I can't believe it's been since Wednesday since I updated.  I blame it on the cost of wireless in airports...

I've arrived home, unpacked (shocking, I know), thrown a load of laundry in the washer, and now am sitting down for 14 seconds before doing a billion other chores today... since I'm heading out of town AGAIN tomorrow.  But before I start ANOTHER trip, I need to tell you about the rest of tour de northwest.

On Wednesday night, we went to sleep.  We were pooped.  Trudging through the woods in 4 feet of snow, in a practical white out, up ski slopes, while dodging wolves and grizzly bears, will tire a person out. 

Thursday was a wonderful, albeit rainy, day.  We started out by making pancakes and coffee.  Not just any pancakes, but SNOWQUALMIE FALLS pancakes.  Let me tell you a little about them.  You can only get this delicious mix in Washington.  It makes it more special that way.  You just add water.  I don't know how they do it, but they are the most magical just add water pancakes you can imagine.  I discovered them while staying with a friend when Sarah and I drove around the country.  That was in 2006, and I haven't had them since.  I sent an urgent message to my friend to find out where we could get them (Safeway...), and we stocked up.  Should last me a couple weeks at least....

Anyway, we had these delicious pancakes (with real maple syrup), and Tully's coffee in a french press (have I talked about Tully's coffee yet?  Maybe I'll save that for later).  After breakfast, we headed out for a day of shopping.  Stop number 1 was Powell's books; THE biggest bookstore in the world.  Yes, the world.  It has over 1 million volumes.  This makes it difficult to browse.  It was fabulous.  They do have the strangest, most awkward parking garage in the world though.  But, it was free, so who's complaining.  After wandering the book store and picking up a gift card for the girl whose condo we stayed in, we headed south, to outlets.  Why did we do that?

I will say that I pretty much knocked out all the Christmas shopping in a single day!  Which also meant that we had to buy another bag to bring everything home in... It wasn't just me.  Keli helped too.  I can't say WHAT outlets we kept in business for the next year, because that would ruin the Christmas surprise.  Just know that there were lots of stores, and they were wonderful, and I didn't but anything for more than 50% off.  I will say that there was a Le Creuset outlet, and it was tempting... until I thought about lugging cast iron across the country.  That is just a bad idea.

After outlet shopping, we headed back to Portland for an applicant dinner at an amazing pizza place!  The applicant group was large (12), so it was hard to socialize with everyone (and we were pooped), but it was still a good time.  

Friday we packed up the car, and then headed to the hospital for the interview day.  No details, remember.  They are top secret.  But it was a long, but good day, and we headed out just after 5 for the airport.  Annoyingly (I've only had this problem with red eyes), there was no one at the check in booth until 7, so we sat around (after doing some creative repacking to get all our bags to legal weight), until we could check in, go through security, and get dinner. 

The flights were flights... I slept for part of it, did a little cross word puzzling, we got breakfast in between, and Keli's roommate came and retrieved us when we got into Charlotte.  After a side trip to Starbucks and Great Harvest Bread (we need snacks for tomorrow's car ride...), I made it home.  Phew.

Tomorrow we head to the midwest for a couple more interviews.  Then I'm done traveling for a while, and at some point will be heading home for some Christmas time with my family!

For now, I'm going to get some more chores done (I have big plans for collecting a few bags of stuff to take to Goodwill).

Look out for some snowshoeing pictures later today!!!  They will be sweet.

Adios,
Kari