The Big Finale

The big Portland finale, our very last full day in Portland. Un-
believable. Has it really been 4 full weeks? Where did they go? Thank goodness I took the time to blog every day or I would honestly have no idea. Another gorgeous day. 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect bike riding weather. This time a new trail. Well another part of the same trail. The Springwater trail, from Sellwood towards Gresham. I have no idea where we were when we turned around. I do know that the trail was picked for this cool bridge and for that reason only.

Without a loop or logical turn around point, we just thought we would go until someone complained they were tired. Romney was the first to go today. He pooped out right before a big road so we had him keep going until that point. Good thing, since there was a food cart pod on the corner. We stopped for some hoop action (in a giant high top shoe, of course) and snacks for the 3 men I travel with. All fueled up and ready for the ride back, those boys flew back to the car (It helped that the way back was all downhill. I had wondered why I felt like I was working MUCH harder than I thought I should be. The trail had looked flat enough, but I guess it had some slope to it.)


I am without a helmet and found this lovely rabbit complete with ears during a bathroom break. If only it had fit a little better, it may have had to come home with me. Sexy, no? But the very best part of my day came when we finally located and enjoyed the 24 hour Church of Elvis, aka the world's first 24 hour coin operated art instillation. The boys and I had looked before, but had an old address and couldn't find it. This time sweet, sweet success finding the place of worship. We brought our handful of quarters and plugged them in one at a time to either get a fortune, a horoscope, a test of our Elvis knowledge (sort of), or a window full of Barbie's all working out in unison. I would have cried if we got home without getting a chance to experience the full instillation. (See video below)



After a ride, food, bathroom breaks all our needs had been met, and we still had some time left over to see what was left on our list to be seen. We took Bill back to Food Fight! and Herbivore to buy a present for my hardworking sister who has kindly been taking care of our home for the past month. Played in a cool park across the street from the strip mall. Then headed to the stop Romney had been looking forward to, another Fairley's soda fountain visit. Only once we got there, we saw they closed at 3 p.m. Really, on a Saturday? Romney burst into tears. 10 minutes later he was still unconsolable, telling us he had been even dreaming of going to the soda fountain and couldn't fall asleep last night because he was too excited. Now I am a parent who in theory fully believes in the importance of children being allowed to experience negative emotions so they can learn how to handle them with love and support of grown-ups before not knowing what to do with those unpleasant feelings when they themselves are grown-ups.

But I caved! Hard core! I googled soda fountains in Portland and found another one downtown called Blue Plate. Part soda fountain/ part diner with not as much genuine old school charm. Romney was content however, because they allowed him to design his own shake. He chose a banana, strawberry, orange creamsicle, lemon concoction. (I did talk him into leaving out the butterscotch he also wanted to add--blech!)

Another highlight of my day- highlights. I have never paid anyone to put the blonde in my hair. Me, a $10 box of 1970's regulation bleaching goodness and a pair of gloves and I consider myself done. (I probably shouldn't publicize my cheapness so blatantly. The truth is often not pretty.) I needed to have the dead ends whacked off my hair even before we left Utah. For the past week, it has been in braids and buns and other configurations that hide the fact that the ends of my hair more closely resemble horse food than human hair. I couldn't take another day of it and just bit the bullet and let BIshops take a whack at it. They got it so right. My hair color looks amazing. Almost like God and or the sun gave me these beautiful natural looking summer highlights (As if!) Bill paid my bill so I wouldn't freak out when I saw the total. He's cool like that. (Plus, he's the one who really has to look at me.) Now I am avoiding packing by blogging to my heart's content. I think I better not procrastinate another minute and throw some stuff in bags or we will never get to San Francisco. See ya' there.

Vegan Day

Today is the official start of "Try Vegan Week-- Portland". It runs through next Saturday and concludes with a Vegan Prom, 1920's theme. (Ugh, I am leaving a week too early. I keep threatening to make Bill come back up with me and take me to the V.P.) It seems apropos that today was the day we FINALLY made it to the Vegan Strip Mall. This is much less exciting than it could be given the name. Vegans stripping in a mall sounds much more risque than the grocery store, tattoo (though, I am still ignorant to why it would matter that it was "vegan") parlor, clothing store and bakery all in a row for your shopping convenience. First stop, Food Fight! grocery store. I was interested in what kinds of things they might carry I had not seen elsewhere before. For example: Soy Jerky, many flavors, who knew? I bought water and B12 infused gum (Again, who knew?) The boys bought the pins pictured. (Minus the banned books one, I just love that one and threw it in the photo.)

After our Vegan shopping trip, we did some thrift store hunting. Goodwill has a much better selection than the D.I. The boys were very sad I would not let them buy the GameCube for $10, or the giant water guns for $8, but I did offer to buy them drinking glasses in 70's colors adorned with mushrooms and frogs. They carried them around for a while, before deciding they didn't want to have to get them home to SLC. We drove home, picked up Bill and headed downtown for a walking tour of several city fountains. I keep stumbling across things to do and just when I think I am fresh out of ideas of new things to see, someone will give me a tip or I will read something on the internet and discover another gem in this town. I wasn't that excited about this "fountain tour", but it ended up being very, very cool.

First stop, the Ira Keller Fountain between 2nd and 3rd and Market Street. It is like a giant urban system of waterfalls. Occupied by people in everything from bikinis, to fully dressed, from Gerber babies to AARP members, it was like another party in the middle of the city. 20 somethings with dreadlocks (male and female) delighted in shooting water from the top of the "falls" onto the people at the bottom of the "falls" causing an impromptu water fight among strangers.

Further down our Urban trail, we came across 4 other fountains of differing size and appeal. They all were fun to climb and make wishes in making for a fun family evening walk before dinner. Romney, being our monkey, accidentally fell into the smallest of the fountains and had one squeaky, leaky shoe for the walk back.

Once you have one wet shoe, why not jump in with both to make two wet shoes. And then since your shoes and socks are wet, you might as well get into the water up to your thighs. And then since your shorts are wet. . . I saw where this was going and made him take off his shirt and just get in to play already! I wanted him to have at least one dry piece of clothing for our dinner out. He ran, jumped, skipped and kicked water all over that fountain with a giant grin. In the spirit of Vegan Week, we hit up a delicious all vegan restaurant for dinner. I am going to miss the food options I have here. I feel like I have eaten my way through this city. While I might miss the food, I am sure my butt will not! Only one more day to adventure here, before moving on down the road.

Art Freaks and Bike Geeks

Another Bill day off, and you know what that means. Oh yeah, it's biking time. (Not to be confused with Hammer time, even though I have been known to wear MC Hammer pants while biking). The boys wanted to do the same trail to downtown that we did last ride. Floating walkways have a certain appeal. But this time, we did not go on a Saturday, which meant no Saturday Market was in progress, which in turn meant that the crowds along the west bank Esplanade were "bike-able". Instead of turning around and going back the way we came, we biked the full circle back down to Hawthorne bridge and rode the trail across back to the OMSI. Not that much different, but a a little something. We didn't have to deal with Market crowds on our trail, but we did have about 50 Velomobiles to contend with. They weren't the most polite of cyclists we've encountered, but it is totally cool we got to see each and every one as they whizzed by us. Romney is ready to trade in his mountain bike to get one. *Wish the credit for this photo went to me, it is gorgeous, but alas I stole it from the bikeportland.org website.

We biked so we get donuts, right? At least that is what William and Romney asked at the end of our morning ride. We had donuts yesterday, but I wouldn't let the kids get the donuts they have been dying to buy to take to their friends-- the Texass, big ass donut. (You are so welcome, Emily). But since we have outlawed any Voodoo visits on weekends (Oh, the lines!) that means today had to be our FINAL Voodoo moment, the moment they have been waiting for. Have you ever seen a donut that big? Can you imagine the sugar rush that came with it?

Walking it off was the only solution we could come up with, and headed to the Monthly Arts on Alberta. They shut down Alberta Street in the NE after 5 p.m. and vendors set up booths along both sides of the street for blogs. Lots of art work, lots of crafty stuff, lots of food, lots of music and a lot of wonderful, wonderful freaks! I mean this is the place to see and be seen. I wish I had known, I was woefully underdressed for the occasion. Check out these two, and you will know why I felt that way in my plain black skirt and flip flops. I could have at least come up with some kind of funky hair style.

A matte black car parked on the side of the street served as an open canvas to passers by to leave an inter-
pretation of what they felt their "community" had to offer. There were peace signs and sprouting vines already carefully drawn on with chalk. Then there were my boys who felt that the NE side had to offer- yup, you know it- donuts. William drew a voodoo doll and Romney drew a Texass. (We do love our sweets!)

Nothing screams "ART" like a hula dancer and a giant stuffed talking parrot. My favorite vendor (remember I have an odd sense of humor)-- the junk dealer whose booth looked like all the stuff that people holding a yard sale have left over and donate to Goodwill because no one else will take it off their hands. Well, Yard Sale people, that is no longer necessary as this man is willing to take anything. There was a dixie cup full of bees wax, a Dee-lite cassette tape, compass lead, VHS home video tapes, broken sunglasses and filthy (as in dirt, not dirty) tiny stuffed key chains. A virtual trash can of goodies!

Then there was the music. Oh, the music! It was anything from a DJ spinning mixed up Michael Jackson, to a horn player, to bucket drum players, to a 7 year old playing bongos wearing sunglasses, singing tribal lyrics with a sign saying he is saving up his busker $ to buy a new pair of drums. (Who walks past that and doesn't put a buck in his hat?) Then there was my friend the drummer and his side kick (who didn't make the photo) the 50 year old belly-dancer. Drum set and belly dancing- a pair I never would have put together, but liked what I saw.


I love Salt Lake City. I love our home. I love being close to outdoor activities and walking distance to all things downtown. However, I miss color. Vibrant, wonderful diversity. In people, in ideas, in opinions, in hobbies, in skin tones and even in parties. When there are people naked except for body paint in the street fairs of Salt Lake, I will know I have found my perfect place. (That and the temperature never dips below freezing, and there is never any pollution inversion, and the sun shines every day, I mean then I will know I have found my perfect place.)

Best Portland Adventure Yet!

This very lovely lady holding her beautiful baby boy asked me today "Are we going to make your blog?" How could I not blog about the very best thing we have done in Portland on the entire trip? So, yes, dear Emily. You definitely made the blog!


One of our inspirations for choosing Portland for our destination this summer is a family that is incredibly special to us. Not "special" in that Dana Carvey, SNL Church Lady skit kind of a way. But rather the "so close to our hearts that we miss them when we don't see them every day" kind of a way. So you can imagine how much we have missed them, not seeing them for 26 days in a row. Lucky for us, that streak ended tonight when we were invited over to share some wonderful food and conversation with the Day family.

Having heard so much about this amazing family from my friend, I felt like I already knew all the people in residence. They felt more like old friends than new acquaintances as we enjoyed their hospitality. I am sure Emily's sweet mama could not possibly realize what a treat it was to eat home cooked food that we didn't have to make ourselves after eating 1-2 meals out every single day for the past month, or eating spaghetti when we eat in. Who knew a garden burger could be such a treat?

Our contri-
bution to the meal, sugar, of course. William and Romney were dying to take Quinn and Avery to Voodoo Donuts with them for the full donut eating experience, but there was no way to squeeze that in with their busy schedule and our impending departure. "If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain." In this case, Voodoo Donuts came to them. We brought a Vegan dozen to let everyone sample what they wished. It served as a good bribe to get those 5 boys to hold still long enough to get a picture of all the kiddos together anyway.

I should also warn everyone out there in Inter-
netville, that if you invite the Barbers over for a couple of hours, be ready to spend a good 5 entertaining them, because we will be having so much fun you won't ever get us to leave. But with great friends and food and wonderfully interesting conversation (and the worlds' current cutest almost 2 month old), who can blame us.

Trying Out Tryon

Yesterday during a break in our action we had an hour to spend and Bill suggested we tryout Tryon State Park. The only state park within city limits in Oregon. And a measly 10 minutes from our Portland home. I can't believe it took us so long to find this gem.

The paths are wonderful with wood bridges that traverse the creek that runs through the park. We walked for the entire hour and touched maybe a tenth of what is available there. The boys loved hiding in rotted out tree stumps and climbing on the uprooted trees that lie like upturned giants off the path. It was so wonderful, we had to go back and spend some more time there today.

Bill worked today, and the boys and I hadn't planned anything yet, and I really needed a little walking time, so we headed to Tryon for a couple of hours again today. We spent two hours this time exploring new trails and playing new games. My favorite game was Mama troll vs. Trolls in training.


Mama Troll is teaching her kidlet trolls how to police a bridge by having them learn riddles to ask. I goggled a page of kid riddles and the boys had to solve them before they could cross. It added some humor to our hike and made getting to bridges pretty exciting. Lots of hints were given and all trolls past the tests.

No trip to a forest would be complete without fighting imaginary foes who threaten the safety of children hiking through it's lush green battlefield. The boys love pretending they are doing battle with goblins and monsters and who knows what else. Sometimes they turn on each other, but only when Mama Troll asks them to pose for a picture.


2 hours in Tryon was enough to wear out my already worn out trolls in training. Plus, they were to excited about the next phase of our day to concentrate on anything else any longer. When good friends and donuts are on the horizon, nothing else seems to compare. Not even an exciting duel with a tree.

Date Night

24/7 of together-
ness for the past 26 days straight is a lot of together-
ness. Not for Bill and I, we enjoy being together as much as humanly possible. But for two brothers 4 years apart in age and lightyears away from each other in personality, it is a bit much at the moment. Yesterday it came to a crescendo as they would not stop poking at each other, both physically and verbally. Instead of going to my first response of total annoyance and irritation and policing, I just looked at them and asked them if they needed a break from one another for a few hours. William looked sheepishly at Romney and said "Romney, NO OFFENSE, but I am kind of sick of you." Romney looked William solidly in the eye and replied "It's OK, I am sick of you too." And right there on the spot Bill and I promised them a "date night" alone. William would go see Harry Potter with Bill and Romney could choose something for the two of us to do alone during the movie. The promise of some alone time was all it took to squelch any more bickering for the day. After our blissful berry picking experience we took a family walk through Tryon State Park (we do it again tomorrow, too.) and then dropped William and Bill at the movie. Romney wanted to go shopping at a toy store and a book store as his date. We found a wonderful toy store full of all kinds of Japanese goodness. Each and every one of Romney's favorite Japanese characters were available for purchase in some form or another and he was in heaven for a solid 30 minutes just looking around chatting up the shop owner. After Japanese toy window shopping we went to a satellite location of Powell's books on a YOTSUBA hunt. Romney and William giggle out loud when they read this Manga series and we found a volume Romney had not yet read used and bought it up. After that we headed to Best Buy to play Wii demo games and musical instruments. Romney's favorite to try out is undoubtably the drums. He didn't know his mom could play some basic beats and had fun with me teaching him some basic counts to work out.

When Bill and William finished the movie, Romney had to take William back to the toy store he had found. There he melted his Daddy's heart when he showed him the Yoshi pillow pet he adored. "But it's like $75!" Romney cried. It was closer to $23, but as far as Romney was concerned (since he is virtually broke after buying every stuffie in town) it may as well have been $75. Bill surprised him and bought it for him. Romney's face lit up when he realized what was happening. When a child loves his stuffies like real animals, and cuddles anything with plush like it is a life preserver and he is on a sinking boat, and has a face as sweet as Romney's, it is virtually impossible to deny him such pleasure. I mean, could you say no to this?

Berry Bliss

Roman-
ticizing vignettes in my head about how wonderful and idyllic a new venture might be is my specialty. Sometimes it pans out as visualized more often than not the reality doesn't quite match up with my fantasy. At the berry, oops, I mean very beginning of planning our Oregon trip, I had this envisage in my mind of the boys holding hands and skipping down green, perfectly straight rows as they pick a plethora of ripe berries on a farm under a blue sky with white fluffy clouds. A pretty specific image that I was sure would never in a million years actually happen.

I think I need to play the lottery very soon, because the chances of winning the 111 million (that is the pot at the moment) jackpot and my dream actually coming true have about the same odds, and today I feel like I won the Mama lottery. Blue skies- check. White fluffy clouds- check. Farm with straight green rows- check and check. Boys blissfully, delightedly, and cooperatively picking berries- check, check and check! They even skipped. (Well, Romney did anyway). All that was missing was the holding hands, and that omission I am going to chalk up to the fact that my little daydream forgot that they would be holding some kind of container to collect the berries (other than their mouths).


Never have I seen two boys quite as delighted to roam through the fields as these two. They would squeal with joy over every single ripe berry that they plucked from the vine and plopped into their white bucket. Carefully examining each specimen before declaring it worthy of their efforts. I wish I could have stayed in those moments for even longer. There was something so innocent and sweet about their glee and contentment. No fancy rides or flashy toys, just a gorgeous day, sweet berry juice dripping from their fingers and smiles as wide as their faces.

Our berry haul weighed in at 5.78 pounds (almost the weight of both boys when they were born) and cost around $10. The best $10 I have spent the whole trip. After paying for our berries and stashing them in the car, I had to let them sample the chocolate raspberry shakes they serve in the barn. William thought it was so delectable his eyes rolled back into his head. (Luckily they fell back into place after the "AHHHHHH...." sound of the first sip.)

We brought our sweet berries home to share with Bill our office minion. Sweet berries and sweet memories- a perfect way to spend an Oregon morning.

Falling in Love with Hiking in Oregon

Like Elvis sang, "I can't help falling in love with hiking in Oregon." Ok, maybe I got the lyrics a little bit wrong, but I am known for being good at that. The truth is it is gorgeous in the mountains here. (Get it "Gorge"ous, Columbia River Gorge?) And that is just where we hiked today. We picked this hike for two reasons. First, it is close and we didn't want to wake up early on Bill's day off. Second, the kids really wanted to do a hike behind a waterfall and this hike included that opportunity. This time we headed west of Multnomah Falls and parked at the Horsetail Falls trail head. Our first big payoff was only about a 1/2 mile up the trail where we landed at Ponytail Falls. This is the fall that the trail runs behind. The boys thought this was amazingly cool, and it was. We "oohhhed" and "aahhhed" for a few minutes and kept hiking up another mile to Oneonta Falls. Amazingly, it doesn't feel like "seen one falls, seen them all" as they are all so stunning and unique. Another few minutes to take it all in and then another mile up we topped off at Triple Falls.


We stopped, ate lunch, hiked across the log bridge, then hiked over to a wonderful viewpoint that gave us a stunning panorama of all three falls and the bridge in the background. It was overcast today, but didn't rain. It could not have been more than 70 degrees, but because of the humid air, we all came back to the car drenched in sweat that just wouldn't evaporate. It is odd to not feel hot, but be that sweaty. The whole shibang was about 5 miles, just about the same length as our Multnomah Falls loop, but with only 1/2 the elevation gain, it seemed much more enjoyable- still working, but with some areas of flat as a respite from the climbing. On the other loop, the uphill never took a break from kicking our rear ends. All said and done, it was a wonderful way to spend a good chunk of our day, get a little exercise and see some of the most beautiful vistas I have ever experienced.

Organ in Oregon (Thanks For The Memories)

Question: What is the absolute coolest thing you ever brought in for show and tell? I know my answer. My own personal copy of the Lawrence Welk cast book. Filled with color photos and factoids about each and every talented member of that hip and happening son of German immigrants' television program. Yup, that is right. I am just cool like that. It may have been a sign that I was spending entirely too much time with my grandparents.

What does that little vignette illustrating my utter hipness have to do with tonight?

Oaks Park Roller Rink, take two. What a wonderful treat. Sunday evening live organ music session. It did not disappoint. And I knew almost all the songs. (Thank you, Mr. Welk!) Working the organ in a spectacular fashion was an older gentleman with a caffeine buzz going. Dancing along to the rolling organ, an octogenarian "cutting a rug", as all us young whipper snappers call "dancing" these days. Kicking my butt and making me pray to the powers that be that I am that cool enough to pull this off when I reach their age- the set of at least 5 older ladies wearing short, short skating skirts, with skating tights and dancing skates, showing off their legs and killing it on the rink. As Bob Hope would say (And yes, they played this song tonight. And yes, I watched him with my grandparents, too. But no, I did not have any books dedicated to his television specials.), Thank you, Mr. Organ Player, Mr. Sideline Dancer, and Inspiring Skating Women who are older than me, for the memories.

Downtime

After postponing our Silver Creek State Park hike for the Peculi-
ariums' weird vehicles contest, and being somewhat un-
impressed with the event, we came home for lunch and a little downtime. William read an entire book and Romney worked for an hour painting a dragon. These are the kinds of things we do when we aren't running all over town exploring, eating donuts and finding outdoor ways to work them off.

The Portland Peculiarium (And You Call Yourself "Weird")

"We Promise Nothing!" No kidding, Peculi-
arium, Portland, OR. Well, I still feel cheated. Gipped. Let down. For two weeks I have had your "peculiar vehicles contest" on my calendar. I have saved a visit to your store front for today to enjoy both your weirdness and the oddness and creativity of others, only to see one car and two bicycles. No, I don't blame you, Peculiarim. I blame the residents of the town who let down this wandering soul. Really, two bicycles is all you could come up with. And you call yourself "Weird". Even at that, those bicycles were not even decorated. Really people riding them, who put on silly glasses and scarves. That is really all the creativity you could muster for this special event? I don't say this lightly, since I was really looking forward to seeing things that did not fall into this category, but I could have done better.


There was one vehicle there that did not fall into the "I could have done better" category. It was cool and all, but really, just one. I have seen more parked along Hawthorne on the SE side. Where were all those freaks when the Peculiarium needed them? (Probably waiting in line to eat at Slappycakes.) Oh well. Had I known, I would have donned a scarf, silly glasses and added a mustache to take home the $250 grand prize money that was offered up.


So, maybe the contest was a let down. The store was still fun. Romney was greeted by shaking the hand of the 13 foot (give or take) Sasquatch. Next to the Sasquatch were the chocolate covered insects and the hot and spicy larvae. Which was next to the "Slut Soup" ramen noodles (cheap, easy and fast), which was next to the alien autopsy.


Anyway, you get the picture. William was a big fan of the laser guns, the candy coated bugs and edible "body parts". Honorable mention goes to the poisonous lizard escaping display as well as the very cool giant kaleidoscope.



So maybe, it wasn't worth postponing our waterfall hike we had thought of doing today. And maybe the contest was a total let down. But, it isn't every day that you get to see a Howdy Doody doll, complete with mustache disguise, hanging from the wall donning a jailbird striped suit, ready to be electrocuted.

Pedal Power

Ahhh... sweet, sweet sunshine. An entire day of no rain and no work meant the bikes came out to play with us today. Maybe we can't bike out our front door, and maybe paved trails to ride off of the street aren't as easy to come by as we had imagined in the city that prides its self on it bike-ability, and maybe July isn't as dry of a month in Portland as we had previously envisioned. No problem, we're flexible. We're patient. We know when not to procrastinate and carpe diem. And that is what we did.


Bikes out, helmets on, ready, steady, go. From Oaks Park to Downtown Saturday Market for lunch and back along the banks of the Willamette River. Using the Benson Bubblers for water stops (because they are so much more fun than a boring old camelback) and riding along the floating walkway (Romney thought it was pretty awesome to be riding on top of the actual river) is not a bad way to spend a sunny Saturday. Watching the Steel Bridge (along with it's bike/ped path) rise to let a boat through was a major highlight for the boys. We finished at 13 miles. Pretty good for little legs.


Romney brought along some special visitors with him, by zipping up 3 of his tiny "stuffies" into the pockets of his shorts so they could go on a bike ride, too. He was a little nervous when he took them with him on the bus into downtown later that evening. He had read signs inside the bus on earlier rides that said animals must be crated. I assured him that if he zipped his pockets tight, that would be almost the same thing.

The Science of Spinny Rides

What a wild ride the past two days have been. 5 days off in a row for Bill equals finally some feels-like-an-actual-vacation-time. Bill is catching up on the stuff he feels he "missed-out" on. Plus, we are finally cashing in all those let's-save-them-until-Dad-has-time-to-do-them-with-us activities that have been piling up. Not to mention all the fun we saved for those lets-wait-until-the-weather-gets-better days. (Now that my right pinky is exhausted from typing all those hyphens, let's get to it already.) OMSI was such a giant hit the first go round, Bill wanted to see it for himself. This time we opened and closed the place down with only a dinner break in-between. That equalled 9 hours of OMSI entertainment. Too cheap to spring for the submarine tour for myself and the kids, we skipped it last time. Bill is not that cheap and he enjoys a good submarine, so that was first on the agenda. Taking Bill to see all the killer video games was next and then we explored the rest. This time, we figured out there was an entire wing separated from the front desk area that we had not seen. Smarties that we are, we didn't miss it the second go round. Let it suffice to say lots of interesting science and engineering facts were learned. (AGAIN.)

Now that we feel more educated, we thought we would spin some of those brain cells right on out of our heads, by exploring Oaks Park. Oaks Park is an amusement park/overgrown fair full of spinning rides, plastic blow-up junk and overstuffed stuffed animals one can win. It is charming and run-down all at the same time, but for $14 per person to have a treat/ play games and have unlimited access to nauseous making thrill rides isn't a bargain, I don't know what is. William the brave wanted to ride this little twirly-migig first. Because he has the coolest mom on the entire planet, I agreed to ride with him and help he swing it upside down. We rode, we twirled, we went upside down. He loved it. I felt old when my head started to pound after our turn.

Romney's favorite ride of the day- another spinning extra-
vaganza. Bill and I rode once before wanting to vomit, the boys rode at least 10 times. Nothing like easily losing your equilibrium to make you feel like you are one foot in the grave. I used to love this kind of stuff.


And this kind of stuff. But now even looking at them spinning while waving to my child is almost enough to make me need to sit and put my head down. (Almost, I said.)


Romney, as mentioned in a prior post, was ruined by Bill and I when we cajoled him into riding a pretty intense roller coaster a couple of years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia. An old favorite of both of ours. I remember thinking it was LAME in the scary department as a teen. I felt bad when Romney was screaming "I'm hate this! I'm going to die!" while riding it after promising him it wasn't as bad as it looked. Now he won't get on ANYTHING with out freaking out first. We are trying to ease him back into it by having him pick a ride that he thinks looks scary, but not too scary and then riding it to build his confidence back up. This was the ride he picked today. It had height. It had speed (NOT, but Romney thought it looked like it would.) It had a Mom and a Dad who held onto him the whole ride. He wanted to do it again at the end of the day, but someone (not me or Bill) had gotten sick on it and it was being hosed down when we tried.

Romney pre-rewarded himself for his bravery by winning this little duck who then got to take the ferris wheel ride with all of us. He felt confident he could conquer the "wheel of death in the sky" once he proved he was strong enough to hit the bell with the giant hammer. Thank goodness he rang the bell or the "you-can-do-it" conversation encouraging him to ride the freakin' ferris wheel may still be going on.

Conquering a challenge as big as the ferris wheel deserved a post-reward reward. Ice cream and cotton candy (included in the price of admission) were big hits with the three boys. Plus, what trip to an overgrown fair would be complete without the sampling of some type of unhealthy tastiness. Another plus, it gives you a reason to feel like you want to upchuck. (Wow, I am going to need a Thesaurus soon when I run out of ways to say that particular phrase, and it seems like it keeps coming up--pun, indeed, intended.)


William's favorite spinning ride, was the Disko. Obviously, he was able to talk me into riding it by virtue of it's name alone. Bill also was up for this one (for at least half of it, anyway) and Romney was happy to keep eating his cotton candy on the bench in front of it waving to us with his sticky, yellow fingers. Fabulously fun and nausea inducing (both the ride and the grody waving fingers.)


It was dinner time, and I needed to get some solid food before passing out. With nothing appropriate available at the amusement park, we took off grabbed some delicious and healthy (enough) grub to calm our queazy tummies and stumbled upon Andy and Bax's surplus store. I had this placed marked to visit in my Zinester's guide to Portland, and since we were there and it was the one day per week they stay open that late, it seemed like fate (and a nice respite from Oaks Park for just a minute longer). William and Romney have spent the past three weeks wrestling with one another which goes from wild giggles to upset tears in no time flat. I have been warning them over and over about the perils of brother wrestling, but they don't seem listen or remember when the tears stop and an hour passes because they inevitably start again. (Trust me, it has been a really fun pattern this month.) We found these Mexican Wrestler masks in a bin (because of course they sell these at the local armed forces surplus store, right.) and I made them put them on and pretend to wrestle for a photo in the middle of the store as punishment for having to referee so many matches this summer.

This handsome dude greets you when you walk in and if I were taller I would have succeeded in giving him a cheek kiss. Bill gets jealous though, so I have to keep this kind of wolf chasing behavior in check. We poked around and enjoyed trying on every silly hat, funky sunglasses, ugly footwear in the joint and headed back to the park for the best part of the day.


The old fashioned roller skating rink. This place was sheer perfection. The rink was wood and imma-
culately kept and smooth and well oiled as a baby's butt. There were fast, slow and backwards lanes. All of which were marked by a neon sign from the ceiling with arrows pointing to each. The DJ would announce the type of skate (couples, all, backwards, etc) the next song would be and a staff member actually went to the giant board on the wall and changed it manually by lighting up the correct "skate". There was a beginner backwards skate, and an advanced backwards skate, a goodnight skate, a trio skate, the list was seemingly endless. My beginner skater, Romney had 3 special areas to practice on before hitting the big rink. One to practice turns, one for tricks and one for just plain staying upright. The pro shop was amazing, the staff was incredible and present both on and off the rink. There was a giant organ in a glass covered room with the organ pipes that lived on a platform suspended from the ceiling over the rink itself. I think we will be going back on Sunday night when they have live organ music to skate to. We skated past 9 p.m. and then let the boys ride their favorite rides one more time before arrive home, exhausted, happy, and a little dizzy well after ten. Another day of opening and closing the joint down.