The previous night I was lucky enough to get out for a jog :) and Portland is pretty nice, that is until I hit a truck stop type of road (which is odd, I guess I just naturally find myself in this places). I made a full circle back to the hotel at that point anyway, so the jog was shorter than I had wanted (and I ended up adding 30 minutes to the total on a treadmill that night), but it was nice to get out and see some of Portland and not get completely lost.

the next morning was our early drive to Seattle. This part was pretty quick. We had to drive about 170 miles from Portland to Seattle, and it only took 3 or so hours ( add one for a Wal Mart stop plus a coffee break).

Seattle is a very nice looking city, just like Portland and I wish we could have hung out for a little bit. However, our timing was perfect, and we were able to hop right on the ship without any delays. Checking in took a while, and by the time we got through (about an hour or so), they told everyone entering the ship to head to deck 9, to eat at the buffet.

This is where things got way to chaotic. It was about 4:30, and it was time for Owen’s afternoon nap, so Caralyne and I headed to the buffet while Michele stayed with Owen. While Caralyne and I were just about to eat, the Captain said at 5pm (in 15 minutes) they would have the emergency drill, and everyone was required to attend. So I rushed back to the room, grabbing some bread rolls for Michele, to try and grab her, and two children sized life jackets. When I got to the room, the alarms were already going off, waking up Owen. If you’ve ever woken a sleeping baby when they were not ready, you know how bad it can be. So now imagine hauling a crying 1 year old, who can easily rival the ships alarm system, so you can hang out with everyone on the 5th deck, packed together like sardines. After 10 or so minutes of roll taking, they went over the life jackets, and then let us go. fBy this time, the buffett was closed, and we had to wait another hour before we could actually eat. I told Michele that she and Caralyne could go eat, while I stayed with Owen until he fell asleep. That took a while, when he gets upset like that its very hard to calm him down, so we sat in a pitch black room crying together :)

After that, I ate, then pretty much hit the hay. It was a long day and I was too tired to do anything else. that always frustrates me.