Portland Via DC?

We got up early this morning so that I could catch an 8:20 a.m. flight from McAllen to Portland. My ETA in Portland was 7:55 p.m., which is 9:55 p.m. CDT, so my trip was scheduled to take 12 1/2 hours. That's more than twice as long as a flight directly through DFW to Portland. My frequent flyer trip today was routed through DFW and then Washington Reagan. Yup, I had to fly to the east coast to fly to the west coast. The consolation this time was that I was flying first class all the way (there were no economy flights available for frequent flyer tickets).

First class meant that I didn't have to worry about meals. The coach cabin occupants are lucky to get a couple of cokes, but in first class I had lunch and dinner, and the food was actually pretty good. The drinks were accompanied by deluxe mixed nuts heated in small ramekins. My seats were actually wide enough to be quite comfortable.

The best part of the whole trip was arriving in Portland to find Chris and Anara greeting me with big smiles and open arms. They had waited dinner for me, so I had another meal to top off the day. Shawn had everything laid out when we got to the townhouse, and we had some delicious SoupCycle salad, soup, and bread. The soup was one of my favorites from past visits:

Your Tongue Takes You on Vacation (veggie/vegan)
This coconut, corn, cauliflower, red potato chowder transports you from Souplandistan to Asia and back again. The sweet and savory flavors are accented by cayenne and fresh dill.†

It was delightful to share it with Chris and Shawn and Anara (though she subbed in ramen for the soup). It was also my first time to see the townhouse finished and furnished. We saw it under construction when we were here last July.

None of the pluses of the day makes the ordeal of getting through security any easier. You know the drill: take off shoes, empty pockets, remove jackets and sweaters, remove neck scarf, pull computer from its case and put in a separate bin, put clear quart baggie with liquids in 3 oz. or smaller containers out in a bin, yada, yada, yada. Then through the scanner, hands over head, and out the other side to collect all your belongings and restore them to their previous positions. I had to do that twice today, once in McAllen and again in Washington Reagan, because the Alaska ticket counter where I had to collect a boarding pass for the last leg of the trip is outside the secure area. Flying is not fun.