mom's day out hike: Silver Falls State Park

Mary and I hiked the entire loop of 10 waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park. It was about 9 miles; we started early and were alone for the first half of a beautiful, perfect Oregon summer day...  good hike, good friend, good conversation...

crazy Portland day

Saturday was a really fun and busy day out in our crazy city. We visited the farmers market to stock up, and then headed to Mt. Tabor park for the annual soapbox derby. People make cars and then race them down the steep hills of Mt. Tabor - there were 44 entrants, all of whom raced the course three times. There were prizes for speed as well as various aesthetic qualities. The entire event is run by volunteers and is a total hoot - well worth the visit.

We came home to unload our produce and have lunch, and then headed over to the Multnomah Days Street Fair - music, arts and craft vendors, children's activities - we had a good time and then got too tired for more, and came home.

more climbing

We checked out a new bouldering gym last week - it's south, in Tigard, and is enormous. The kids area is huge and features two slides for coming down the wall. It was pretty fun for Sebastian and Liesl, both of whom seem to be getting more comfortable and improving as climbers.

happy birthday to Steve!

It was Stephen's birthday on Sunday and we had a lovely family weekend together. He has been really overworked all summer long, and has had to work many weekend days, and so the nicest gift was just spending the whole time with each other.  On Saturday we had our usual Forest Park hike followed by the farmers market. We came home and napped, played soccer on the field, watched the Steelers' first preseason game against the Giants, and then had amazingly good fresh salmon for dinner.

 Oh, and we also had a number of lovely little tea parties, with Liesl's china tea set, featuring real cookies and milk and sugar.

On Sunday, we had brunch at Tasty 'n Alder, and then visited the amphitheatre, Rose Garden, and the Japanese Garden in Washington Park. 

 

 The food adventures continued, with a chocolate cream tartlet and chocolate cupcake at Baker & Spice

and then dinner at Ken's Artisan Pizza.

Post-prandial coma/children's play at Laurelhurst Park.

Arcadia Beach

The children and I escaped Portland on Friday to visit Arcadia Beach on the coast. It was gorgeous - blue skies, perfect temperature - a terrific summer adventure.