Trip to the U.S.

As most of you know, I was recently back in the U.S. for a visit. I must admit that I've been anticipating and planning (yes, a bit obsessively) for this trip for quite a few months. There were so many friends, family to see, places to go, things to buy and of course hitting up some of my favorite restaurants. Apparently since living abroad, I've missed Hawaiian, Thai & Mexican food a lot! :)

Highlights:

+Landing at PDX and hearing "Welcome to Portland" 

+Seeing Family & Friends

+Celebrating my friend Jessica's birthday!

+Meeting my NEW nephew Morgan
+Meeting my NEW (friend-nephew) Quentin
+Seeing my Mom-to-be friend April absolutely glowing!

Not so great moments:
-Airport Checkin, 5:00am, having to confront the two 20-something backpackers who just cut in front of me as I stood in line...(in my non-morning person bear growl:  "the end of the line is not in front of me"...)
-Running to both gates in Milan and Amsterdam airports...
-Downing a iced cold bottle of water in Amsterdam after being told I could not take it onto the plane.  (Probably well, I needed it after that run. ;) Oh ya, it was bought after the security checkpoints, I followed the rules, the airports just like to change up the rules every other day).

As soon as I arrived at PDX, I immediately noticed a few things...that I had somehow completely forgotten about while living outside the U.S. during the past year.

1) There is so much SPACE everywhere! (between people, in lines, cars on the road).
2) Almost everyone is carrying a very BIG coffee cup everywhere!
3) Why are people driving so slow?

The next few posts will be a photo journey of the highlights!