that time we went to Portland

You may remember that last month we took a whirlwind trip to Portland, which was also Cora's first time on a plane and first time out of the state. Both kids were amazing on the plane, and good thing because they put us in the row DIRECTLY behind first class with the only divider being a thin curtain. Christian was mostly entertained with the iPad or back-of-seat-TV entertainment, and Cora was entertained being a 2 month old.

Even though the purpose of the trip was to have Cora's tongue and lip tie revised, which went off without a hitch, we wanted to pack in as much fun stuff as possible. 

We arrived Saturday evening, late. Well, 10pm, which is late by parental standards. We checked into the Embassy Suites in downtown Portland, and man, downtown Portland was in FULL Saturday night swing. The streets were busy, and I wanted to be part of it... but not more than I wanted to go to bed. This Embassy Suites did not really look the part of a traditional Embassy, but more of an old, glamorous hotel, and it actually used to be a different hotel at one point. It's one of the many beautiful historical buildings around Portland, built in 1912. The crib they provided was also from 1912. 

{photo cred}

We were across the street from lots of really cool things, including the giant Saturday Market, a splash pad, Voodoo Doughnuts, and the Willamette River. 

Prior to arriving in Portland, Rob made a reservation for us to take a tour of the Widmer Brothers Brewery. Everyone has had their famous Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen. Right? Ok, if not, then you must. We may or may not have a keg of it on tap at our house at this very moment. The tour was fantastic, the beer was great, and the food at the Gasthaus Pub afterward was... pretty good. :) But seriously, we had a blast, met some cool people... and is everyone this friendly in Portland?? 

After the tour and lunch, we headed over to Voodoo Doughnuts. But not the original one downtown, the other lesser known (??) location in the burbs. There was still a line, but nothing like the one across from the hotel. 

I will say, the doughnuts were good, but definitely more of a novelty. They weren't all that. 

Sunday evening was a REAL treat! Back when we lived in LA, we were part of this awesome small group/bible study. I have talked many times about how much I love all the people that were part of this group. It just so happened that one couple, Jenny and Joe, plus now their two adorable kids, were vacationing in Portland. They were staying in an amazing house with the most ridiculous backyard that was a former salmon hatchery... because Portland. So we went over there to BBQ and catch up on life. When I left, my heart was full. It was like my tank was replenished of something I didn't even know was missing. Oh, and the kids, especially the two boys had a BLAST throwing rocks in the creek, throwing themselves over the hammock, getting as wet and dirty as possible... you know, being boys.

It was truly an evening I didn't want to end. But we headed back to the hotel and mentally prepared ourselves for Monday, the day of the tongue tie revision aka the whole reason for flying to Portland. 

Honestly, it wasn't terrible. The procedure itself literally took 3 minutes. Three minutes.   The numbed the area with some cream, took her away, and THREE minutes later she was back in my arms. Dr. Ghaheri was amazing and had so much great information. I really enjoyed chatting with him. Rob and Christian were out in the waiting room, and then we joined them there. We hung out for a while before heading to Trader Joe's... buying all the chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels. 

After clearing the aisles of Trader Joe's, we went back to the hotel to relax. Well, Cora and I relaxed. Rob and Christian went back to the "splish splash," or the splash pad as it's more commonly known. 

We checked out of the hotel that afternoon and had lunch at the Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House. The food was yummy! I drank the delicious Black Butte Porter... you know, all in the name of increasing my milk supply. It's now one of my new favorites. 

Monday night was our final night in Portland. We stayed with one of Rob's college roommates and his family. The same family that stayed with us back in February. They are seriously some of the most wonderful people, and I wish we could be next door neighbors. Rob and Christian camped out in their backyard - tent and all! And Cora and I camped out in the living room. 

Tuesday morning we left for the airport, where we did NOT get on our flight back to Honolulu. See, free travel isn't always the best. Hah. They wanted to put Rob in the cockpit, and Christian 6 rows behind me. Tempting, but... probably not in the best interest of everyone else on the plane. We ended up flying on Alaska Airlines into Maui and then taking Island Air back into Honolulu. It was great to fly on my alma mater.

And home sweet home. 

It was indeed a whirlwind trip, but I'd like to think we made the best of a short stay in such a wonderful city. I would love to go back to Portland and spend much longer than one weekend. 

Cora has been doing great since the tongue tie revision and it was 100000% worth the trip out there. 

Thanks Portland! A hui hou!! 

we're home!

Well, alooooooha! It's super early. Like, "the-sun-is-not-awake-yet-Christian" early.

Christian and I arrived safely back in Hawaii yesterday afternoon after a few non-eventful flights. We had a successful time flying stand-by on Delta from RIC to JFK, making our trip back home a whopping $30. I know. I know. We "paid" for it in our journey from T2 to T5 in JFK. And I do mean journey, similar to what I imagine the Oregon Trail would have been like.

Christian did great on the plane, and we were showered with compliments from surrounding passengers once we landed. Thankyouverymuch. I really have to give my sincerest thanks to God, Apple for inventing the iPad, and the dollar bin at Target where we picked up several packs of stickers.

We left Mom's house at 5am to head to the airport and we pulled up in our driveway at about 3:30pm (Hawaii time), so after traveling approximately 16 hours, I was exhausted. Christian was stoked on life that Rob met us at the gate. (He flew in from SFO about an hour before us.) Rob then so so so graciously took Christian to the park, fed him dinner, gave him a bath, put him to bed, while I was dead to the world for a good long time.

Hello green mountains, I've missed you!

At this early hour, I am sitting on the sofa watching Tom & Jerry (what else) with a toddler that had a very very early morning diaper situation and was never able to go back to sleep... naturally, drinking coffee, and listening to the birds wake up. But I love it.

What I am NOT loving is the smell of cat pee. Yep. For the first time EVER, Baxter sprayed/peed... in Christian's room. So yeah, had to take care of that situation this morning as well. I guess we made him good and mad for being gone for so long, even though he received the MOST EXCELLENT care from our landlord's daughter. Oh, I mean it. Baxter ran out of wet food (which I knew he would be without wet food for a few days... oh the horror) and they went and bought him CANNED SALMON. Spoiled much? Anyway...payback.

I am ready to get back in a routine. So ready. Especially Kaia and Stroller Strides. My sources of sanity. My eating habits have been less than stellar for the past two weeks, so I'm also ready to clean my diet back up. And oh yeah, that little half-marathon I decided to signup for. So I guess I need to start training for that too.

But I do think this was one of our best trips out east, EVER. We did SO much and saw so many people, and had a blast. Christian said yesterday when I was getting him dressed (at the wee hour of 4:30am) to go to the airport, "maybe Nannie can come to our house tomorrow?" Christian had so much fun spending lots of quality time with Nannie. She showers him with attention and affection, and basically whatever he wants. (More pictures from our actual trip later.)

Now that the sun is actually awake, Tom & Jerry is over, and my coffee cup is empty, I guess that means... I need to refill my coffee.

Have a wonderful weekend!

dinner in Osaka

Quite literally. Well, almost. Ok, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. In that order.

(Apologies in advance for the crappy iPhone photos. My camera needs to take a trip back to Nikon for some TLC.)

Last month I got to go to Osaka with Rob on his layover. A very short layover (24 hours) but it's amazing the amount of things (and food) you can pack in in a short 24 hours. We left on a Thursday early in the afternoon and landed Friday evening. The flight was about 10 hours long, but I was blessed, lucky, and receiving good karma, and scored a first class seat.  Now, some of you may think, "A 10 hour flight for a 24 hour layover??!!?!?!? CRAZY LADY." Well, if you haven't traveled with a toddler, then you may not know that the flight was part of the vacation. Um... champagne before takeoff, movies, reading, sleeping, did I mention champagne? Cue Fergie song. 

We landed at about 6:30pm and took the train to the hotel. And then quickly headed back out the door. Rob has been to Osaka quite a few times so he knew exactly where we should go for drinks/dinner/drinks. We started out at this little bar that's obviously the "post flight hangout amongst crew members" as indicated by the airplane poster hanging on the wall signed by many a crew member.

That night we also met another American that has been living there for the past 6 years teaching English and had just opened up a little store of what, I'm not so sure. Sorry. I do remember that his name was Eric and his Japanese girlfriend's name was Erica. Convenient.

{We almost ordered two of these.}

After we filled up on shochu and beer and okonomiyaki, we left to get more food. Ramen. Delicious, dream-about-it ramen.

After dinner we returned to the hotel for a few hours of sleep. The next morning we decided to go to the gym for a bit... and saw some interesting signage. 

Rob had already given me the heads up that I would not be swimming the hotel pool. (Here is an interesting article about tattoos in Japan.)

After not swimming in the pool, we headed out for the day, but not before checking out the sunrise. Land of the Rising Sun, most definitely. A spectacular sunrise. 

We decided to take a walk to the main fish market in Osaka and then hop on the train/subway to the Osaka Aquarium. The walk was quiet and peaceful as it was pretty darn early in the morning. 

I'm very happy we decided to go to the aquarium. It was HUGE, and awesome. The Japanese do nothing half-heartedly. The aquarium basically had one large circular tank that the entire rest of the aquarium wrapped around. 

{A very large ferris wheel outside the aquarium that was closed because it was so windy/cold!!}

After the aquarium we trained it back to the Namba. It was just a wee bit crowded. Actually, it was so crowded it made me laugh uncomfortably. 

We stopped at a little udon restuarant for more more more. I'm convinced a warm bowl of noodles is THE PERFECT meal for cold, cold days. Fairly certain I could live off ramen and udon for the rest of the days of my life. And I wanted to take a picture (naturally) of our delicious bowl of udon but as soon as it was placed in front of me I forgot and inhaled it. 

{The owner of this udon restaurant looks exactly as depicted on his signage.}

After our delicious lunch, we made one final stop in Diaso AKA the 100 yen store AKA the Japanese version of the dollar store. Six floors. And finally, even though it was fairly early we went back to the hotel since Rob needed to sleep before flying all night. 

For the flight home I was once again on the receiving end of good karma and ended up in first class. I mostly slept and waved to Rob as he was going back in the flight deck after his break. (They have 3 pilots on the longer flights.) 

Oh, hello home! It was a beautiful clear morning and I was treated to wonderful views of the island. Pictured above is a really cool resort area (with lagoons) on the west side of the island. (One of those resorts is Aulani, the new Disney resort.) 

And that's that - our whirlwind trip to Osaka. 

Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita!