Yeah! Yippee! The kids and I went to visit Cousin Sandy and Cousin Tevi in Portland, and we had a fabulous time.

The train is my new favorite mode of travel. I'm sure the rest of you knew about the joys of train travel long ago, but I'm new to the new train. I didn't know the train now has reserved seats. No more rushing to find the right car and seats together. I hated that tension. The train has free wifi. I could read my email and my books over the internet to my heart's content. And the kids, oh, I just plugged them into the dvd player and pleasantly we rolled along. I suppose the same would have been true in the car, but on the train, the bathroom is always a few steps away. And the train was, of course, possible because Cousin Sandy chauffeured us everywhere. Thank you Cousin Sandy!

Cousin Sandy had done great prep for our visit by finding the gluten-free Portland site and vetting it. For the first time in my life, I went on a trip with the kids and ate out three meals. We started with a pasta restaurant. The kids had mac and cheese. They declared it o.k. That's fine. We've been working hard on eating food you don't love is a life skill.

The next morning we went to a cook your own pancakes at the table place. The kids adored the novelty--David had never flipped his own pancakes before--and Rose declared the buckwheat batter the best pancakes she's ever had, besides Daddy's.

And then, the piece de la resistance, Sandy drove all the way across the city to a gingerbread house. Every inch of the place was decorated with candy and unicorns and magical fairy goodness, as well as phrases in praise of Jesus. And it was a completely gluten-free restaurant. And they specialized in elephant ears which Rose has been asking for ever since we saw the gluten ones at Folklife. In other words, we were in heaven. At first David insisted there was no grow food on the menu that he wanted to eat, but when he realized no grow food, no donut, he decided on an omelet. Thank goodness they had cheddar cheese because my kids really can't stand American cheese, and I'm with them on that. We eventually bought for there and trip home elephant ears, chocolate donuts, apple donuts, a cinomin roll, and excellent sandwich rolls. Rose again declared these second only to Daddy's bread.

We had a lovely time playing with Cousin Tevi at the park down the street, the park with fountains, and the Ramona park. David goes into big brother mode around Tevi, speaking to him in an overbearingly patient voice and asking him for kisses. Tevi can handle it, and David gets to try on being the big kid. The kids got to go on teeter totters for the first time. We also went shopping at Powel's, which overwhelmed us all. I didn't even try to look for me. I just walked around with the kids and went, "Wow! I cannot believe every Jack Stalwart is here."

It was a lovely lovely trip.