End of Beginning

And when I'm back in Chicago, I feel it

Another version of me, I was in it

I wave goodbye to the end of beginning

(Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye)

You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man...

Have you heard this song from Djo (aka Joe Keery, "Steve" from Stranger Things)? It's a super catchy tune that went viral on TikTok last year. Although our "end of beginning" in Chicago was almost *25* years ago, we've tried to come back at least once a year ever since. With so many family and friends still here, that line from the bridge of the song rings true - you can take us out of the city but not the city out of us... 

It's the Great Pumpkin

Besides visiting the grandparents, there were two other reasons for the timing of this trip back to Illinois... my hometown's annual Pumpkin Festival and my high school class reunion. 

57th Annual!

If you've ever used Libby's Pumpkin for any recipes, chances are pretty high that it was grown and harvested from fields in Central Illinois and canned at the Nestlé plant in Morton. The "Pumpkin Capital of the World" has held an annual 4-day celebration of everything pumpkin each September since 1967. Imagine a stereotypical small town fair (carnival rides, competitions, entertainment, food, parade, etc.) but on steroids - the Chamber of Commerce and its army of volunteers does an excellent job! However, the bigger draw for me is the chance to catch up with old friends since many people come back to see friends/family who are still in town.

As a bonus for my parents, my brother G and niece C also decided to visit when they heard we would be there (my sister-in-law couldn't come due to work 😢), so they had all of their grandkids together for the first time since before the pandemic.  

Rainbow Connection

R was up and out the door early this morning so that he could get malasadas from Leonard's Bakery for the fam before the lines got too long. What a guy!

And in case you were wondering if the four of us ate all of those malasadas in the picture, the answer is "NO!" He bought enough to share with his cousins, who were coming over to visit today.

Beginner's Luck

Our first order of business this morning was to walk over to Donut Bar to grab some goodies for breakfast! The shop is located downtown, just a couple blocks away from Fremont Street.

Ring Around the Island

There was no need to get breakfast after we checked out of the hotel because R's cousin gave us a big bag of "made in Hawaii" snacks last night. Maebo's One-Ton Chips are my new favorite!

Kona Chips were a big hit, too!

Before leaving Hilo, we stopped at Big Island Candies to buy some of their signature dipped shortbread cookies to bring home. Added bonus - free samples!

Last stop - Two Ladies Kitchen to fetch more mochi. Pre-ordering is definitely the way to go, since we could skip to the front of long line that had already started forming this morning. Their strawberry mochi is so good!

Lava, Lava Everywhere

We got another early start this morning, because we were moving to another hotel on the Hilo side of the island and spending the day at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park along the way. 

But in reality we were late. Eleven months late, to be exact. Erupting nearly continuously since 1983, the last time Kīlauea actively emitted lava at the surface was in early September 2018. How cool would it have been to see molten lava?! From a very safe distance, of course. Bummer.

We're Baa-aack

After leaving Point Reyes NS yesterday, we headed down towards Santa Clara. According to Waze, there were a couple of options for ways (haha, see what I did there?!) we could go, but instead of taking the quicker route around the Oakland-side of the bay, M chimed in that he wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Then he promptly fell asleep.

And couldn't be roused when we actually crossed the bridge. *sigh*

So, we crawled our way through San Francisco in late-Saturday-afternoon traffic on Highway 1 for naught. Ugh! Torture for the driver, not so bad for the nappers. 

Keep Portland Weird

Today was our last day in Portland. After breakfast this morning, we decided to walk over to Powell's City of Books. This bookstore is enormous - it takes up several floors on a whole city block!

Books galore!

Change of Pace

This trip has been a departure from how we typically travel on vacation. That is to say, I didn't do as much planning ahead of time, and we have not constantly been on the move. Other than a lunch date at 1:00PM and a basketball game tonight, we had nothing else on our agenda for today. So, after finishing breakfast (the free hotel breakfast was actually served at the Denny's across the parking lot), we decided to check out the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville.

Old Ironsides and the Green Monster

After a quick stop at Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast (you can find one on just about every block!), we caught the T to Long Wharf again this morning. But today we were on the other side of the wharf to take the transit ferry (included on our transit pass) over to Charlestown.

Autograph Hounds

Wow! We've only been here for two days, but I feel like we've been here for a week! Maybe it's because we've already seen three games... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we started planning the trip, we only bought advance tickets for the Angels/Dodgers and Cubs/Rangers games. We weren't sure if the kids would be willing to sit through more than that. Were we ever wrong! After they got their first autographs on Saturday night (and were left empty-handed on Sunday), they have been on the hunt for more. So, it was no surprise when given the choice of visiting Casa Grande Ruins National Monument or going to another game today, they picked baseball.