Tag Archives: PDX

Christmas and New Years break, 2016 into 2017: Flying back home

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Christmas and New Years break, 2016 into 2017: Flying back home

Flying back home to the States – The tail of the adventure

Wednesday, 04-Jan-2017

 

Flying home from an adventure is bittersweet. Home is calling, but the road is calling too… In this case, the plethora of Scottish roads that hadn’t been explored were calling pretty loud.

Oregon also has roads and mountains that need to be explored too though. Our own bed and Ollie were also calling pretty loudly… or at least barking and wagging at the thought of seeing us. Whether Ollie or us were the ones barking and wagging is still a point of debate.

Flights! Metal birds carrying us home!

Bill and Greta dropped us off at Aberdeen airport mid-morning for our short hop to London. This was our only non-fancy flight of the trip, though honestly it didn’t feel like it. European airlines still beat the pants of US airlines, in terms of comfort and service. That first picture, of the awesome breakfast? Yep. That’s what coach gets in the UK.

London was quick, nothing really of note. We landed, got on a new plane, and then took off again. London airport did have a pretty cool lounge, though. Very excellent butter chicken. Seriously. Everywhere. Everywhere in the UK serves butter chicken. If it’s not the official dish yet, it should be.

Then – a long flight. Like… you don’t understand how long this flight was. London to San Francisco. 13 hours, or something like that.

But we had comfy chairs! And movies! And booze! So much booze! I think we got up to 8 or 10 glasses, by the end of it… and that wasn’t even trying too hard. It reminded me of when I flew back to the States from New Zealand, and they had free drinks. Make the most of it, right?

We did make the most of it. They didn’t have the lobster mac and cheese that I was hoping for (that’s only East Coast to UK, it turns out), but they did have some amazing grilled cheese and tomato soup that I made great use of. And dinner? Ohh man… appetizers, main courses, desserts, wine… yeah. We enjoyed our flight.

An excellent end to an excellent vacation.

20, 21 & 22-May, 2016 – Visiting Sarah and her parents in Bakersfield!

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Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 20, 21 & 22-May-2016

 

Visiting Sarah and her parents in Bakersfield!!

Friday –

I stayed in Portland Thursday night, so flying out of PDX was pretty easy – just a straight shot to LAX… which is really far from Bakersfield!  Sorry! I didn’t know it was so far away from Bakersfield! If I’d known, I would have flown direct, so Sarah and her folks wouldn’t have to drive so long!

The drive is nice though – it gives us time to chat, catch up, and relax a bit as a start of the weekend.  Most importantly, since we’re all stuck in the car for a while it gave me time to cuddle Ollie and Sarah, and for us to grab a bit of food on the way back. Yay Chinese fast food! And mango smoothies!

Getting to the house is a nice chance to unwind after an insane week, and I finally get to meet Leeloo and Loki – Sarah’s (now her parent’s) cockatiels!  We have fun, though they don’t really want to hang out with me, and instead spend the time hanging with Bill or Sarah.

Saturday –

Saturday get’s us up and at em, starting into the day. Breakfast was delicious, and followed up with burning it off by hiking around and looking at the oil fields… all while Ollie trips balls chasing after real and probably imagined gophers. Turns out, there’s tons of them in the area.  Then back to hang out at the house, have a soak in the jacuzzi, and eat an amazing prime rib dinner. Like… seriously.  Sarah’s dad makes an AMAZING prime rib!  I’m hungry typing about it again…

The rest of the night is chill, hanging out, having some drinks, and learning a lot about New Orleans customs, parties, and parades!

Sunday –

A sad day, the last day.  Packing up and figuring out what I should bring back to Portland takes a bit of time, but it’s not too much, and soon enough Sarah’s mom, Sarah and I all head into the Getty, a huge art museum in LA that reminds me more of a Bond fortress than an art museum.  Seriously – we take a tram up to get to the main gate.  Who does that?  Bond villains, that’s who.

The Getty is awesome, though unfortunately Bill can’t come, since he’s watching Ollie and showing the house, since they’re selling it and moving away pretty soon… Hence me bring stuff back to Portland.  There are tons of pretty exhibits, including caves and some awkward “erotic photography”… that honestly wasn’t super good, if we’re discussing it.  Kind of too focused on being fancy.  But hey, it was cool, so that’s nice!

Then dinner of pizza, a sad goodbye, and a flight home!