Just ignore that...

Whoa, really sorry. But, to get back to business, if anybody is still there, and say some very exiting news, IT"S TOTALLY SPRING BREAK! How do I know this? The bathroom door is on my bed, half unpacked suitcases are strewn about the house, I'm still in my pajamas (and plan to be until at least three), I can hear hammering in the hallways, while seeing tiny pieces of our bathroom floor flying from their chambers, there's a new mini-muffin tin waiting to be used, my brothers on a bike ride and it's very soggy out. However, those last two are any time of year around here... OH! but to explain the other ones, which should I do first, the suitcases or the door... why not the suitcases! (if you wish to skip to the door first because of it's mystery and please go to the purple asterisk, if can get to it on this post.) So, we went to portland over the weekend, and it was a blast. I was able to loose all of my savings on four books, one shirt, a pair of really pretty earrings, a cool necklace made out of a penny, some dark chocolate (long gone at this point), cupcakes, and a stuffed animal meerkat. If you look to the side I should have up a pic of Amya (my meerkat) sporting all the new jewelry. Isn't she cute? Oh! I got the necklace (yes, it really is made out of a penny, the front has a picture on it, but the back is a penny, just so you know) at the Saturday market, which is a thing in Portland that goes on every Saturday, (no, WEDNESDAY!) and there are a bunch of tents and booths with all kinds of stuff from fine chocolates, to bags, to jewelry, (lots of jewelry) to stuff like this craziness (click the link). But how did we get there?, you may ask, how? since we had no car (don't worry, by choice) and it was at least a few miles away, should we walk? no. that's no fun. The bus? eh, closer. The trolley that you raved about in your last post about Portland? TOTALLY YEA!!!! So, we put-putted and clickity clanked all the way to the park near the market. But there was still quite aways to go. Hmmm. It was easily within walking distance, and a very nice park, but was there any way to get a completely eccentric means of getting there? A DOUBLE SURREY! a what? For my more confused readers, I have enclosed a picture of an exact replica of our vehicle (including the fringed roof) for their enlightenment (except ours was red). CLICK HERE. I have to tell you, it was the most fun I had ever had. Partly it was the fact that it was the stupidest thing I had ever rode in, partly it was because I got to ring the very loud bell, partly because along the way were were the major vantage point for toddler photographers, but mainly because my teenage brother was driving. At first he went slowly through large crowds, used his brake, and tried looking through the tiny mirror that you could barely see yourself in, much less an actual person your trying to pull in front of. (AHHH! I nearly ran into myself there!). Then on the way back, when our hour of use was nearly up, he switched into reckless. There we were, careening through a crowded sidewalk, in the stupidest looking vehicle of all time, with our bells ringing. But it wasn't fast enough, we weren't going to make it. Until he took it OFF ROAD!!! (*turn on rebel music*) flying over potholes, narrowly missing small dogs and children, and at any time if you took your hands or legs out of the vehicle, it would go missing (as my dad found out the hard way). Trying to keep out sanity as we're hysterically laughing is the strangeness of the situation, we realize that we're almost out of time! As the seconds are ticking down, we realize that through this whole time my father wasn't pedaling. My mom starts choking him in the back, my brother is screeching around the corners, I'm letting the bell go off like a siren while holding on to my fake steering wheel for dear life. But my dad still isn't going full force! "WE GOT TO GET THE DEPOSIT BACK!" yells my mother. "But the kids are paying for it!" dad replies. But at this point it doesn't matter. The clock is a challenge! I try to check my watch causing me to be nearly thrown out of the car. We see the end in sight! "Come on guys! Pretend that Lance Armstrong is behind us!" my brother offers as support. With that we put the peddle to the metal, giving us enough strength to go up the only hill with the same steepness of the middle of a paper plate. And we won, returning the only red double surrey back to the rental place, then walking off in the distance dramatically on a lawn covered with goose poop.