The Little Explorer

Aurelia and I are extremely excited to report that the Hidalgo family is expecting another addition during the spring of this year. We are stoked, tickled pink, jazzed, buggin', worked up, on fire, keyed up and every other synonym for excited that you can imagine.

We are still a a few weeks away from the second set of sonograms that will tell us about the sex of the baby (though we are not 100% decide yet if we will find out) but here's a picture that was taken in early October. For scale, the baby is about the length of your thumb (6cm).

Whistle theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey here

This image left me speechless as I was unprepared for the resolution of the scan. I was expecting a grayish blur that required a great deal of imagination to decipher but instead we got to see individual fingers, toes, vertebrae and proto-ribs. Things are looking very good, besides some morning sickness, so we are proceeding with the important parenting tasks of securing a Red Sox onesie and selection of a video camera system.

Futbol and Waterfalls

One might wonder what futbol and waterfalls have little in common. But here at the dinner table they are connected by my birthday. Lest you think from the pictures of Vancouver that Aurelia is the only one treated well on her birthday here are a few pictures from some of our activities around the 10th of August.
First Aurelia surprised me with a trip on a jet boat down the Willamette river. While the pilot's jokes were predictably tired, the 360 degree spins at 60mph were refreshing. We traversed up river with about thirty fellow travellers visiting a remarkable set of locks still used by boats heading North. (The Willamette is one of the few rivers in the world that flows North. Don't ask me why).


After a few more spins we reached the base of the Willamette falls where the indigenous Portlanders hunted for eel. Now there is a large paper mill with a Piranesian tangle of armatures and rusty catwalks.



We finished with a sprint back to the dock, six more spins, and very wet shirts.

The next day we organized a group of about 15 people to attend an exhibition match between two ancient Mexican futbol rivals: Chivas de Guadalajara and Club America. The former is the team of the pueblo and the latter the team of the city. So this was a grudge match (or Super Clasico) and the fact that the players were old has-beens did not prevent the overwhelmingly Mexican fans from showing the colors and making their allegiances clear. PGE park was packed to near capacity (~15000) and the banner and bugles blared.

A few of the many Chivas fans

As I said, the players were a bit rusty and put on a rather slouchy performance but I think the fans just wanted a slice of home and roared with every goal and screamed at every perceived injustice.

In the end Chivas beat Club America (whom I rooted for as a city slicker with his thumb on the pueblo) 2-0. Poo. Below are a few pictures "borrowed" from the local website Soccer City USA as I got caught up in the game and forgot to take pictures after the starting whistle. As you can see, the players are losing some hair and kinda chubby (not that there's anything wrong with that).

picture from Soccer City USA

picture from Soccer City USA

All and all, an excellent birthday.