Portland, June 2010: Day Eight

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Sadly, the day had arrived where we were to head home.

Can you see both Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood (I think!) in the distance?

But not quite yet! First, we woke up bright and early. The city was blanketed by this beautiful sunset.

We headed to the airport with Jo Jo and Bahar driving in tandem alongside us. We returned the rental car (a lengthy endeavor), then convened in the food court for breakfast together.

Breakfast was delish, and you can see that my sister, Akari, and my nieces, Madison and Sophie, fully agreed! I devoured a slice of veggie souffle, Ayize chowed down on tomato soup and crackers, and I sipped my coffee slowly and lovingly. It had been a long night with lots of packing and little sleep.

Ayize hitched a ride from Grandpa. Whee!

We wheeled through Customs -- always a lengthy event, with my dad's wheelchair and oxygen tanks -- and made our way to our departure gate.

We were right on time...but our plane was not. Heavy storms in Chicago had shut down O'Hare for all incoming and outgoing flights and there was no knowing when it would re-open.

Thus began our Long Wait.

First thing we did was shoot down a series of moving walkways (the kids enjoyed the ride) until we reached "The Children's Play Area".

I guess I had expected something akin to Pump It Up from all the fancy signage, but what we got instead was a Lego table, a bead runner, and a few of these hand puzzles. Which still made for a totally-awesome way for the kids to pass a couple hours...but not hardly what I expected from all the advertisements for it throughout the airport LOL!

Singing a cute little tune as he played.

Maddie and Ayize circled around this hand-puzzle stand doing each thing in turn.

Then the kids built a cool castle out of Lego. Competition for the limited number of Legos was quite stiff, though, especially when a gaggle of young boys arrived and went all renegade on the situation!

So we headed back to the hand games. Maddie "drove", Sophie was a passenger, and Ayize attempted to climb the thing.

The girls clamored for ice cream at the nearby 31 Flavors, so we headed over. Ayize, who had never tasted nor shown interest in ice cream, was given a sample of some kind of vanilla/caramel flavor, and became an instant convert.

Here he is meditating on the om of ice cream.

Sucking that spoon dry!

Begging for more from the girls! They each kindly shared a few spoonfuls with him. He was in heaven.

And his tongue turned blue, too!

Riding the sugar high. And the moving walkway.

Our delay has just gone from being one hour, to being two (it would eventually be four).

Everybody was getting bored. My sister was on her iPhone, my niece had cracked a book, and my mom and I were laughing because we noticed their twin legs and twin postures.

"Papa, can I have a cookie, please?"

Doing the tasty cookie dance!

Well, if it's gonna be two hours...

The kids needed to stretch their legs more than the crowded waiting area afforded, so off we went again. We headed back to the play area, but this time we meandered. Discovered this gorgeous seating area with lots of fun "bridge" benches and fish and animal sculptures for the kids to climb on and jump off. Every sculpture was an ode to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

We played for a bit, then the girls grabbed some lunch at Burger King and Ayize and I got a slice of margherita pizza to share.

Just got notice that we were now at the three-hour-delay mark. I busted out the DVD player and fortunately, there was a nearby outlet at the end of the waiting area so I didn't kill the battery. I put on an old classic Mickey Mouse cartoon and everyone was immediately entranced.

Sophie's booster chair was the prime seat in the house. When the girls tooled off with their mom to use the facilities, Ayize threw himself into it and did a combination of a victory cheer and calisthenics, so he ended up collapsing backwards and kind of just slid off.

WOW. Somebody was in serious need of a nap, and it was already a couple of hours overdue. Still, he remained cheerful as ever.

But he did start rubbing his eyes when we finally boarded the plane, at the three-and-a-half-hour mark. My sister was kind enough to carry him for me because I had a lot of carry-on in my hands, plus some food for him.

Chowing down on whatever odds and ends I could muster. He wasn't a big fan of the pizza (it was quite garlicky, much to my delight, but not his), so I was really rooting through my stash of leftovers from the course of our trip by this time. Luckily, I had a few Japanese osempe on hand, from my parents (rice crackers with soy sauce basting, sprinkled with thick sugar crystals), and a few European butter crackers that my brother, Shishin, had bought earlier in the trip. He ate these, and then he polished off some sticks and cheese-dip and a big fruit roll-up (both courtesy of my sister's plane stash for her kids).

He stayed awake for the whole half-hour wait on the tarmac to take off...

...but as we finally began to roll down the runway, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

When he settled into this La-Z Boy posture, with that glazed look on his face, I knew he would be snoozing in a matter of seconds...

...and despite the screaming sound of the jet engines as we began to tear down the tarmac at a thundering rate, his eyes closed, and he instantly dropped into the deepest of sleeps.

His nap lasted over two hours. Heavenly!

Takeoff...zzzzzzzzz.

Goodbye, PDX!

:-(

The flight home was AWESOME. Ayize slept for over two hours, and my niece (sitting beside me) slept for much of that time, too. I listened to my iPod while playing Zookeeper, Brain Age, and Tetris on my Nintendo DS. Heaven!

When the kids woke up, they snacked some more on what little leftovers we had and watched The Polar Express. By the time it ended, we were almost landing.

I thanked my lucky stars for such a peaceful, enjoyable flight home.

Sweet home, Chicago!

A beautiful post-storm sunset awaited us; it was almost 8 p.m.

Ayize was a big help as we got off the plane, our hands full.

The girls and I paused by this sign to pretend that we had landed in the Bahamas.

Another photo op during our facation (as in fake). Somebody pass me a drink with a parasol in it!

This was our first clue that we had landed in the midst of chaos.

Ye gads! They were just allowing the first stranded folks to claim these 700 cots; another area would be opened shortly, as a voice informed us over the intercom.

The first cot-claimant arrives.

I felt so sorry for her and all the other people who would have to spend the night in such close quarters -- especially the ones with wee, overtired, crabby kids who had been waiting around the airport all day long on account of the awful storms. Humorously, Starbucks had already hastily lugged a big sign out to advertise that they would stay open all night long. Now that is advantageous advertising! Sigh...

Plastic bags filled with bedding were piled everywhere.

It was a relief to enter the crowded, clamoring chaos of the baggage area. I love this photo because although the kids are in focus, the moving mass of humanity around them is a blur. Exactly how I think we all felt by that time.

Home we went. Ayize still had the energy on board to eat a big pasta dinner, with a dessert of compressed fruits in a bar form. He crashed around 11 (9 Portland time).

It was a wonderful trip, but it was nice to be back in our own beds!

* * * * *

And here's a little epilogue about The Day After.

First stop of the morning, after a hasty breakfast: McCormick Animal Hospital, where we picked up one delighted little dog! Which made one little boy even more delighted, to be reunited!

I could tell by both Wee's decorative cage card, and his happy behavior, that he had been -- as usual -- spoiled rotten by my co-workers. Yay!

Another old friend from the animal shelter had left me a sweet post-it note, which made me giggle. It was just like old times again.

Next stop: Animal 911, to pick up our beloved bird, Turkey. Happily, Ayize's godmother Diana was working, so a fun reunion was in order!

Turkey, our budgie, is pretty ancient -- somewhere around 24 years old -- and can be a little moody at times, but there is no better bird in this universe, I am certain! And clearly, Ayize agrees!

This was the bag I brought Turkey's medications in last week, and we all laughed to see it was still there, in a place of honor near her incubator. A photo, for posterity. This is just one reason why Chicago Exotics is an awesome place to work -- wacky individuality (and bizarre turkey-tribute artwork) is wholeheartedly appreciated by your equally-eccentric co-workers!

A pause, to check out Steve. We had heard about this adorable, homeless little budgie boy who had been attacked by dogs. He has since found a lovely forever home, but it took everything we had to resist adopting him...

...and you can see why here! Isn't he handsome??

Anyhow, our last stop of the morning was home. It was wonderful to be together again, and all under one roof. But we're still eagerly anticipating our return to Portland, in September.

Let the good times roll!

;-)