Rebecca had to go to Portland, OR to work with Oregon Primate Center for an experiment. John and Jack decided to go with so we went for two weekends. We stayed downtown on the weekend and near Beaverton during the week.
It was St. Patrick's day and Portland has quite the festival. We walked around the festival but didn't go into any of the bars or beer tents though I was surprised at how many children were in the bars. Just for dinner I assume. We happened on a bar that had the Portland Police Highguard playing with many bagpipers, drums, etc. http://www.portlandpolicehighlandguard.com/about.html We listened to them on the sidewalk since they had the doors open and we could see them pretty well. They were quite good. Jack really liked them.
Sunday, there was a huge Adidas sponsored run (Joanne didn't go) with 32000 runners. We went down there and watched. It started raining (surprise, surprise) but wasn't too bad. Great running weather. There was an Irish-style rock band that Jack really enjoyed listening to. He likes live music whenever he hears it.
We walked up to the Pearl District but Jack was getting pretty crabby. We played in a park. he didn't care much for the playground but he loved running around this elephant and playing peek a boo around the legs.
Later we met up with Jack's Great Aunt Joanne. She's been in Portland for 3 weeks training for her new job at Adidas. She took us to US headquarters where we bought a bunch of clothes for 50% off. Jack got really cute samba soccer shoes. Then we went to Deschutes brewery for an early dinner so that she could be back for the Kansas game. Rebecca got the beer sampler and everything was delicious.
Monday, Rebecca had off so we drove up the Columbia gorge to Multnomah Falls. It was pretty rainy but Jack was more or less in good spirits...except when we wanted to take a picture in front of the falls.
It was quite a hike up to the falls (for a little guy) with lots of stairs and pretty steep but he did it himself (mostly). He walked all the way up to the bridge in the background and back down.
We took the side road back to Portland and it took us by several more falls. Here's an attempt at a family picture.
Still walking around. Unfortunately, he would usually go in the exact opposite direction we wanted to go.
More waterfalls.
It's amazing that I got a good picture of the two of them. Neither like posing for pictures.
While Rebecca went to work, Jack and John went to the Children's museum. It's geared toward younger kids so Jack had a great time. Here he's putting pegs in a big light board.
He's at a light table that had different colored objects on it.
He loves putting things on his head (except his own hat). He's also playing with gears on a magnetic board.
This was his favorite. He pushed the cart all over the little store and put food in it.
Here he is in the water room. There were lots of boats and cups to play with in the water.
Back at the light table putting a basket on his head.
SNOW!! We went up to Big Bear Mountain to ski about a month ago and didn't see snow. It snowed overnight in Portland. It was a pretty good covering. Rebecca had to be at work early so didn't get to see Jack enjoy his first snow fall. John said he didn't really care for it. The snow was all but melted by the time Rebecca got home.
The sun came out the next day so we popped over to Hoyt Arboretum. We wandered around. There was still some snow on this hill. From here we could see Mount St. Helens and Mt Rainer.
Jack loves to "climb" trees.
It was gorgeous down this path but too muddy. We turned back.
The next day we went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This was a really good museum. It had something for all ages. A lot of the exhibits were over his head but he still enjoyed playing with them. He especially like the ones where you throw the balls on the table and they orbit around the holes.
There was a room for 6 and under and he had a good time playing here as well. These balls were all over the room and he kept picking them up so he was super happy when he found the ball pit.
The last weekend we stayed at the Hilton downtown and had a great view. This is the hallway. Jack is apparently not afraid of heights because he liked playing on the ledge along the windows and looking at the cars and buses.
On the last day we went for a hike at Forrest Park a huge undeveloped park. It was so pristine and beautiful. As you can see the sun was out and it was quite warm. It was so clear on the dive up that we could see all of the mountains. Jack refused to walk this day. Maybe he was tired from walking around on the other days. So we had to carry him over 2 miles. I wish we had the back pack carrier!! Instead he got to ride on mommy's shoulders.
We had a great trip to Portland. We will have to go back in the summer because we didn't even get far outside of Portland.
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