Daddy’s taking us to the zoo! And we stayed all day!

15 August 2018

Bleurgh, I woke up with a bit of a hangover and a very dry mouth! Cat had already gone to work, and Pete had dropped Tess to zoo camp for the day before we made it out of bed. However, he was now at home and although he was working, he was good enough to show me TV breakfast supplies and make me a coffee. Cornelia woke up a little later and once she had had her breakfast and we had sorted ourselves out for the day, Pete dropped us off at Oregon Zoo.

It is a terrific zoo. We wandered around for ages looking at all the exhibits and reading all the info provided (especially for kids) before we realised that we’d barely touched the surface and would need to get a move on if we wanted to get around the whole zoo in one day! Cornelia, of course, was more interested in going on the carousel than actually looking at any animals, but we did see most of them, and managed to take in a bird show during lunch.

I left the zoo after lunch, so that I could go into downtown Portland to buy myself some new trousers for the cruise we are about to take, and Ian was after a pair of deck shoes, as he had left his behind (unintentionally) in the UK. Catching the train downtown was simple, even for me, and although I wasn’t sure where to get off, I spied a Banana Republic so decided to get off as close to that as I could. My visit to said Banana shop was very successful and I ended up with far more than one pair of trousers… To make up for it, I bought Ian a rather fabulous pair of leather deck shoes, and although I shall never tell him how much they cost, I know he’ll be very pleased with them!

In the meantime, Bugsy watched bats being fed carrots and apple, amongst other things, and having walked all day in the heat, cooled herself off running through the mist sprays located at various points throughout the complex.

Pete had offered to pick us up at the same time he collected Tess at 15:30, but unfortunately we just missed him. There is a water fountain right outside Zoo Camp collection area, and Bugsy rehydrated a hundred times over, going back for cup after cup, just because she liked using the tap function on the water cooler!

We took an Uber back to Cat and Pete’s, and were delighted to learn that Mike (a British-Aussie friend of theirs who has been living in China for the last thirteen years) had already arrived. He was also staying the night (I should mention here that Cat and Pete had invited us to stay a second night with them, which I shall take as a good sign!) and we all hung out by pool, getting to know each other. We are very lucky to have met such interesting and entertaining people.

Cornelia was obviously tired and poor Tess was doing her best not to get frustrated with Cornelia’s whinging at her to play with her. Both girls were in the pool and I swapped babysitting duties with Ian and went in for a dip and a play with the girlies.

When Cat arrived home, it was time to get the children dried off. To my great horror we found out that Cornelia had sunburnt feet from her Crocs. Oh God, I felt awful at the little bright red squares on the top of her left foot. We put some ice on, some Eight Hour cream (my go-to for everything skin related!) and a sock to stop it from being scratched by her shoe, and all of this seemed to ease her tears. She was so tired that every little thing was setting her off again.

Pete had cooked a fab supper of jackets potatoes, perfectly-cooked steak (that Larney ate from the counter!!), cheese, and corn on the cob and more wine (although I’d learned my lesson from last night and took it slightly easier on that front!).

I put Cornelia to bed (and she went straight to sleep – hurrah!) and when I returned we found we all had just about had room for ice cream sandwiches – a first for me (not counting the ones in Prague), before Cat retired to bed and the boys whisked out the bourbon. I tried a couple of different ones, but I still can’t drink the stuff. Which is probably a good thing! I was last to bed, as I had so much cruise admin to do before I could go to sleep. At last it was all done, and I could go to bed without having to worry about forgetting anything in the morning!