Hey there,

Earlier on this year we obtained a museum pass to the California State Railroad Museum thanks to the kids charter.

Now we finally had a chance to visit. It was fun!

We even found a hidden gem in their gift shop: a Back to the Future III train. We didn’t get it, but it was cool to see.

Our membership even includes a 45-minute ride on the train operated by the museum.

Speaking of this museum passes (thanks to the kids’ school) we decided to explore other places to visit in Sacramento. Some of these places would grant access based on the Railroad Museum. One that we found was this car museum.

It’s a small-ish museum, but it housed some rare items, including a Lincoln that belonged to Henry Ford’s wife. One which he had custom-built for her, and she kept over the years. The kids even found a DeLorean. The museum was playing Back to the Future in front of it. Guess what they sat down and watched? (pictured above)

You guessed it. The movie.

The rest of the week we will be in Sacramento before returning to Portland next weekend.

Don’t look yet, but October is nearly here!

just Pray

Hey there

We took a trip back in time.

To a place where you can rent movies!

The last Blockbuster – in Bend, Oregon.

We have been here before – but we try to stop every time we can. This was also Ezra’s first trip here. With this, he has (like the other kids) successfully visited both Sears and Blockbuster before they completely vanished.

Let’s go further back.

Back in time!

We attended the Back to Hill Valley event.

Our kids got dressed up, and even my parents got decked out for this occasion this year.

It was much smaller than in previous years, but still enjoyable. We had the opportunity to take a stagecoach ride. We also spoke with some of the characters who were in the event.

Arabella liked Biff. He sat and talked to her on the Stagecoach ride. She learned that he also happened to like K Pop Demon Hunters (which she is crazy about).

On the way back to my parents’ house (in Sacramento), I came across this sign for Mark Twain’s Cabin.

We made a quick pit stop and took a look. It’s in a pretty area (albeit a bit of a dry area), but it is California.

It was cool to step “back in time” and see the building of someone historically relevant like this.

Now we will go back to the Future 😉 See what I did there?

just Pray

This morning, we were up before it was light outside.

We took the hotel shuttle to the airport – and we were lucky that we were early. A few minutes after we arrived the shuttle was full, and they had to turn some people away.

When we arrived at the airport, we took a photo of the kids and the CVG sign. Then we made our way through security.

This time, we didn’t show our passports at all. We instead decided to show our regular IDs. Would that be enough? (remember that they are not real IDs) The TSA agent checked them and without a second look let us through. No additional checks needed.

Pretty good!

Anyway, I’d like to say that this time I didn’t have extra security checks on myself, but I can’t. The boys were hitting the security machine that they had to walk through to ensure they don’t have weapons. Due to this the TSA agents said that either I could have additional checks, or they would.

Fine. I guess I’m getting used to this by now.

The kids were not super excited to be heading back home. I can’t blame them. When I was a kid on vacation, I was the same way.

Anyway, once we were back in Portland, we spent our Priority Pass vouchers at a local restaurant. We ended up making it our breakfast/lunch. Our brunch.

We then spent the next few hours at the airport trying to locate our car seats. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck.

We returned home and went back to work, and the kids resumed school.

The next day we went to a car show in Sandy. Then on Sunday we were back at New Hope. After that, we went to the “Rip City Reunion” where the organization welcomed back Damian Lillard.

A few days later, I attended a work event at the office. Savenia treated us to lunch.

Just like that, we are back to our normal flow.

Oh! Fun side note: We recently gave away our living room couch set. The kids were destroying it. I mean, actually destroying it. We fixed it once or twice but they kept breaking it. We figured that we should give it away before we have to pay someone to discard it.

Now we have one sectional left which is only partially broken, and have moved that into our living room.

just Pray (for our sanity).