Day One - Monday, July 27

Itinerary for the day:

• Spend the night at the Ramada Inn in Portland

Since we are leaving early in the morning tomorrow, we are staying up in Portland tonight. It is very nice to be able to sleep a bit later and not have to worry about traffic or driving to catch our flight. It is also cheaper to stay up there and park – rather than pay to park at the airport.

So, after finishing up packing and cooling off in the pool (it was in the 90s today) we drove up to the hotel. I have included some photos of us in the car on the way up. I know – very exciting.

Oh and a word about packing – we are “traveling light” this trip. For us that means using bags that do not have to be checked – carry-ons only. So that meant a little research into the airlines regulations on bags, purchasing some new bags, and then strategically packing. Of course we are planning to do some laundry along the way too. We think we will be very glad we did this as we are taking many forms of transportation on this trip (train, rental car, plane, & bus).

Anyway, we are staying at the Ramada – which has a good park-n-fly deal. We have used them before, when we went to LA last summer, and we liked them. So, it is off to bed and up early for a travel day tomorrow!