Portland Vacation

We have been so fortunate to have a jam packed summer. We just got home yesterday from our last vacation of the summer. We rented a really nice Chrysler 200 to make the trip, and left on Aug 8. We drove 5 hours to Ontario OR and stayed over night to break up the 12-13 hour drive. I was pretty apprehensive going on such a long journey on my own (not having another adult with me) and staying in a hotel, but it was a lot of fun. We swam in the pool and watched cable. It's been a while since we watched cable. Found some really cool shows. The drive through the canyon was SO beautiful. We encountered some guys in a white Lexus and played leap frog follow the leader. It was a lot of fun. The scenery was just amazing. River almost the entire way through from about an hour past Ontario to about 30 miles outside Portland. Absolutely breath taking. The boys did really really well. Though the dvd system did seem to do wonders. It's so nice to have technology so you aren't fighting with the kids and making up really lame games just to keep occupied. I understand why parents made up the games, but guarantee if they had our technology they'd of used it lol. We got into Portland around 2:30-3 and thanks to the GPS I took from my parents we had no problems getting right to the door of my uncle's condo. On Aug 10 we went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and that place is AWESOME! There are a lot of science things for the kids to do and love the signs say please parents let your kids discover and play and tinker. That's what it's there for! I loved it. First we headed to the gift shop while waiting for our appointment for the tour of a Submarine that is docked on the Willamette at OMSI. Patrick and Jackson wanted to get rocks for suvioneres. The Submarine tour was really cool. I knew they lived in squished environment, but it really brought it to life just how cramped it was. After that we went up to the Mummies of the World exhibit. The boys really liked it. I loved seeing how they lived, and was amazed at how young the average death was. Was sad to see the children and small babies, but it did happen a lot. After the mummies we went to the children's discovery areas where the kids played. (check fb for pics. I am too lazy to add them all here too) On Aug 11 we went back to OMSI for the boat tour of the Willamette. That was awesome! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was a boat tour where there were warnings of getting wet all over. It was a guarantee. We sat in the second row. The driver liked to do what he called Spin A Roo's which was where he would go fast and then spin the boat in a 360 so everyone got wet. That was really fun. The boys really enjoyed those. He would also go full speed then stop and water went over the front of the boat all over us. We had a really fun time. Then we went on the Light Rail system to the Farmers Market. That was really interesting and saw a lot of interesting people. Tried Elephant Ears, and vegitarian burrito. After getting really turned around and spending a LOT of time walking around the city, we ended up at a park with streams and waterfalls the kids enjoyed playing in but after 3 trips 3 blocks away to the starbucks for bathroom breaks and once to the 24 hour fitness 2 blocks away for bathroom break it was high time to leave. I'd had enough. It was a really fun, and stressful, long day. On Aug 12 we went to Seaside OR to the tourist trap shops (I love them) and got a grape Nehi to try after hearing about it all my life on M*A*S*H. It was really good. We also found a shop called Del Sol which a friend turned me on to a few years ago. They sell shirts, jewelry, sunglasses, and bags that change color in the sun. It was an expensive suvioneer, but worth every penny. Then we headed off to Cannon Beach where they filmed the beach scenes from the movie The Goonies. I loved seeing the rocks and ocean that was in a childhood favorite movie. We ran down the beach, played in the water, and for the first time in my life I was at the beach in nice weather! Every other time I had been to the ocean (both pacific and atlantic) it had been BITTER cold and wasn't fun. The weather was around 80* and sun shining. It was overcast but by the time we left the clouds had parted and it was blue skies and sunshine. I loved it! I do like running on the beach down at the water. I can understand why people do it. I also hate walking on the sand up the beach more, but got an amazing workout! We got a lot of good pics and the boys had a lot of fun. Patrick found a crab on the way to the rocks and we took some pictures and were looking for it on the way back to our spot and looked for the crab. We found he had been stepped on and had died. Patrick instantly picked him up, put him in his shoe and wanted to take him home as a souvineer but we explained how much he would stink so he buried him in the sand. After going to the beach we headed over to Tillamook OR where they have the cheese/ice cream factory. It was really cool seeing how they made the cheese and how they cut it, and then sample it. We also got to have a refreshing ice cream cone before we left. On Aug 13 we went to the Oregon Zoo. It was crowded because it was $4 Tuesday, but come to find out if you ride public transportation, your admission was just .50 cents! We went right to the zoo train thinking it would be a lot like Hogle and show you the layout of the zoo. Nope. It went through a forest of trees and back again. No animals on that tour :( We rented a stroller and so glad we did. We saw all of the animals we could find or see that weren't sleeping. The boys loved it! Jackson especially loved the Bobcat. For some reason he loves bobcats. Patrick really liked the big cats and elephants. After the zoo we headed up to the tram to get a "birds eye" view of the city including Mt. Hood and Mt St. Helens. That was really cool. Beautiful city. We finished off the day with a dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was such good food! We left around 9:45 in the morning and by the time we got just about to Ontario we decided we would rather drive straight through and skip the hotel and sleep in our beds, so we powered through and made it home by 8:30 after taking a dinner stretch break in Boise. I am so glad we went on through. I am also glad I booked with the only hotel in the city that allows cancellations. (it's main appeal) We were really happy to pull in our own house that night and got the car all cleaned out to return the next day. It was really hard returning the car. We loved having a spacious 4 door car that had an aux jack for playing music from the ipod on! We really had an amazing trip and just added to the really busy vacation packed summer. Portland is a very beautiful city, but don't think I could ever live in that city. There are too many laid back diciplineless hippies. lol I love laid back living and environment concious living, but that's on the extreme for me, and the way they raise their kids compared to how I raise mine is a lot different and we just have opposite views there and I just couldn't handle it. It is fun to visit, but I enjoy living around people who shower regularly and use deoderent. lol lol lol. Be aware these are just my opinions. I am sure that you may not feel the same way or have a different view of the city, but as for my observation that is my opinion.