We're now back in Portland -- is this a wrap? I hope not. While our Malaysian adventures are over, we haven't suddenly become anti-adventure; far from it. We were adventurers in our own backyards before Asia came calling, so we'll just pick up where we left off. There are national parks to explore, that little state that doesn't quite belong (Hawaii,) that state that rests like a boulder on the shoulder of Atlas (Alaska), family scattered far and wide, and a whole host of countries to the south that is virgin territory. In fact, we're quite excited!
So how does Portland sit with us now that we've found our home again? Pretty good in fact. We can't lie--arriving in summer as the warm weather broke out like sunny kisses over the region was extremely good timing. Going from palm trees and 90s degrees to misty grey cool and dark would have been a serious threat to my system. Hitting London on the way back from Penang (meeting our cute new niece and seeing aforementioned scattered relatives) when that country hadn't seen the sun in like 45 days was bad enough. I had to borrow my sister-in-law's winter coat, while she was determined to celebrate 'summer' in a billowing cotton frock that made me shiver just looking at her. The locals must have thought I was ridiculous.
The clouds finally relented and the sun warmed the place up just in time for our 4th of July picnic. My poor sister-in-law has to toil every year to remind those Brits how good we are at celebrating beating their sorry red coats...staples like pasta salad, hot dogs, burgers, beer, potato salad, wine and cake help. Her neighbor's back yard was American food heaven.
Oh yeah, and a little something called the Olympics were about to start! We didn't see any athletes, but my mother-in-law got to experience the chaos of Heathrow immigration. My sister-in-law lives near Victoria Park, so we walked all around the Olympic Park and checked out the fab merch at the new mall there. It will be awesome to watch on TV! GO USA!
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