Oregon Trails

We spent a night with my wife's niece in Tacoma, then headed down to Portland, Oregon for a week at the Gladstone camp meeting, and helping our friends Eddie & Sarah get ready for their wedding on Sunday.

It was a long ride and we stopped at Dairy Queen for one of the things we look forward to most when we are overseas--a DQ cone dipped in butterscotch!

We got check into the campground and had one of the worst spots available, right beside a dusty path that got dust all over and inside our tents. But we had a good time at Gladstone overall--lots of good meetings and seeing old friends from years ago.

One morning my honey and I went to Multnomah Falls and hiked around.



We had the most delicious Vietnamese food for lunch, at a very reasonable price. The vegetable spring rolls were amazing.


The noodle soup and the durian and jackfruit milkshakes were delicious.




On Thursday we joined my wife's uncle and her cousin for the climb up the south summit of Mount Saint Helens. We enjoyed beautiful views of the growing crater, Spirit Lake, and in the distance, Mount Rainier. The total hike was about 11 hours round trip.






We took all the relatives for breakfast at IHOP Sunday morning because my wife's father heard about the pancake breakfast special and wanted to try it. I think everyone enjoyed it, including him, who normally has difficulty due to his blindness, dietary restrictions, and unfamiliarity with a new environment.

Later that morning, my friend Eddie got ready for his wedding. Here he is, leading the rest of the penguin suits to the staging area. He is one of my best friends, and I was honored to be his best man in the wedding. The night before I pulled off a fairly interesting and successful bachelor party that managed to be fun and kosher.

It was a beautiful Christian ceremony in the park near Vancouver, Washington.

The next day on the way back up to Seattle, we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell, which is also one of the foods from America we miss the most overseas.

We flew from Seattle to Baltimore via American Airlines. I don't know why the Carlson Wagonlit travel agency always has to book our flights on American, but at least Uncle Sam pays for it.