As is our tradition, Oliver and I head off together tomorrow for a March school break trip, our last one, as Oliver finishes public school in June.

Our final destination is Portland, Oregon, where we’ll visit my old friend, and Oliver’s namesake, Oliver Baker.

We are, however, taking a circuitous route to get there.

Tomorrow evening we fly Charlottetown-Montreal-Vancouver.

We’ll spend Monday night in Vancouver, Tuesday in the city with my old friend Theresa, and then catch the Amtrak Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle on Tuesday night.

After an overnight and Wednesday in Seattle, we’ll hop on the Amtrak again to finish the trip down to Portland, where we’ll be until midday Sunday.

Sunday afternoon we reverse the process: train to Seattle, overnight, train to Vancouver, overnight, fly home via Vancouver.

The circuitousness comes as a result of several factors involving airline ticket pricing, airport security mitigation, border security hassle minimization, service dog peeing opportunity maximization, and a love of trains.

We’re looking forward to it.