Fun With Veggies

(this one isn't ours, just gives you the gist of the artist's work)

Has anyone heard or seen the children's book How Are You Peeling?  The author takes vegetables and fruits and  anthropomorphizes them.  Very fun, and extremely clever.  We found the coolest eggplant at the store the other day and had to buy it, because of the book.  Ours isn't nearly as artistic as the author's but we thought it was funny.

Oregon Day 6-8: Portland and Beyond

On Thursday we drove to Portland.  Our first stop was the zoo, which is at the top of the huge and amazing Washington Park.  The zoo is next to a children's museum, a huge and beautiful Vietnam memorial, the Forest Service, an arboretum, a rose garden, a Japanese garden, and basically acres and acres of forest in the city.  It is beautiful.  I was excited because we ate lunch at the zoo and instead of being a craptastic cafeteria like you would expect, it was healthy organic fare with good choices.  Gotta love Portland!!  After the zoo we headed to the AMAZING Japanese garden.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures and didn't capture the beauty at all, but believe me it was so peaceful and beautiful.  After that Rob took the kids to a playground while I strolled through the rose garden.  Then we headed to Beaverton, ate yummy Japanese, and then went to my cousin Ellen and her family's house, where we stayed.  I have to mention the irony of never seeing them when they lived here in SLC, and now they move away and we finally see them.  They have a great place, right near mass transit, and it was very fun to hang out with Ellie and Paul.  We visited and watched So You Think You Can Dance.  The next morning we headed into Portland with the Compton's as our guide.  That was great, because, well we didn't waste time getting lost, which is always a bonus.  Ellie lived in Portland for several years and they just moved back a couple of months ago.  She loves it there and knows the city like the back of her hand, so having them as guides was terrific.  They took us up the new tram that goes up to OHSU (the teaching hospital) and amazing views of the city.  We had beautiful (well slightly hot) weather and so got the added bonus of a good view of Mt. St. Helen and Mt. Hood as well.  After that we drove through some great little neighborhoods with thriving businesses in walking distance of the cute houses (Lament: oh if only Utah had the same planning vision as Oregon).  Next they took us to a bento place for lunch, which was delicious and then on for a walk of the riverfront park where the kids splashed in a fountain and enjoyed the kid friendly busker there.  From there Ellie had to go to work and I wanted to go to OMSI (science museum), but the kids outvoted me and so we headed back to Beaverton and swam instead.  After cute cousin Cash woke from his nap, Paul took us to the amazing nature preserve, Tualitin Hills which is right by their house (again, if only Utah and the rest of the country, really, could be so farsighted as to actually preserve some serious open space) for a walk.  We then went to a very-fun-for-kids pizza place where the kids played hard.  When we got back Ellen had just arrived home from work and we enjoyed the evening outside as the kids played.  After the kids were in bed we enjoyed some more good visiting and Last Comic Standing.  Ellie and Paul got us hooked and now we have some shows to watch in the summer....and now I even want Tivo.  In the morning we packed up, but before heading out of town we headed to the Beaverton farmers market which was great.  Then we headed up to Yakima to visit Rob's grandma and his mom, who happened to be there visiting him.  It was a short visit with pizza and a quick trip to a park, but it was very nice to finally meet Grandpa Throssel and to visit a bit with Tutu.  That was the last of our adventures.  From there we drove to LaGrande, spent the night, and then drove home.  Sigh.  It was nice to come home and find my garden alive and well (thank you Courtney).  It was a fantastic vacation!!  We love Oregon.

Japanese Garden:

A view of Portland and Mt. Hood from the Japanese Garden:

Rose Garden:

On the tram:

Our fabulous tour guides and hosts the Comptons:

Beaverton Farmer's Market:

Clara dancing at the fair:

Admiring the duckpond with Tutu in Yakima:

The end!

Oregon Day 5: Silver Falls

Silver Falls was amazing.  We spent the whole day hiking to the waterfalls (there are a lot).  It was so beautiful.  Whatever bad feelings I had towards the place because of the mouse were completely obliterated when we hit the hiking trails.  I will also say that all that green sure makes for some vicious allergies.  Some of us were dying!  Thank heaven for Claritin!!!  But oh, the allergies were so worth it.  The park also has a very cool old lodge built during the Depression by one of the New Deal agencies (WCC or CCC...can't remember).  There was also a fun place to play in the river, even if the water was a tad cold, the kids had fun.  And the kids didn't give two hoots about the mouse so they slept in the cabin that night and Rob and I slept in a tent.  

(This picture is a bit washed out...it was mega Emerald Green):

Oregon Day 4: Goodbye to the Coast

On Tuesday we packed all our gear (which is a lot when you are traveling with kids) into the van and cleaned up the cabin, then we went back for a farewell walk on the beach.  The kids found lots of dead crab parts and we had fun collecting them and getting nice and sandy for the drive.  After we left we drove along highway 101 where we stopped for lunch at Pacific City.  It was a beautiful day.  The weather was amazing.  Everyone says Oregon is rainy, but it was sunny and lovely (and even hot some days) for us. We headed away from the coast at Newport and drove West towards Corvalis.  It was, just as the rest of Oregon, a beautiful ride.  We then headed up to our next destination, Silver Falls State Park, just outside of Salem.  We stayed in a cabin there.  As we were falling asleep that night Rob and I heard little scratchy noises and the sound of plastic rustling.  EEEK A MOUSE.  Whoever knows me knows that there is nothing in the world more creepy and horrifying to me than mice.  We turned the light on and saw it scurry out the door.  Oh horror.  We slept (or more accurately laid awake) all night with the light on.  Oh dear.

The beach at Pacific City:

Our "mouse house" at Silver Falls:

Oregon Day 3: Huge Hike and Yummy S'mores

Monday started off with a nice big bowl of oatmeal, and thank goodness we had a hearty breakfast, because unbeknownst to us we were about to set off on a five and half mile hike (a lot of it uphill).  We headed out on a trail that was to take us to the end of Cape Lookout.  The trail to the trailhead turned out to be about two and a half miles, and it went up and down two valleys and finally dropped us off at the head of the next trail.  We were pretty pooped by the time we got to the trailhead and we realized that we would never make it back.  So Rob decided to run back down the trail to the cabin to pick up the car and drive to the trailhead.  Meanwhile I would continue on the Cape Lookout trail with the kids.  Well, Rob ran, and killed his knees.  And I hiked with a big baby in the backpack and it was a long hike.  We ended up not making it to the end.  Rob met up with us as we were headed back and we did live to tell the tale.  The good news is it was a breathtakingly beautiful hike through coastal rainforest with absolutely amazing views.  It was a lot like hiking in Polulu.  After the hike the kids played at the beach and made friends with the kids who were staying in the other cabin.  It turns out they were an LDS family from Wilsonville, outside of Portland, who had moved from Boise a couple of years ago.  The kids had a blast and as they played I chatted with the mom and we ended up sharing a campfire and eating s'mores with them.   It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. 

You can sort of see the two valleys we have to hike through in order to make it out to the tip of the point (the part jutting out into the ocean, not to be too obvious).  This was before we gained too much altitude and were still cruising along painlessly:

This was as we neared the trailhead, the kids were exhausted, and Clara fell asleep in Rob's arms:

This was on the Cape trail and we have made it to the southern side before we finally turned back.  It was beautiful:

There were tons of these giant snails:

Mmmm, s'mores:

The kids playing hard with their friends:

Day 2: Oregon Coast

On Sunday we drove through Portland (thankfully we got a little lost and got to drive around the very cool neighborhood around OHSU--the big hospital) and on up to the coast.  We started at Seaside which is a fun little carnivalish town.  We ate lunch there, but it was really chilly.  Next we headed down the coast a little to the very charming town of Cannon Beach.  We walked on the beautiful beach, which was fun because the sand was packed down in a way that made it squeak as you walked on it.  The squeaky sand was a crowd pleaser.  We then continued down the coast, enjoying some spectacular views until we made it to our destination, Cape Lookout Statepark.  Rob found a little cabin for us to rent which was a few hundred yards from the beach, in a secluded area.  The cabin was fantastic (heat, bathroom, fridge, microwave, clean) and now I will never camp in a tent again (well, maybe).  We played around on the beach, ate smores, and the kids had fun running through the woods around the cabin until bedtime.

Seaside:

The Lewis and Clark end of the trail monument in Seaside:

Cannon Beach:

A spectacular vista:

Our cabin:

The beach just a hop skip and a jump from the cabin: