Portland, Oregon
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Well, we did a crazy thing today. We realized the kids have been so great in the car with long boring drives and hot dusty hikes to see rocks, rocks, and more rocks, that they deserved a day off. So, we left them alone in the hotel room for a day. Yup! Brought them up some brunch from the hotel lobby, locked the door, and the parental units headed off on the light rail into Portland. The parents had a great day of browsing through Powell's Books (largest independent bookstore still around) and the Museum of Contemporary Craft, enjoying the Classical Chinese Garden, strolling through the historic Pearl District, walking through art galleries, gazing at architecture, and lunching on Greek food while sitting on the brickwork in Bryant Park. We got back to the hotel and amazingly, the kids were still alive!! They had slept in, watched TV, played their DS's, Facebooked, and were amazingly quiet and content when we returned. What a great idea! We all went to the pool, got pizza for dinner and strolled the walking path next to the Columbia River, gazing at the state of Washington on the other side of the water, where we will spend the next week before returning to Oregon for a stretch along the coast.
We have now been on the road for 2 weeks and driven over 3000 miles. Wow.
