Plans to return to Munich, Germany over the weekend were shelved for a couple of nearer adventures here in the Northwest. On Saturday, a dozen of us got together for a 17.6 mile hike/scramble on Mount Hood to the Mooney plane crash site and Mooney Tarn, including the Elk Cove trail, Pinnacle Ridge, and some off-trail action. Stories and photos are coming soon!
Garth's Blog skips over many of my international travelogues (or I often post them later). Friends who follow my blog grudgingly accept this. But hopefully I'll be uploading more international posts now that Kathy is almost ready to let me take Lena along overseas!
For now, here is our OTHER adventure from this weekend:
We've come a long way since
Lena: International Baby of Mystery (
link). At three years old, Lena already has Daddy's sense of adventure, exploration, and restlessness.
And I'm praying that our 8 1/2 month old Levi will, too!
Lena's vacation in Spain last Fall was so long ago...
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| En route to Madrid, Spain |
...So, with Mommy's permission, I figure it's WAY past time to get Lena flying again.
Flying Lena to Seattle on Friday for lunch with my friend Michael Alben (living in Burien) was a good place to start. Let's call this a "dress rehearsal" for some upcoming kid-modified, Garth-style international trips.
PDX Airport
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| Mommy holds back tears long enough to drop Lena and me off at curbside. Kathy's dry eyes lasted all the way to the PDX cell phone waiting area, where she awaited my text assuring her that Lena and I were assigned seats on board. |
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A groggy Lena tugs her little roll-aboard luggage though the TSA checkpoint, charming everyone.
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Lena's is giddy for her favorite part of flying: The airport people-mover!
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| Delta'a PDX rampers Jeffy and Cindy load up our Skywest CRJ for departure. Lena's car seat is sitting on the ground, next to the aft belt loader. |
Seattle - Burien
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| Rather than this church parking lot, imagine Lena dragging her luggage to a kid-friendly hostel or friend's house in Italy... or anywhere in the world! |
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| After Michael picked us up from SEA-TAC airport, he showed us around his house, his church, and the town of Burien. |
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| Michael gives us a tour of Burien Evangelical Church (don't let the name "Evangelical" fool you), including the music room upstairs. |
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| Downtown Burien |
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| Seahurst Park, on Puget Sound |
The journey home to Beaverton
Vine video- End of a Daddy-daughter trip: A sleepy Lena boards our flight home from Seattle to Portland.
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| Flying back to PDX: Lena is too young to fly standby in Business Class, so we sat in the comfy Economy Comfort row again. |
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| Riding the Max train home from PDX airport to Beaverton: Lena is in desperate need of her afternoon nap. |
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| Reunited with another future traveling, hiking, and climbing companion: Baby Levi! |
Garth's Blog will return in late October with...
Climbing Mount St. Helens again!
3 comments:
Such cute photos of your trip to Sea-Tac and Burien with Lena! While we were eating lunch together today, she told me about the trip from her 3-year-old perspective. You're right about the "people mover." She smiled BIG when I asked her if she and Daddy had walked on the moving sidewalk inside the Portland airport. Like her father, she loves adventure!
She sure does love adventure! Lena's excitement on this Daddy-daughter trip (and on our hike today) is a good sign that she'll be thrilled during our upcoming journeys!
I really like the photo of you and Mike Alben in this blog post. I hope Mike and his family are enjoying being pastors in Burien.
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