9 - A Morning in Downtown Portland: Part 2

Tour Guides: Sarah, Sue, and the boys
Tourists: Carly and Kelly

No trip to Portland is complete for me without a visit to Powell's Books. If you are not familiar with Powell's --"Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books." Need I say more...

I don't think Carly was really aware of that she surrounded by millions of books... we never left the Children's section! She picked out a book for each of her sisters and brother; and two for herself. As for me, well I could have stayed all day... but we were shopping with 3 children who were looking forward to the fountain at Jamison Square.

Jamison Square is the cool hotspot in the Pearl District. The temperature was well on it's way to a high of 105 degrees and the fountain was the place to be.









(Last 3 photos taken by Sarah)

I am beginning to think these two fit together like "two peas in a pod", "peanut butter and jelly", "cheese and crackers"...

Before we headed home for lunch we took a quick trip across the street for "ice cream appetizers" from Cool Moon!

8 - A Morning in Downtown Portland: Part 1

Tour Guides: Sarah, Sue, Ben & Ry
Tourists: Kelly and Carly

Tuesday morning we set out early to beat the heat. Destination: Downtown Portland. Sarah drove us by TIS -The International School so we could see Ben & Ry's school.

Next stop: the Portland Aerial Tram I had been looking forward to riding the tram since we arrived in Portland. I wasn't disappointed. The views were breathtaking! Unfortunately, the heatwave was contibuting to the "smoggy" layer lying low over the city.

Tram from the bottom




View as we ascended to the top


Tram on the way up


Carly
Rylan









Ben



(The 3 individual photos were taken by Sarah)

Waiting...on tippy-toes





View as we descend

7 - Oregon Museum of Science & Industry

Tour Guides: Sarah, Ben & Ry
Tourists: Carly & Kelly

As I browse my pictures from our afternoon at OMSI, I remember being 11 or 12 years old and climbing into the very same space shuttle pictured below. At that time OMSI was in a small building across the parking lot from the Portland Zoo -now called the Oregon Zoo. Now OMSI is located on the east bank of the Willamette River in downtown Portland and covers 219,000 square feet.

Astronauts Ben & Carly



Weather Girl: Caroline Babcock



Making Music



Building Streams in the Watershed Exhibit



Ry finds his own little corner of the water table.



The whole team gets in on building and sailing boats.



"Is it working?"

6 - Oregon Zoo

Tour Guides: Sarah, Sue, Ben & Ry
Tourists: Carly & Kelly

The Oregon Zoo is definitely a "must see" attraction while visiting Portland. There have been so many renovations, improvements, and additions over the years that I hardly recognized it as the same zoo I took the girls to 20 years ago.

Unfortunately Carly's camera battery died within the first exhibit; mine went about 20 minutes later - and I forgot to bring my spare. Sarah was equiped with her brand new camera so we still have photos to commemorate the day. Thanks for sharing Sarah!

We arrived shortly after the gates opened and were home by lunch time. Official high temperature in Portland would reach 102 degrees by afternoon. I was hoping to escape some of the summer heat by traveling north in July. Yet we ended up in Portland during a record breaking heatwave.















All photos taken by Sarah Carter Adams

5 - Lessons Learned from Grampa

Now "Ry" is just about the cutest redheaded, 3-year old I have ever met, and quite the charmer too. He had a summer cold while we were visiting and found himself in need of a tissue.

Ry receives instructions on how to fold his tissue and wipe his nose from Grampa Mike. Very seriously - while standing in the wading pool - he imitates everything his Grampa does, while Gramma looks on. The lesson was so cute, I wished I had used the video instead of stills!






Rylan Carter Adams - Photo by his mom, Sarah Carter Adams

4 - In Search of Ramona...

For our trip I thought it would be fun to listen to some of the Ramona audio books by Beverly Cleary. We thoroughly enjoyed "Ramona the Brave" and "Ramona the Pest" on our way to Portland. So on Sunday we set out to find the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children. My memory is a little sketchy at times, so I spent about 20 minutes circling Laurelhurst Park before I remembered the fountain was in Grant Park (luckily they are very close to each other.) We also forgot to bring a change of clothes with us, so running through this fountain wasn't an option if we wanted to continue exploring Portland that afternoon.
First photo taken by Carly



Once we checked Ramona off our destination list, we drove further East to find the the neighborhood where Carly's mom lived when she and Meme went to elementary school. We found the house we lived in and what used to be the Montessori school they went to... which is now a Head Start Center.

Next stop would be Lloyd Center to hop on the MAX, Portland's Light Rail, to take a trip to downtown Portland. We explored Pioneer Square and the Saturday Market.








Cooling off in Skidmore Fountain...



As the dinner hour was closing in, we headed back to Sarah & Travis' for a backyard BBQ with second (or is it third?) cousins Ben & Ry. The kids beat the heat with a run through the sprinkler.




Last 2 photos taken by Sarah Carter Adams