Ahhh, Oregon!

We arrived safe and sound in Oregon last night. The boys were great on the flight.

The plane was probably the most poorly maintained commercial airliner I've ever been on. I sure hope they put more effort into the maintenance on the vital systems like the engines and safety systems than they did on the creature comforts.

The in flight movie was "Meet Dave", which looked and sounded like a pretty funny movie... when we could see or hear it. The video and audio signals periodically shut off at random intervals. At any given point in time, we could either see or hear the movie, but rarely could we do both at the same time. It also blacked out three times and took a few minutes for them to restart it. It also skipped forward and backward in the movie a couple of times. We got to see the ending twice.

Even so, I still thought it was a pretty funny movie, and I was surprised when I went to IMDB to see it had such a low rating. I think "Welcome to Old Navy" is going to be a popular one-liner that will work it's way into everyone's vocabulary. (Old Navy sure got their money's worth on THAT investment!)

Tangent

Speaking of Effective Advertising: This one floored me. We're sitting there in the Honolulu Airport waiting for our plane to board. We're watching the planes taxi back and forth outside the window. All of a sudden, ES says, "DELTA! Mommy, that's the kind of plane that Woody and Buzz were going to fly to Japan on in Toy Story 2!"

I had to pick my jaw up off my lap.

Why on earth would he remember THAT particular detail of the movie?

End of Tangent

Okay, so, here are my initial impressions of being back in Oregon...
- It always amazes me how crystal clear, fresh, and clean the tap water is here... and absolutely frigid Arctic polar bear BUTT COLD. Sorry, maybe that was the wrong image to put in your head. It's like there's a pipe from the North Pole to our faucets in the house here.

- It's very weird laying in bed with your wife in the same room you lived in as a teenager. It's a very different room now - a very nicely decorated guest room. Even so, when I lay down and close my eyes, I think my depeche mode and new order posters are still on the wall and it seems like I'm doing something bad being in bed with a GIRL.

- It's weird seeing so many Oregon license plates. ...I know, I know... DUH! It's just that normally we're the only weirdos driving around with the trees on our license plates.

- I've never seen so many Obama bumper stickers on the same street... and not a single McCain sticker. This doesn't come as a surprise mind you, but still, it's an unusual exeperience.

- Now THAT's a recycling bin!

Recycling, Yard Waste, and Trash
Note the recycling bin is like twice as big as the trash bin.

- My wife is happy...

She's addicted to Target.
That was first on her agenda for today.

- The boys are happy...

They've been attached-at-Grandpa's-hip since our arrival and thoroughly wearing him out.

- I'm happy...

See this post.

- Did I mention it feels like we've packed for an Arctic Expedition?

This was just our checked baggage.

- All during the flight, I was looking forward to having Burgerville for dinner, but they CLOSED before we got there last night. The nerve! We made it for lunch today though.

One of their advertising slogans used to be, "Burgerville: INconveniently located for most of the United States."

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

I took the boys by the package store to pick up some sprite and orange soda and other stuff, and I happened upon this...


Now, I need to take a step back and explain that I LOVE Henry Weinhard's beer. Living on the west coast, I could always find Henry Weinhard's at the local grocery store, and it was a staple in my fridge. When the Navy transfered me to the east coast, I suffered from withdrawal for a time, but eventually learned to make my way through life without Henry's. I've always missed it though, and I've always been excited to have some whenever I go back to visit family on the west coast.

So to find ANYTHING with "Henry Weinhard's" on the label in the package store immediately caught my attention and gave me a spark of hope. I swung my cart around and headed for the beer aisle to see if they had any of the real stuff, but alas... they did not.

Even though it was just root beer, I still had to buy some, and I will say it was pretty darn good root beer.

There's a glimmer of hope at the end of this tale though. I went to the Henry Weinhard's website to get a link for my blog here, and they had a list of their distributors... One of which is right here in Waipahu!!! So there MUST be REAL Henry Weinhard's somewhere close by on the island. I've just gotta call that distributor tomorrow and find out what stores keep it in stock.