The adventure has begun! So yesterday, our intended departure time was 10:30am. 2 hours later, after packing and re-packing the van (kudos to my mom) so that everything fit, we left Seattle. It felt very strange…and still sort of does, since our first story program is not until tomorrow…to have finally left after planning this for months.

When I realized that my mom had never been to Oregon, and more specifically, Portland, and more specifically, Powell’s Books, the most amazing bookstore I’ve ever been in, we decided to stop. Coincidentally, the parking space we found (as in, YAY! we found a parking space in a city! for a giant van!) was right across from the store, Storables. My sister Allie will laugh, because she knows how much my mom and I LOVE container stores. Our van is packed to the gills, but one thing we’ve realized is that the loading and unloading of boxes from the back of the van to bring into schools needs to be a little smoother. We have these huge rolling bookcarts, but they are unwieldy and hard to get in and out. Well, at Storables, we found this shelving unit that you can put together (easily) and decide how high you want it, how many shelves/drawers you want, etc. So we went and bought it! And then put it together! Apparently, my mom thought we could put it together later, which sounds pretty smart, but I was eager and jumped the gun before she mentioned that and started putting it together on the street. Which actually worked out pretty well–we had one question about how to put the shelves in and were able to jump back in the store to help, plus we managed to finish it before it started raining. Our good karma is working for us.

But Powell’s, oh wow. Every time I go back, I think to myself, (a) why do I not come to Portland more often? (it’s only 3 hours away from Seattle), and (b) why is there not one of these in Seattle? (Elliot Bay Book Company is really great, but I’m afraid it has nothing on Powell’s). My mom was in heaven. Plus, since it’s a combination of used and new books, we were able to find some really great, beautiful-looking hardcover books that will make great read-alouds for $4-8.

This is why we did not arrive to Sutherlin, Oregon until about 9:45pm. But it was well worth it. As soon as I finish writing this post, I am going to jump in the shower, and then we are on our way to Sacramento! California or bust!