When my mom first came to Sweden in July, I thought it would be nice to take her around a little bit, and show her more than Stockholm and the archipelago since she was here for three weeks.  I decided that we would head south and go explore new places that I had also never been, too.  We found cheap flights and started our journey in Stockholm in the

In downtown Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, sitting on a stool pressed up against a window at the Starbucks, you look through the glass and notice that here in Oregon people don't seem to mind a light rain. One in four people are without an umbrella, and they are walking at a normal pace. You notice too that the daffodils are in bloom.