Day 20: Touring Portland

On Saturday (August 9th) our family decided to tour Portland.  If we were going to drive all the way out there we had to at least see it!  So we hit all the major tourist destinations...

...like the Lego store!

You can't have six brothers without legos on the floor, legos in the couch cushions, legos in your apron pocket--and at least one trip to a lego store.  But I've got to admit, the store was pretty fascinating.  My favorite part was all the building stations, especially the one where you make your own person.  I even found a girl head with long brown hair (me!).

Delie and James

Guess what happened to several peoples' souvenir money?  Just as you cannot have six boys and not go in a Lego store, you can't leave it without buying something, or several somethings.  :)

After leaving the store we picked up Daddy at his conference and drove to ride the Portland air tram.

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, doesn't it?  Some of us were a little nervous about riding such a flimsy-looking thing.

But we all climbed in, gripped the rails (with various degrees of white knuckles)...

...and we're off into the wild blue yonder!

Or at least the rooftops of Portland.

Typical personality picture:  Anna smiling nervously, Delie taking a picture, George taking in the view, and me lunging for a little boy.

But we survived.  And it was fun!  And we're still smiling.  And there is no such thing as starting a sentence with something other than a conjunction.  :)

The view was breathtaking, not only in the oh-so-amazing way, but also in the i-hope-my-little-brother-doesn't-get-blown-off way.

We were looking DOWN at skyscrapers!

Snow on Mount Hood--in August!

A water fountain?  It looks so...upscale big city.

Thomas and Samuel pointing out the sights

John, the experienced metropolitan

And we're down again, at the foot of the skyscrapers.

To celebrate being such good Portlandians (Portlanders?  Portlandese?) Daddy and Mommy treated us to a meal at the Spaghetti Warehouse.  The food was so delicious!

The highlight for me was the bread (I've always been a bread girl, always will be), but the boys' favorite part was the balloon man.  He was very talented and gave the boys a dog, a tractor, a train, and a trolley.

It was still light when we got back to the house so we played another of our daily croquet games.  All the boys have enjoyed the set, but Thomas especially was very good at it, another of his (many) hidden quirks.

Delie took some pictures of Anna...

...and Anna took some of Delie.  They must have liked the black-eyed susans.  :)

This was our last night at B and B Orchards and I realized I still hadn't really explored the farm, so I took a walk through the hazelnut trees.  It was so beautiful, and made me sad to leave it, but after we left we would be going east, and there really is no place like home (especially after you have been away for three weeks).

Although I had loved the trip and made so many memories on it, I was counting the days until Tennessee--only Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, between us and our home state!

Posted by Joy