Sunday, July 19, 2009

Portland Trip- Day 1

I have been asked about our trip out to Portland a number of times now. Here is the rundown of the first day of our vacation.

5:08- After realizing Ross had set the alarm to 4:30 pm the night before, we rushed around to get out of the house. We were on the road around 5:20ish. We got to bed around 12:30 the night before after tying up all the loose ends before the trip.

6:30- I dropped Ross off at the airport. This is me wondering if I can really do this whole driving 12 hours with 2 girls and 4 hours of sleep all by myself thing.7:30- wondering what I was so worried about. My girls are amazing. Also- Ross missed his flight and was transferred to another later one. 8:00- Making good time!

8:30- Remembering why it was so easy to move away from Idaho. . . 9:30- Wondering how I could have forgotten how incredibly cute Bambi is.

10:30- I was pulling into Boise at this point and was wondering if it was too early to order the chicken nuggets Emma wanted. It wasn't.

11:30 I contemplated stopping at this point just after getting lunch with the girls- but they were both sleeping so good that I just couldn't waste that time on the road.

12:30- I drained a second giant cup of Dr. Pepper to keep myself going. I have to say that it worked pretty well. I felt much better after getting all of that caffeine into my system.

1:30 I have the best babies! They were seriously so good! We stopped once for lunch. They got out of the car for an hour, and were just find getting back in. I stopped two other times the entire trip- once for about a minute to fix Emma's straps, and once to fill Sara's bottle and open a bag of cookies for Emma. They only ever got out of the car once during the whole ride. They were AMAZING!!
3:30- I was singing along to something at this point- Pippin I think. I saw this around 4:00. I thought it was interesting.
4:30 I was starting to regret all that Dr. Pepper about this time. I considered borrowing one of Sara's diapers.
5:30- I'm starting to lose it a little bit. I really wish I had gotten more sleep the night before!!
This is about 30 minutes before I got to Portland, and about 2 hours before I got to my hotel room. I am serious about that. I hate driving here! The streets are all one-way, they all have similar names, and they all lead to some kind of freeway if you stay on them too long. It was insane. I have never been so tired or frustrated in my entire life. I could feel myself starting to slip mentally because I was just so tired. I called Ross and made him stay on the phone with me to help keep me awake. I realize now that I should have just pulled over for a little bit- but I was just so close. . .

I was on the phone with Ross as I tried to find my way. At one point, he walked out to a common street corner, and met me there. It was about 3 blocks from the hotel. He hopped in to drive thinking he could get me there quicker. As soon as I was relieved of the driving responisibility, I promptly gave in to my exhaustion and passed out. It scared Ross a little bit. An hour later, Ross finally pulled into the hotel parking garage. Yes- it took us an hour to get 3 blocks. This was due to a combination of crazy traffic and all the other complaints I had. At least it wasn't raining.

All the effort was made worth it when I saw the hotel room. It is nice! I have never stayed anywhere this nice before. We have a full kitchen with a stove range, and a dishwasher. There is a king sized bed and there is a couch and daybed for the girls to sleep on. I love it. This is turning out to be a very nice vacation, indeed.
I took a shower, brushed my hair, and slept for a good 20 minutes while Ross unloaded the car. After that little cat nap, I was ready to eat something, and to get something good for the kids to eat. Our hotel just happened to be serving free dinner that night in the lobby- so we enjoyed the free spread and then went back to the hotel room. It was a really lame way to spend the first night of vacation, but I had no energy for tourism that night. After watching So You Think You Can Dance (LOVED Jeanine and Jason's routine, and LOVED Melissa and Brandon's hippee dance!), I slept deeply the entire night. I hope the girls were good, because I did not wake up even once.

2 comments:

Tracie said...

Wow. I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to drive 12 hours by myself with 2 kids. I'm glad they were good for you.

Carrie said...

So what's the deal? Business trip or something? Why is Ross flying and you are driving? I'd have made him come with me or give me his ticket! PS--Ross, get your wife a GPS...has saved me from getting lost tons of times! I LOVE MANDY!