I tried the delicious Rocket sandwich. We then walked a little further to try some donuts at Blue Star Donuts. We barely made it before the shop closed so we had slim pickings, but we split a variety of flavors and thought we'd better return a different time when the donuts would be fresh to give the place a second chance.
The kids' main desire on vacation is always to swim, swim, swim. So the hotel pool saw a lot of us on this trip.
Sandy took Kendrick into the hot tub and the other kids played Marco Polo in the big pool.
Ivy cried in my lap every time anyone splashed.
On our first full day, we drove out to the Wooden Tree Tulip Festival. The drive there was beautiful and the area was just gorgeous.
The colorful fields begged to be explored, however, the mud was something else.
We managed to tromp through in our boots and the kids each posed in front of their favorite color of tulip.
Kendrick's favorites were the "green" ones.
Ivy stayed warm in the cool weather in her bear-suit. Though, white probably wasn't the best choice in all the mud. Especially as we drug her stroller through deep ruts of the stuff.
On the viewing balcony.
We found a pink tractor.
Besides tulip fields, Wooden Shoe was full of other activities for the kids, including tractor rides,
high jumping,
tire horses for Kendrick,
pony rides,
and car races.
Basically, it was a morning of fun for everyone.
We found an Ivy street on our drive back, and the kids had more time at the hotel pool before we were ready for more adventures.
We took the train into downtown Portland for the evening and checked out the food trucks for some dinner.
A short walk later, we browsed books at the famous Powell's bookstore.
We spent quite a bit of time here and I soaked up every second of it. I especially loved how excited my kids got over the books. It's hard for me to say no to them begging for a good book to read.
After another train ride back, we stopped at a store to buy some treats for a late-night hotel game-night.
Our final day in Portland, we checked out the OMSI science museum.
The older kids got caught up in the chemistry lab and I followed them around as they performed their experiments.
The view from the chemistry lab wasn't bad, as we were right on the river, and the optical illusion mirrors made Ivy's head ginormous.
We couldn't leave Portland without visiting a huge gaming store with Aunt Sandy.
Rows and rows of fun at Guardian Games. We searched for rare games and checked out all the specialty items.
Our drive home included Lydia puking all over Sandy's I-pad and denying it, followed by a lunch at Olive Garden. Somehow those two things don't seem like they should go together, but somehow we made it work.
Exploring Portland with Sandy was fun and the kids did great. It was a great mini-vacay. Next time we need to try voo-doo donuts!
