It’s always fun to get away for a few days. Our daughters were accepted into the Northwest American Choral Directors High School Choir Conference in Portland, so my husband and I decided to make it a family trip with them and spend time with friends who live just outside the city. The girls would be busy all week rehearsing, and we would join up with our friends and enjoy the fun of Portland with them.

If you followed an earlier post this week, you saw that we journeyed west on Amtrak, which was a new experience for our girls. We have made several road trips to Portland with them, but the train is something completely different. Because it is an overnight train, most of our time onboard was spent sleeping, with a few hours left for enjoying the views of Washington while traveling along the Columbia River.

Our four days went by quickly, but they were a wonderful getaway from the winter blues of Montana. Spring was definitely in bloom here in the Rose City, and it felt wonderful to actually walk about outside in a light jacket.

My friend always lavishes us with gifts when we visit. I was delighted to receive a 5-year one-sentence journal. My grandparents were faithful to their 5-year journals, many of which are in my possession now to look back through when I want to take a peek into the daily comings and goings of their lives from the 1950s to just past the turn of the century. There is something special about my grandma’s handwriting, and even just the smell of those journals. Life was different for them.

My sentence for today is a quote of Anne Frank, and it reads:

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”

We can all think of happy and not-so-happy people we come in contact with, and how the attitude and overall demeanor of a person will affect others around them for the good or the bad. Reading this reminded me of a fortune found in one of our fortune cookies from our Sushi dinner:

 Ask yourself this question: “Is my attitude worth catching?”

The train is meandering its way west – much like my post today has meandered a bit from one thing to the next… thank you dear reader for staying with me. I think I will venture to the observation car before the sun sets and sleep beckons.