Shirlee's time ashore in Portland, Oregon

On Saturday, January 29, John took me to the airport to catch my flight to Portland to visit family for a few weeks. My flight (flights, actually) was pretty interesting. Flying over the Caribbean was beautiful. I tried to recognize various islands, but really I couldn’t. And I was kind of surprised how long it took: four hours to Miami, where I cleared customs and immigration and changed planes for a flight to San Francisco. Of course, when we sail the Caribbean, it will take us more than four weeks, but we’ll be stopping along the way.

I wasn’t looking forward to the leg from Miami to San Francisco. For one thing, the flight was full, and I was stuck in a middle seat because American Airlines wouldn’t allow their own agents in Barbados to book me in any of the available window seats. When I started talking with the people on either side of me, though, I didn’t mind so much. They were really interesting. The man who was on the aisle is a naturalist and tour guide from Sonoma County who is into hula hooping and is collecting videos of himself hooping all over the world. The young woman who was by the window is a chef. Of course, with chef nephew Joel in mind, I had some questions for her. As we chatted, I learned that she had been on Top Chef. (No, that was definitely not the first thing she told me; I pried it out of her). I neglected to get their names, but with what I had learned about them, they were easy to find on the Internet. Click the links to meet my temporary neighbors:

Michael Ellis, hooping on Mt. Kilimanjaro and Casey Thompson, a Top Chef favorite

That was the good part of the flight. Not good was a medical emergency (a passenger had an epileptic seizure) that sent us back to Orlando. The passenger is all right (a doctor on board confirmed that long before we turned back to land), but I missed my connecting flight to Portland. The American agents at the airport had me re-booked on a United flight before I even landed, so that was a relief, but it was a very long day by the time I landed in Portland at 12:30 a.m. the next day. Impressions of American Airlines: flight attendants need emergency medical training (they panicked), ticket agents are great, and the pilots do good landings. (The return flights were much worse and might have been unbearable if a former colleague hadn't given me upgrades for the long legs. Thanks, Joey!)

Despite the late hour, my mom and sister, Sydney, met me at the airport, and we had a nice visit on the way back to Mom' house. Sydney and her husband, Mike, live just down the street, and the “kids,” Jennifer and Joel, visit regularly, so I got to spend quite a bit of time with everyone. I discovered that I had lost some weight in the two years I'd been gone, but they did their best to correct that, and we visited some really nice restaurants and coffee shops while I was there and also at some old favorites. Plus, I met John's folks and sister and some other friends at various restaurants. To help me remember them all, here's a list (and I probably still forgot a few):

• Park Kitchen (where Joel works)
  

• Laurelhurst Market
  

• Little Bird, where we celebrated Valentine's Day
  

• Jopa's
  

• 50 Plates (where I met Tom, Audrey and Jenice)
  

• Los Baez (my favorite Mexican restaurant anywhere, where I met friends Tammy and Georgie, originally from Medford)
  

• McMenamin's Raleigh Hills Pub
  

• Pho Van Beaverton
  

• Iron Horse (a 2007 Baja Ha-Ha mini-reunion with Kent and Heather Sisk [formerly Hiatus] and Lyman and Terri Potts [formerly sans clés])
  

• Navarre (where I met friend and former colleague Jim Kautz)
  

• Barista
  

• Peet's
  

• Baker & Spice
  

• Bridgeport Brewing
  

• Ken's Artisan Bakery
  

• St. Honoré in Lake Oswego
  

• Cheese Bar
  

• Branch Whiskey Bar
  

• Steven Smith Tea

• A Cena, where we went before the Academy of St Martin in the Fields concert
  

We didn't just eat; we also visited the Chinese Garden. It was my first time, and I was really impressed. And we were lucky to have dry weather that day. In fact, the whole three weeks were relatively dry with only a little rain and one day with snow. Some days the weather was beautiful, albeit a bit cooler than I've been used to. The day Mom, Sydney and I went wine-tasting was one of the pretty ones. We mostly went to places that were new to me—Colene Clemens, Lenné, Red Ridge Farms, and a shared tasting room in Newberg called Dark Horse or Medici—but also stopped by Domaine Douhin so Sydney could get another bottle of her favorite Chardonnay.

Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Beautiful day in the wine country

Wine-tasting at Colene Clemens

Art at Lenné

Then there was the shopping. Most of that I did online sitting in Mom's living room. We needed a few things for the boat (mostly documents) that are easier to get when you have a domestic U.S. address. I really needed a new laptop, and Mike was kind enough to go shopping with me for one. And there were some other mostly necessary things to pick up. One thing I was thinking about was a smaller, simpler camera that I could use, but I didn't need to buy one because Mom has loaned me hers. She had never used it, but I put it to work immediately. My friends on Facebook are probably tired of seeing all the family photos, so I won't trouble the rest of the world with all of them.

When I wasn't shopping or eating, I spent some time helping Mom and Sydney with computer stuff (which I really enjoy) and looking for a job (without success, so far). Of course, I also watched some TV (the Super Bowl was while I was there) and did a little reading, but there really wasn't a lot of time for that. Mom and I did go to see one movie, The King's Speech, which was great, and watched a few others at home.

All in all, it was a busy, fun and productive visit. I'm glad to be back on the boat with John and Märzen here in Grenada, where it's raining but warm, but I'm also glad to know it won't be so long before the next time I see my family. And I'm looking forward to doing some sailing in the Caribbean while I continue to look for a job.