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Upscale suburban camping

Not Hillsboro!

I've been invited to be a co-conspirator on this blog. I fear my posts will lack the witty humor that characterize Bryan's posts. We shall see.

We've been in Hillsboro for 5 days and all I can say is "hmmmmm I don't hate it". It's strange but not in the wonderfully weird way that Portland is. Hillsboro is a suburb teeming with chain businesses. We live less than a mile from EVERY major national chain store you can think of. Seriously try and name one that 's not here. So it's convenient and monotonous. Every inch is preened, mulched, swept and painted to perfection. And did I mention every thing is new and there is constant development. We could have had that in Rio Rancho.

It turns out, that for us, renting a townhouse in a "super suburb" is a huge motivator. That and the fact that all our earthly possessions are in 2 containers in an undisclosed, or perhaps truly unknown location until next Monday. So we have nothing to do other than to drive around exploring and shopping for necessities at Ikea. We had the misguided idea that we could all sleep on an air mattress, just like we were upscale camping, and hold out until our stuff was delivered. After 2 horrific nights and a phone call to 1800PackRat to confirm delivery would actually take the full 10 business day, we decided the our mattress was total junk and we should buy new one. One trip to Ikea yielded a marvelous mattress, delivered that evening, and a free lunch since we spent more than $100 that day. Who doesn't love a free lunch! The Bot is now alone on the queen air mattress sleeping under the dog blanket (it's a nice one from Costco that I double washed so don't feel too bad for her, she thinks it's novel). The wee one is in the port-a-crib and Bryan and I are sleeping blissfully on our new mattress on the floor.

We have also gotten to drive around Portland and more of its expansive suburbs and seen the beauty that is our new hometown. I love it! The lush greenery, the bridges, the million little shops on winding hilly streets- all marvelous. Today we went to the Portland Children's Museum. Both girls had a great time and we didn't even get to do all of it. The Bot got to paint her own face, a station we found after seeing many terribly painted little faces. I was thinking they needed to fire the trembling artist who was marring all these kids' faces with hideous colors and lines until the Bot got to do her own mask. Her art was subdued compared to many. The wee one enjoyed every minute without favoritism. She dragging a stuffed kitten around the vet room, dressed up in a cape to play drums on stage, spent 20 minutes on the giant light bright, and she licked rocks and threw rice in the sensory room. Great time! We bought a membership with guest passes, it's a grandparents' delight.