We are finally on the way down to California for Wren's surgery. Today we drove from Seattle down to Ashland. It was a very long day (10am till 7pm!) but we stopped for lunch at Pizza Pi in Portland and a quick visit to Powells. Josh bought a language course in Japanese and has been trying to teach me the basic greetings. I have stalled on good morning - something which sounds like Ohio go zai mas (which I remember as "Ohio go I must!") - and sayonara (which we recall from action movies). He is remarkably good at understanding the advanced disk - I can see Frost will have a parent resource when he starts Japanese next year. I bought an excellent book on Scottish Genealogy. The Scots have fabulous genealogical records due to an obsession with writing things down and an abundance of lawyers plus they have made much of it available online. My Dad's granny was a Scottish McHarg and I am looking forward to exploring her family more. I think that the Dewars may also be Scottish but a way further back and the Hamiltons are reputed to be Scottish pre-1600.
We had a dramatic departure this morning. Josh asked me for a list of the Things We Could Not Leave Without. It included:
Wren
Wallets
Computers
The X-ray disk.
As we were driving off I remembered to check for Wren's hospital bag with all the activities I had bought and been gifted. It was not there! I checked back to think where it could be and realized it must have been given to Phillipa among Frost's things and was now locked in their house. Nobody was home so we had to call Frost out of class at school and use his spare house key to go in and retrieve the hospital suitcase. Close thing!
That delayed our departure.
We drove through rain and various cloudbursts and dark coniferous forests before Portland but since then it has been green vistas of sunny valleys and long-shadowed red barns with cows, goats and horses scattered in the meadows.
Traffic was easy and Wren's indomitable bladder required few stops.
We are all tired and have another 6 hour drive tomorrow. We hope to swim in the pool first or at least try the hot tub.
