Andy Smallman

So I drove down to Portland yesterday morning after having dropped Melinda & Celeste at the airport. They flew to San Francisco to spend a few days with Melinda’s cousin. More on their trip tomorrow. For now, it’s about burgers with Ella in Portland!

So, yes, I drove to Portland, arriving just past 11am. After helping Ella get a few things organized in her apartment, we hoofed it to Little Big Burger on 23rd, a few blocks from her place. She’s wanted me to try one of these tall but small burgers (get it, little big?) and it did not disappoint. Following her lead, I added bacon and together we had a fine lunch. We followed this with a walk to her school, Ella guiding me on the walking path she favors so I can picture it when I’m chatting with her.

Arriving at her school, we heard a sports announcer over a loudspeaker coming from the high school nearby, so we wandered over and watched three quarters of a football game featuring two teams made up of what we think were 5th and 6th graders. The visiting team had it all their way, ahead 38-6 when we left. Ella’s favorite player was the tiny quarterback, #32 for the home team. Under center, he leaned lower than some of the linemen.

After that, we did some grocery shopping, caught up on Flash, our favorite TV show, and then went to the Pearl District for dinner. We located Tilt, another burger joint, a place we think Melinda wouldn’t want to visit. In other words, this was our chance. I ordered something called a Mad Andy (?!) which included the burger, blue cheese, a fried egg, an onion ring, and jalapeno peppers. It was dark inside so our photo is a bit blurry, but hopefully you get the picture.

After dinner we want to Powell’s and bought a couple of books, a Patricia Polacco kid’s story called “Gifts of the Heart” and a graphic novel about the Flash TV show. We took the bus back to Ella’s place, read the Polacco book then watched a little TV before calling it a night.

Burgers, The Flash, Ella… That’s a perfect Saturday night, you know, especially with Melinda away.

Five years ago today, I was having one of my highlight days of the French sabbatical. Not only was the weather beautiful, it was opening day of the horse race season at the Nantes racetrack. Add in that the racetrack was a 10 minute walk from our front door just added to the magic of that year.

I remember the day very well (and you can, too, by visiting this blog entry I wrote five years ago today). It was a typical Tuesday in that I went with Ella to her school, walked home, and then bided my time as I waited for the right time to head to the track. When I finally decided to leave, I brought along my camera and took a bunch of pictures (so many that my photo archive for the sabbatical includes a special file of photos from this day). I walked along the exterior fence and soon came to where the horses had arrived and were being stabled for the day. I got more and more excited. Reaching the front gate, I paid my way in and then reveled in the glory of spending a day at the races.

In my daily sabbatical blog entries I followed the protocol of posting only a single image each day. I have no such restriction now, hence a slew of photos from back then.

On a side note to Christine and Bérnard, opening up this photo archive presented an opportunity tonight to reminisce with Celeste over some photos of her and your house. Look for some of those to appear here soon.

Our little girls are all grown up, at least by American age standards. And last night they had dinner together in Portland, along with Chloe’s boyfriend, Alex. The reason for them getting together is a pretty sad one, however. One of Chloe’s close friends from college, a young man named Tyler, died tragically in a climbing accident three weeks ago. His family is from Portland and yesterday they held a special celebration of his life just outside of town. Chloe and Alex drove down to be part of it, and were able to have dinner with Ella. They then hustled back up I-5 in the dark of night to get back to Seattle. That’s a lot of driving in one day.

This particular photo, which was sent to Melinda via text, touched me in a profound way. Seeing my daughters spend time together as adults is a gratifying thing. And hearing Chloe talk about how impressed she is with Ella, despite the mountain of dirty dishes in her kitchen sink, is also pretty special.