Right now it's the early morning here in Vancouver, Washington (not Canada, which I hear is beautiful.) I've been up since 5:45, which is 7:45 central time, which is actually really sleeping in for me. My little sister, my travel companion, is still asleep. It's about 7:30. I've gotten coffee and taken a bath so far. Now I'm typing on my sister's old laptop that has the 'o' and 'i' keys missing. It's amazing how you take those letters for granted until you have to press little gummy circles very hard to activate them!
Today we are going to explore Portland, which I am told is a great city. It's very cool here, only the low 60's. Apparently, that's about 10 degrees cooler than usual. I'm already dreading going back to St. Louis where is was 98 degrees with 98% humidity. I was actually cold last night when we went to dinner. Speaking of which, it was fantastic. We ate at a fish house that was pretty popular looking, like there might be one in every big city. But it was very tasty. I got rainbow trout and my sister got coconut prawns. We wondered what the difference between prawns and shrimp is because they were referred to separately on the menu. (I'll let you know if I find out.) Then we visited Trader Joe's because honestly, neither one of us had ever been to one. We got a few toiletries at the Dollar Tree that we dared not take on the plane like mousse, tweezers, and razors. (I got harassed for taking baggies of lotion and Solarcaine on the plane.) By then it was 9, which is 11 central time. I was exhausted and crashed before my sister was done typing her blog entry. Our hotel has very nice beds and is generally more upscale than I usually stay in. We have one more night here before we head out into the great unknown, armed with a crappy laptop. I will (try) to keep you posted.