We arrived on a Thursday, mid-day. The flight was long - about 6 hours - with a change of plane in Salt Lake City. When we got to my son's house, he was still out doing a herd-health, so we ate lunch on him. We had to - he'd bought just about everything known to man for lunch and I would have felt bad if it had gone to waste. When he got home, he took us bowling. Here's my granddaughter jumping to make the pins fall:
Later we had dinner at the large mall nearby. I love that place - they have a P. F. Chang's and other fabulous places to eat. After that we went back to his house and crashed.
Next day he took us to the Portland Zoo. The zoo is huge. Really well done and lots of animals. The kids had to look at the farm exhibit, of course, since that is their uncle's specialty.
They had amazing water animals as well - here is a gigantic sea lion that swam up to the kids and then headed to the surface.
After the zoo, we had a picnic lunch nearby in the park. I felt so bad about all the money he had spent on the lunch stuff that I insisted that we take a lunch with us everywhere. It worked out well, though, and eventually we ate everything. He was incredibly thoughtful - only one of the reasons I love him.
Once lunch was done, I wanted to go to the Portland Rose Garden. They were having their annual show of roses. It is absolutely unbelieveable. There must be every variety and color of roses possible there. Here are a few examples:
After that, we headed back for dinner. I'm pretty sure it was something simple, but I honestly can't remember. Crash time for the kiddies, who were pretty tired considering the two hour time change.
On Saturday we headed for the coast. My son had arranged horse-back rides for the grandkids as my grandson wanted that more than anything.
Next we went to the beach in a nearby state park. We hiked up the hill to see the view - it was unreal.
We had to ferry the baby (my granddaughter) back down - she kept telling me, "Oh, Grandma. I'm so tired" over and over.
We counted the mileage after we got done and discovered the hike was about 6 miles total. So it was a miracle that either of them made it all the way through.
After yet another picnic lunch, we headed back to the beach in town to play.
The weather was chilly - I estimate the water temp was like 50 degrees. When it flowed over my feet while I stood on the beach I actually jumped it was so cold. That did not stop my grandson from immersing himself, though. He'd been waiting for months for the chance, and although it was against my better judgment, we let him.
We headed for Portland again after the beach to eat dinner at an artisan pizza place. I helped the kids occupy their time while waiting for dinner by coloring.
The coolest part of the restaurant is that the windows that made up the walls retracted and we were more or less outside with only the ceiling over us. It was truly neat.
On Sunday I took the kids to the latest Night at the Museum movie so that my daughter and son could go winery tasting. He lives in an area that is smack-dab in the middle of wine country and there are winerys everywhere.
Later in the day, we took the kids kite flying.
In the park where we flew the kites, this cell tower resided. I have never seen such an attempt to make a cell tower look like a tree before. They really didn't want to ruin the landscape!
We left on Monday and spent another lovely 6 hours on two planes to get to St. Louis, then a 3 hour drive from there to home. We were tired, but I think we can declare it a successful trip. I enjoyed it, anyway. And isn't that all that really matters? :)
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