Go for the Goal

BIG SKY COUNTRY: The day dawned dark and blustery, with rain coming down in sheets. What a perfect day to drive to Hillsboro, Ore., some four hours away! ;) Our reason for going was the Big Sky soccer tournament, where CJ and Annabelle's cousin Torie and her Portland State University teammates were taking on the  Northern Colorado Bears.

Actually, I'm glad I didn't realize how awful the weather was when we left home at 7:13 a.m., or we never would have made the drive. It was white knuckle from basically our alley to Kalama, which is 2+ hours. We passed multiple accidents, visibility was nearly non-existent at times despite wipers on full speed, as water was coming down in sheets, often accumulating on the pavement. At one spot in Olympia, traffic slowed to a crawl as we traveled through about 16 inches of standing water in a puddle two lanes wide.

While I gripped the steering wheel, the kids studied for a science test, and read the entire, brand-new "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" installment "Hard Luck." They were blissfully unaware of the precarious driving conditions.

Though it was harrowing, we managed it, arriving at our first stop, Vancouver USA, a bit after 10:30. We had a nice visit.  about 1:30 we left for Hillsboro. We had a quick drive, so we had time to stop at the McMenamins right next to the stadium, Cornelius Pass Roadhouse & Imbrie Hall. We were on a tight timeframe and didn't get to really look around, but based on our limited glimpse, it's a gorgeous, intriguing place, as is almost always the case with McMenamins' locations. I just loved these light fixtures!

 Soon, we were off to the stadium. I was looking forward to seeing it because I knew the complex was also home to the Hillsboro Hops, a single A team.

I was hoping the team store was open, as I would have loved to pick Christian up a team tshirt or something 
                                     
Sadly, the team store is only open Monday, Wednesday and Friday noon to 5 p.m. in the off season. :(

Here are the kids in front of the Hops' empty field.

But enough about baseball and hops. Back to soccer!

Here's a scene before the game. Right when my camera battery died. Super. :/

So all I had was my stupid phone camera, which is wholly inadequate for capturing any sports action. It barely does a passable still. But enough about my technological failures. The game was great!

Both teams played hard and well. It was 1-0 at the half, PSU on top. They added a second goal in the second half and the final score was 2-0.

It was so great to see the game, and I'm so glad we could make it.

Mercifully, the drive home wasn't as dicey, but it was during rush hour, which, from Hillsboro to Vancouver, could be a couple of hours right there. Sometimes my perpetual impatience pays off, and today was one of those days. As the traffic crawled to a standstill just a few miles east of Hillsboro and well before Portland, I thought, "Screw this. I am NOT sitting in THIS," and took the next exit, which happened to be Sylvan. I thought there had to be a way to skirt traffic up and over the West Hills, and I'll be darned if I didn't do just that, in instinct. I'd never driven that way before.

Even though it was a couple miles of hairpin turns and speed bumps, it was exponentially faster than the freeway parking lot. I saved us at least a half hour, plus we had a lovely view of the Portland lights from on high.

We made it home by 9:30, listening to the Oregon Ducks v. the Standford Cardinal all the way. It took us four different radio stations and three broadcast teams, but we managed to hear the whole game, and the upset victory for Standford. The whole way home CJ re-read the new "Diary of" book and Annabelle made some super cute animations in "flip note," a program on her Nintendo DS. I'll try to share some of them tomorrow.