A Year of Dates: January

Last Saturday, Eric and I went on the first of our Year of Dates.

January 2012


The Date: A trip to Portland for the Portland International Auto Show.  Since we don't live in Portland, this ended up being a full day date.

The Envelope: 2 tickets to the Auto Show, Starbucks gift card for fancy coffee & sandwich across the street from the convention center.

It Went a Little Something Like This...


My mom watched the kids for the day, and we ended up leaving the house around 8:15am.  We enjoyed 3+ hours in the car without the kids. It's amazing how stress free longer drives are when you don't have to pack tons of extra food, clothes, games and toys! And manage fighting and whining! Instead we got to talk about life, catch up with each other.

We saw SIX Bald Eagles along with Columbia River during our drive. I didn't take pictures from the moving car, but basically it was like this guy's picture:



The actual date isn't super interesting for re-enactment. It was walking, talking, sitting in cars, looking at cars, taking pictures of cars. Towards the beginning of our adventure, we had lunch at Starbucks.

Appetizing, huh?

A few observations from the car show:

1) When pretending to drive an auto show car, it is apparently mandatory that you also pretend to shift manual transmission gears, even if the car is an automatic.

2) There is something about having my picture taken while sitting in a completely still car in the middle of a crowded auditorium that compels me to flash a peace sign. 

3) I apparently like the current trend towards using the exterior color of the car as the dash trim color inside the car. It is cute and fun, and reminded me of when my KitchenAid  mixer was brand new and shiny. 

Eric and I got to ride in a Jeep that essentially drove over/through an obstacle course, and also in a tiny Scion which Eric test drove in a small driveway parking area outside. Those were some of his highlights. Plus seeing his current dream car/future actual car, which he couldn't sit in because it is still a prototype. 

A little sad he couldn't sit inside. And that they didn't have the Scion version. 

During our ride, I was in the middle seat in the back. Eric was sitting on my right, stranger on the left. And then we did this. It was a little unfortunate for the stranger on my left.

Here are some more pictures from the day:

Vespa! 

Tiny Scion (this is the one that Eric later test drove)

One of the most bizarre things at the Auto Show: a truck painted to honor 9/11 first responders. On the hood: angry presidents and angry birds of prey. I am still trying to figure out how to alert Stephen Colbert. 

Eric being "manly" in front of a truck in his "Dexter shirt".

Someone take me to the beach. I'm ready to go surfing. 

Weird, massive fuel economy scooter thing. Only in the Pacific Northwest.

On our way home, we stopped for burgers and took more pictures of ourselves eating food.

We had a lovely drive home. Almost ran out of gas, but didn't. That was nice.

Next Month: Eric still hasn't looked into the date envelopes, but I did have to reveal the February date after he scheduled a church voter's meeting for the exact time we were supposed to be on our date. So it won't be a surprise, but it will still be fun!