The Small Family     

Hi everyone! “Feo” here. (I know how to say my name now, though the “Th” sound is a hard one. So I simply call myself “Feo, Feo, Feo” at all times. I also now know how to spell my name, which leaves Mama and Daddy wondering how soon I’ll pick up War and Peace and start reading it.) Anyway, it seems Mama usually lets me write the vacation blogs, so here goes nothing….

As you all know, we were on vacation for almost a week! Mama woke me up early Wednesday morning, and by 5:15 a.m., we were on the road and headed for parts north. I was such a good boy on the drive up to Medford (in southern Oregon). Mama and Daddy bought me two new toys for the car, so I had a lot of fun playing with them--especially my new LeapFrog laptop, which I would busily type on and announce in a very serious voice, “Work! Work!” You see, I work every bit as hard as Mama and Daddy. Mama and Daddy didn’t even have to break out any DVDs on the six-hour drive to Medford, which surprised them. We made one stop in Redding (about halfway through the journey) for me to play at a really nifty playground, but the rest of the time I rode contentedly in the car and did my “work” and played with my Elmo phone (which mysteriously knows my name--that Elmo is pretty smart). 

We had lunch in Ashland and then went to ScienceWorks--a hands-on science museum for kids. It’s actually more suited to kids older than me, but that never bothers me. I had a good time anyway. They have a tot section for little guys my age, and I did spend some time in there, but I was also very interested in the lizards and in some of the big-kid experiments. For dinner we stopped at Applebee’s. Our dinner was uneventful save for the fact that I demolished approximately half of an adult salad (scavenging from Mama’s Cobb salad and Daddy’s Asian chicken salad), then promptly stuck my hand in the back of my pants and came out with a few fingers-full of poop, right there at the table. (Luckily, it was Daddy’s turn to change me, so Mama just snickered away.)

We stayed at a hotel for dogs in Medford. You remember how much I like hotels, because my friends Ted and Fred stay in a hotel for dogs in Big Dog, Little Dog? Well, I have continued to inform my parents that every two-story or taller building is a hotel for dogs, and when we stay at one, I talk about it incessantly.

Thursday morning, we left Medford for Bend, via Crater Lake. Crater Lake is supposedly the bluest, deepest lake in the U.S., and Mama says it is indeed incredibly blue and pretty. However, I can’t vouch for that, because it was cloudy and snowing like mad while we were up there! You couldn’t even see the lake, and half the road was closed. They’d had five inches of snow the night before, and it was still snowing when we attempted to drive up there. So I got to see snow, but no lake. Sigh…Mama was not pleased to have driven two hours out of the way for that!

We made it to Bend in the early afternoon, and Mama and Daddy took me to the High Desert Museum, which Mama visited years ago and remembered as a good place for me. And indeed, we had a good time. It was a little rainy, but not so bad that I couldn’t go out to the outdoor exhibits. Indoors they had some fish, a bobcat, and lizards, but if you ventured outdoors, there was a river otter, some birds of prey, and a really neat re-creation of a small Old West settlement (sawmill, barn, cottage, paddock, etc.). I spent quite a long time exploring the settlement and talking to the nice man who lives there. And Mama and Daddy were most proud that I actually understood and complied with the “quiet please” rule at the birds of prey exhibit. In fact, ever since, I’ve been shushing them whenever I think we all ought to be quiet. (I’m usually quite loud, but now I know that sometimes we have to be quiet, too.)

After the High Desert Museum, we went to our hotel for dogs in Bend. Mama doesn’t usually take pictures of hotel rooms, but this was by far the nicest hotel she or Daddy has ever stayed in, so they were elated. Perhaps a little-known fact: Mama is very low-maintenance about most things. She’s usually quite agreeable about almost everything. However, she does have two areas in which she is decidedly high-maintenance: hotels and public bathrooms. The hotel doesn’t have to be fancy or luxurious, but it has to be very, very clean or she gets all crabby and walks around saying, “Ewww, ewww, ewww!” So it happens that our hotel for dogs in Bend was not only incredibly clean, it was also rather luxurious, and our room was HUGE! Seriously, it was half the size of our house, I think. It had two phones and two flat-screen TVs. Mama and Daddy felt like they’d landed in some rich person’s house or something. Funny thing is, the hotel only cost $30 more than the standard budget-friendly hotels in Bend. It got great reviews on TripAdvisor.com, which is why Mama decided to shell out the extra $30…plus it was located right in the heart of downtown, so we could walk to Drake Park (beautiful--lots of ducks and geese for me to see!) and to the restaurants nearby. If/when we go to Bend again, Mama and Daddy will surely stay there again--they were not disappointed!

Friday morning, before leaving Bend, we took a second walk through Drake Park (having taken a first walk the evening before), and Mama and Daddy tried to let me burn off some energy so I’d sleep for part of the long drive to Newport. I liked playing at the park, although I was rather annoyed when Daddy came after me with the wipies after I picked up a discarded can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and dumped the contents all over my hands. (Always good for a toddler to smell like a cheap brewery, right?!)

And indeed, I did sleep for part of the drive to Newport…except that as usual, right around the 45-minute mark (where I typically wake up unless I’m in optimal conditions), we had a disturbance. Daddy was driving on a windy two-lane mountain road, when suddenly he came upon a line of stopped cars. He of course stopped (which woke me up right away--I’m a very light sleeper at naptime), and to my surprise I saw an exploding minivan in the oncoming traffic lane, not more than 100 feet in front of us. This wasn’t just a minor car fire--the minivan was engulfed in flames, with a huge plume of smoke billowing from it. It was already a charred mess when we got there, with no signs of burning out anytime soon. What to do? It was only a two-lane road, so we could go around it, but it kept exploding and sending little bits of debris flying across the road. We were pretty sure the worst of the explosion had already happened, but not 100%. (There was no cell service up there in the mountains, so no one could call the fire department.) Finally, the three cars ahead of us inched around the fiery mess, and we decided to do the same. Daddy drove quickly by, but it was amazing how hot our car got just from driving next to that fire. As we rounded the curve, we saw all the occupants’ things spread out on the road. Apparently their van had caught fire and they had gotten out (which we already knew) and were able to get some of their stuff out, too. So no one was hurt, thank goodness…but it made a real traffic jam. About 30 minutes later, far down the mountain, we saw a fire truck driving back up toward the fire. By the time it got to the scene, the van had probably been burning for a good hour. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t much left of it at that point.

Anyway, that disturbed my nap, and I never went back to sleep. So by the time we finally got to Newport some five hours later, I was crabby and so was Daddy, and Mama wasn’t in much better of a mood. (There were pretty much no towns to stop at until we were within about an hour of Newport, so I was just stuck in the car for hours. This did not please me, although Mama and Daddy kept talking about the pretty scenery. Scenery, schmenerey--I wanted to get out!)

But I was happy once we got to Newport, because we had a beautiful house right on the beach! It was just a two-bedroom house and not overly large, but it was warm and comfortable and nicely appointed, and best of all, Santa was there!

Okay, let me explain. Although I’m talking a lot more now, pronunciation still isn’t always my strong point. So I tried my best to say “Chris,” “Lisa,” and “Ava,” but Chris became “Twiss,” Ava became “Ah-vee,” and Lisa became “Santa.” [[Mommy’s note: I always refer to Lisa as “Auntie Lisa,” so I think that’s where “Santa” comes from! It’s cute, wherever it comes from.]]

I quickly developed an obsession with Twiss, perhaps after discovering that he had brought a really fun game called Guitar Hero with him. You get to play a real guitar (sort of!), and I was a big fan of this. Twiss had two guitars with him, so he very nicely let me play one whenever he played the game. All the adults played one night after I went to bed, and I’m told Mama was abysmally bad. But I myself was a pretty rockin’ player, I must say.

Anyway, Mama was delighted that I was so obsessed with Twiss, because it gave her a break. You see, I’m in a bit of a clingy/separation anxiety phase right now, where often when Mama leaves the room, I yell hysterically, “Mama?! Mama?!” and get rather upset. And although Mama knows this is a normal phase and it, too, shall pass, she was rather thrilled to get 2 1/2 days of me pining for Twiss instead of her.

We all went to dinner in Newport Friday night, and although I’d had a long day, I was a very good boy. And it was there that Mama and Twiss began their run of oyster shooters. Seems like every restaurant on the Oregon coast has oyster shooters, and they had them at three different restaurants! Both said that either Friday night’s or Sunday afternoon’s shooters were the best. Those on Saturday needed a bit more sauce. (Daddy and Santa just looked on in disgust. They are not oyster fans…both have tried them once and are perfectly satisfied never to have them again.)

Saturday was a beautiful day, so Mama and Daddy took me to the beach bright and early. The beach was literally our backyard, so all we had to do was walk down some stairs and a rather steep path down the bluff, and there we were! At first I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the sand on my hands, but Mama let me wipe my hands off on her pants, so then I was happy. I quickly learned the fun of collecting shells, and I loved having all that space to explore.

When we went back to the house, Santa made us a delicious breakfast of pancakes with fresh blackberries and scrambled eggs with spinach and tomatoes. I was a big fan of the pancakes and berries, though I still spit out eggs on most occasions. No matter--the adults ate my share! As a side note, I had my first experience with peanut butter, and I liked it well enough. It’s a highly allergic food, so Mama and Daddy held off on it for a bit, given my dairy intolerance. But I did just fine with it. Oddly enough, though, they discovered that I appear to be allergic to pineapple. Daddy fed me half a little cup of pineapple on Thursday, and I broke out in a red rash around my mouth and all down one leg. Mama couldn’t eat pineapple while pregnant with me (it made her throat scratchy and tight), so I guess it makes sense.

In the afternoon, we went to Florence for lunch, where Daddy promptly earned extended diaper duty. You see, Mama and Daddy have a good partnership where they trade off poop diapers. Well, I had occasion to make such a diaper after lunch in Florence, and it was Mama’s turn, so she took me back into the restaurant to change me, diaper bag slung over her shoulder. Now, I really hate being changed in public. I scream bloody murder through the entire thing, and Saturday was no exception. So there is Mama, in the bathroom with me on the changing table, searching through the diaper bag that Daddy had handed her…with no wipies in it! And I had eaten quite a lot that day, so you can imagine that she really needed said wipies. I hollered my head off while she used a spare diaper to mop much of it off me, then ran to the sink to get paper towels. Meanwhile, an older lady came in to use the bathroom and looked chagrined at my incredibly loud screaming. Mama tried to politely tell her that I don’t like being changed when I’m poopy, and all the while I screamed at the top of my lungs. So Mama finished, took me back outside, and asked Daddy where the wipies were. Oh--he had taken one out to clean my hands and had forgotten to put them back in the diaper bag. They were sitting in the bottom of the stroller. That earned him the next three diaper changes, which he sheepishly admitted he deserved (as he knows full well what a wiggly, screaming monkey I am to try to change in public, even under the best of circumstances!).

But enough about poop. After lunch we drove to the famous Sea Lion Caves. I was asleep, so Mama and Daddy decided they’d take turns going into the caves to see the sea lions. (Yes, it is kid-friendly…but they didn’t want to wake me.) So Mama went in with Twiss and Santa…only to find out that it was closed because the elevator wasn’t working! Sigh…and we had driven an hour just for that. Ah well, it was a pretty drive and a good lunch (save for the diaper incident). And so we headed back to our beach house and went back down to the beach with Ah-vee for some more playtime.

Daddy made a late dinner of chicken tortilla soup. I was long asleep by then, but they saved some for me, and I ate it for the next three meals. And actually, it had been a long day, so I’m told the grown-ups fell asleep not long after dinner.

Sunday was cold and windy in the morning, so after more pancakes with berries, we took our time getting ready and then headed into Newport to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which is pretty well known as being a really good aquarium. But first we stopped for lunch at a local brewery (no Pabst Blue Ribbon for me this time, I’m afraid!), where Mama shared her Cobb salad with me and Daddy shared his BLT and fries. Mama and Twiss had their third set of oyster shooters, well received. I was kinda fussy at lunch, so Daddy eventually took me outside while everyone else paid the bill (see how I get out of paying?!). By the time we all got back in the car, I was pretty tired. The aquarium was just down the road, so we got out there and Mama put me in the stroller. And the next thing she knew, I was fast asleep! So the adults took their time enjoying the exhibits while I snoozed. I woke up just in time to see the otter feeding (though I watched for about two seconds before running off to explore). Mama and Daddy said the aquarium was pretty neat, and I did get to see some of it before we left. Mama and Daddy usually trade off on watching me, so at one point Daddy was in charge, and I was racing around the aquarium. Mama and Santa were trying to catch up with us, and all they saw was my blond head flying by with Daddy hot on my heels, and then they lost us again. I’m pretty darn fast, you see. I don’t slow down for much.

When we got back to the beach house, Mama and Daddy took me back down to the beach, but it was very windy, so we didn’t stay long. Santa and Twiss cooked us an awesome dinner of red lentil lasagna and crispy kale chips, both of which Mama is determined to make. (The kale chips were addictive--I think Mama ate an entire head of kale that way!) And the adults polished off the rest of the homemade dark-chocolate peanut-butter cups that Santa had made the day before. They all said they were awesome, but alas, they wouldn’t give me any. I was stuck with graham-cracker cookies for a sweet treat.

All too soon, it was Monday morning and time to start our journey home. Mama and Daddy wanted to take me to a second children’s museum in Medford, so we left Newport fairly early so we’d make it there before it closed. We stopped for lunch at a park in Roseburg, where we saw a river otter right out in the park! We also saw lots of ducks and geese, and, perhaps most exciting to Mama, a pug-Lhasa Apso mix. (Mama of course accosted its owner and peppered him with questions, perhaps much to Daddy’s chagrin.) We made it to Medford by about 3:30, which was pretty good time, but I wish we’d made it there earlier. The museum closed at 5, so I only had 90 minutes to play. Normally that’s plenty of time, but I was having so much fun that I could’ve easily played for at least another hour! There weren’t many other kids there, so I had the place to myself. I think my favorite part was the café and grocery store--I raced around the entire museum like a madman, pushing my shopping cart as if I were driving it in the Indy 500. We closed the place down and then stopped at a local park to enjoy a bit more of the nice weather…and while there, I met a little girl named Savannah who looked a lot like me. And what do you know--turns out she, too, was born on April 5, 2008!

We drove the short distance to Ashland for dinner, as Mama was determined to try the Mexican restaurant there. Bit of history: Last year we stopped in Ashland too, and Mama was craving guacamole. Santa had told her about a yummy little Mexican place, so she was determined to go. Alas, it is a tiny place with only a few tables, and it was full. So we went across the street to a place that proclaimed to have the “best desserts in town” instead. And Mama tried to order a salad with avocado…only to be told they were out of it. And, in fact, they were also out of the “best desserts in town.” Sigh. So this year, we stopped in Ashland for lunch on the way up to Oregon, and the Mexican restaurant was again full. (I don’t do so well waiting for a table, so they just aborted the plan and tried another restaurant.) And Santa laughed and taunted Mama later and said, “You’ll never get to try it!” So Mama insisted that on the way back, on Monday night, she would. So we got there…and it was closed. Curses--foiled again! We went to a brewery instead, but that was okay because they had the best French fries ever--homemade from fresh potatoes. Yum!

Another poop story coming. You remember how I said Mama is high-maintenance about two things: hotels and public bathrooms? Well last year, she nearly had heart failure. After the dinner-with-no-dessert-and-no-avocado at the restaurant in Ashland that supposedly had the “best desserts in town,” Mama crabbily announced that she wanted to go to the ice cream parlor for some dessert. And so we did. And I had an awful poop diaper. And it was again Daddy’s turn to change it. So he took me in the bathroom at the ice cream parlor and changed it. And when we came back out, Mama said, “This is such a small place--I’m surprised they had a changing table in the men’s room. You don’t always find those.” And before Daddy thought about who he was talking to, he said, “They didn’t.” Mama’s face drained of color, and she said, “Then where did you change him?” Daddy sheepishly said, “On the floor. But it looked really clean!” And Mama howled and said, “AAAAAHHHHHHH! Don’t ever change him on the floor of a public bathroom again! We could’ve found a park bench somewhere!” Seriously…could he have told this to a worse person than Mama, who hates public bathrooms? I think not...

So this year, we again went to the ice cream parlor after dinner. And lo and behold, I pooped again. But this year, Mama laughed and said, “You are not changing him on the bathroom floor again! It can wait until we get back to the car!” Anyway, Mama thinks there’s some kind of poop karma at that ice cream parlor.

So Tuesday we left our hotel for dogs in Medford and drove six hours home, but we stopped at Turtle Bay in Redding halfway through. It’s a nature center/museum/small zoo/botanical garden place, all in one. (It’s also home to the famous Sundial Bridge, one of Redding’s big attractions.) I was kind of crabby and overtired, but we still enjoyed our time there. Mama liked the butterfly garden, and I really liked playing in the misters outside the railroad exhibit.

And all too soon we were home. And now Mama and Daddy are suffering from “Oregon sickness.” They both really love the Pacific Northwest, so coming home to hot, dry Sacramento is…well, a bit of a letdown. Sacramento has its plusses (nice people, lots to do, etc.), but beauty isn’t really one of them. It’s near pretty places, like Tahoe and San Francisco, but Sacramento itself…well, “beautiful” probably isn’t a word one would use to describe it. Oregon, however, is incredibly green and pretty, so Mama and Daddy are feeling a bit “Oregon sick” for that lush vegetation.

Okay, Mama says I have to wrap this up now, because she’s going to split this week’s post into two, and it’s my bedtime so she’ll write the second half. Bye for now! And be sure to look at the second June 20th post for the lowdown on Father's Day!