Road Trip!

The amazing ties of technology are allowing me to post from my hotel room in Portland, Oregon. Right now I am sitting at a desk, Mr. M. and Meg are playing cards on my bed. Jo and Beth are laying on the next bed watching cartoons, and Amy is playing with magnetics on the table behind me.

It is a time of calm and almost peace during what will be a whirlwind week.

We left home around 7:00 am this morning. Which was very nice since Mr. M. has been saying "On the road at 4:00 am for the last week." The drive down was fairly uneventful.

After checking in to our hotel room we went to Powell's Bookstore. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Powell's takes up a full city block in downtown Portland. The technical books are in a totally different building. I got the girls comfortable in the "Rose Room" children's section. Meg had chosen her books and was keeping an eye on the younger girls so I wandered over to the grown up section to look for a book for myself.

"Mrs. March, Jo is paging you to meet her in the Rose Room" I hear over the loud speaker.

I go running back to the rose room and see Jo standing next to the children's desk with a store clerk.

"I'm so sorry" I say to the clerk, taking Jo by the hand.

"Jo, what's the problem, why didn't you stay with Meg?"

"Mommy, Amy put two books into the basket, not one. You said ONE choice and she won't take the book out."

"Jo, couldn't this wait until after mommy picked a book? Did you HAVE to get the clerk to page me?"

"No, it COULDN'T wait, you said ONE choice!"

Amy begins to defend herself pointing out that her book cost less. (4 year olds aren't supposed to argue like that are they?"

I gather up the girls, and get the books sorted out, by this time Mr. M has joined us and we head out of the store. I never did find the book I was looking for.

We then headed over to the Chinese Garden. I think that there were more flowers in bloom then I have ever seen there. After enjoying the peaceful walks and therapeutic setting of the garden we sit down to enjoy tea. The girls are getting restless waiting so I challenge them to think up poems as we wait for our tea. The moon cake and coconut cookies were a big hit.

Here is Mr. March's contribution:

Chattering Children Invade Tranquil
Garden

Flute Serenades Waterfall

Tea and Treats Bring Quite

How Long Will it Last?

I think that's a pretty good place to end for tonight.