Cows Keepin' It Weird

Our California redwoods and Oregon coast vacation drew to a close with two nights in Portland. THIS is the picture I hoped to capture and these are a few thoughts on “weird.”

Located in downtown Portland across from the original Voo Doo Donuts.

I went to college in my home town.  Shortly after having dinner at my childhood home with my mom and me, one of my best friends in college told me that my mom was weird. That I grew up "weird." I thought she was weird for saying or even thinking that! My mom and my childhood weren't weird! Or were they?

Our house was full of color. The first thing you saw when you walked in was a set of bi-fold closet doors painted with bright blue, red, yellow and green squares. Mom had a wall with with chincey, plastic fish plates because she loved their whimsy and color. She framed brightly colored fabric all over the place. Our couch was red velvet and complementary red lamps hung from the ceiling. We talked and joked and laughed. A lot. None of this was weird to me, but maybe for my friend who simply grew up differently, it was. I’m sorry her home life wasn't more weird (fun).

These little guys are growing up with cow suits and cowing. Is it weird? Perhaps.  Is it unique and fun? Absolutely!

What's weirder? Their cow suits or that we let them eat McDonald's on this day?

It DID feel a little weird while we were getting suited up in our downtown Portland hotel room and the little guy was resistant to put on his cow costume. His older brother, mom and I proceeded to cajole and convince him that he wanted to cow.

While I was rinsing out a pair of shorts, I overheard the older brother after he'd gotten his shirt and hood on.

The weird part here may be that I'm only wearing one shoe.
I kept forgetting to rinse out the ocean-soaked shorts &
as soon as I remembered, I HAD TO DO IT NOW.

Older calf: Come on, Man! You knew the deal. First we had a delicious breakfast. Then we took our sister to the airport. And NOW we are going cowing so we can go to Powell's Bookstore later and THEN take the train to the Spaghetti Factory. Come on! Don't you want to go to Powell's? We have to cow first. That was the deal. Besides--you know it's fun. (Their sister got to take her first solo trip to visit grandparents, so we wanted to make sure that these guys had fun stuff in store so they didn't feel like they were missing out. Boy, do we know how to have fun or what?)

As both their mom and I added words of encouragement (sigh) and threats of confiscating toys or withholding planned activities, I did wonder what in the heck we were doing. I didn't wonder for too long. Smiles, cartwheels and a sprint to the elevator to push the buttons convinced me that the last 7 minutes in their young lives probably hadn't ruined them. We set out on our adventure to find the "weird" mural.

We always guess which elevator will arrive first.
The calf on the right just finished a handstand.
Yeah--he's fine.

A NBA game was going on with the Portland Timbers &
a whole group of people wanted their pictures taken with us one-by-one.

With the lil calves jonesin' to get to Powell's Bookstore,
there was no way we were going to make them wait in line,
but I had to get a picture at Voo Doo Donuts!

He was so excited to find this little seat JUST for him.

Yep--that's us. Portland Prime!

There were dozens of Portland landmarks I considered tracking down for photo ops, but we'd achieved our original goal of hitting the mural. Every time these little guys dress up with us, I wonder when they'll decide that it IS weird and that they're too cool to cow. So far, it's not weird to them and it's still fun. My personal hope is that they don't ever think "weird" and "fun" have to be mootually exclusive. So often--espectially with cowing--they are one in the same.

On the way home, I asked this little guy what his favorite part of the trip was. He could choose from hiking in the redwoods, beach combing for shells, swimming in the ocean, visiting a cheese factory, scouting out star fish in tide pools, going on a whale watch tour, and visiting Portland. He loved Powell's Bookstore but said his favorite part of the entire trip was the Old Spaghetti Factory. Weirdo. [wink]

I got my "Weird" picture &
they got their Old Spaghetti Factory.
Win-win