we visited Lulu's Thai Noodles, and had very yummy spicy stuff (which I was craving, with my stuffed up nose). Turns out the baby likes Thai peanut sauce.
Then I gathered up Cordell, Wiley and Julia and we all went to the dog park for an hour. It was really nice, just hanging out with all four of my great kids, on a crisp and sunny fall day, in a grassy park with a bunch of very happy dogs.
Yep. Nice to be home!
(Pictures to follow soon... gotta haul Clay to his gym class)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Jiggety jig indeed
Date: 2005-09-30 10:22 pm (UTC)I was visiting my aunt in Winnipeg, and she pulled up in front of her apartment after getting me at the airport. I thought, "Jiggety jig" and then she said it too! I guess my father's whole family did that growing up.
Anyway, it's always nice to come home.