Tim, Clara, and I drove to Portland for the long weekend to spend Thanksgiving with our good friends who live there. It was a wonderfully low-key holiday filled with laughter, amazing food, card games, relaxation, and so much pie.

It was a rough road trip down there because Clara decided to only sleep for an hour of it, and then she screamed for the remainder of our journey. And we were in traffic. For five hours. Tim and I attempted to drown out the sound of her screams by turning up the volume of the podcast (This American Life) we were listening to, but eventually we had to admit defeat and pulled into Wendy’s to buy her a baked potato. It turns out that Wendy’s solves everything, and she was a gem for the rest of the trip.

Thing I learned: They aren’t kidding when they say that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year.

Once we arrived in Portland, it was smooth sailing. Our friends are the world’s greatest hosts, and all three of us (actually, four of us, because Oz was there, too) were spoiled by them the entire time.

Some highlights of our trip included:

• Coffee and shopping at small businesses.
• Enjoying a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal, which consisted of squash enchiladas, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce… and of course, not one but two kinds (pecan & pumpkin) of pie!
• Visiting my favorite place in the world (Powell’s bookstore)
• Watching the concert before the tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland. Truth be told, we didn’t stay to see the actual tree lighting because Clara wasn’t such a fan of standing in the cold.
• Eating pizza from Sizzle Pie and burgers from Little Big Burger and  brunch at Tin Shed.
• Cheering on the Bears to a win over the Packers at Lambeau Field!
• Playing ‘Exploding Kittens‘, which was a surprisingly fun game! (I recommend it as a fun gift for friends or family members who love card games. It’s a quick game, it involves some strategy, it’s entertaining, and it’s definitely unique!)
• Watching ‘Parks & Recreation’, which Tim and I had never seen, but now we’re addicted to.

Plus, the weather cooperated and we enjoyed lots of sunshine for the duration of our trip!

It was a great way to spend a long weekend, and we feel incredibly blessed to have been able to celebrate it in such a beautiful part of the country with our great friends. It was also really nice for me and Clara to have Tim around us for 5 whole days straight!

This was our second and last Thanksgiving as a family of three… I can’t even imagine what next year will look like!

I’m feeling very thankful, indeed.