Vacay

I have to be brief, 'cause I'm frickin' exhausted.

Yesterday -- we hit the road at 6:30. We stopped once to pee, once to pee and get gas, and once to eat lunch (at Rogue River State Park, which was nice, but filled with staggeringly ugly teenagers on some sort of church camp trip), and then we reached Eugene, OR at 2:30. The drive was nice and easy, with no major weather or traffic (although there were patches of rain, include one heavy 2 second pour). We checked into the hotel and put our stuff down, then were heading out to go to my sister-in-law's, and we ran into my father-in-law and his wife in the parking lot, just checking into the same hotel! We exchanged hellos (and got presents!) and then went to my sister-in-law's. We hung out with the kids and talked with the adults. There was a brief shopping trip for a Christmas present for me (an extravagant one, and I protested, but I got quite spoiled anyway). For dinner, we all went out to Mexican (all 14 of us!). After dinner, we watched movies (me and my sisters-in-law, niece, and one brother-in-law), played video games (Sweetie, a brother-in-law, and 2 nephews) and did odd performance art to "Macarena" and "Barbie Girl" (two nieces). We left quite late.

Our sleep was interrupted by an air-raid siren. No, wait, it was just a noisy fridge. But there was a brief moment of panic when I thought we were going to have to evacuate. Then I was wakened with a start to incredibly loud Mexican music, because Sweetie had set the alarm for 6 (for some ungodly reason).

We walked to get lattes, drove around a bit, got a seeded baguette, then went back to the house. There was a grocery store expedition for donuts, fruit, more bread, feta... and we all grazed. Then we went to the Persian grocery store, which was closed, then said goodbye to FiL and his wife. Then we went to buy lots of groceries for dinner tonight. I wanted MiL to show me how to cook some things. The problem with cooking ethnic foods as a vegetarian is that you're often trying to replicate the taste of things you've never tasted. So MiL was very enthusiastic about showing me how to make stuff, and the Aloo (sour cherry rice with pistachios and almonds) was HEAVEN. For some reason ("it tastes bad") Sweetie doesn't like it. I think it's incredible! Then we all hung out and shot the shit. It got late again, and here we are.

Tomorrow we head for the coast!