Our travel itinerary

Here is an outline of our trip to bring Mariah and Elisha home:

We will leave early on the morning of September 10 from Portland International Airport for Washington Dulles, where we will stay for about 48 hours.

Because our travel happened so much sooner than expected, we had to cancel our 8th anniversary trip to Clementine's Bed and Breakfast in Astoria. We've gone to Astoria every year, but we just couldn't get it to work. Thanks, Judith, for being so understanding about our cancellation.

So, at the risk of being called a vacationary, we're stopping in DC to take in some of the sights. It's been a dream of mine for a long time to see the National Mall, so when our travel agent told us that we could stay in town for a day or two for free, we decided to go for it. It starts our trip a day early, but hopefully it will be worth it. We'll still miss Astoria. Maybe later this year.

We board a direct flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from DC on the evening of Saturday the 12th for a flight that arrives 13 1/2 (+9) hours later on Sunday evening.

If all turns out as planned, we'll meet our kids on the morning of September 14th...