The kids started the day with a little taste of home as they spied the JellyBelly touring RV and convinced the driver to give them free candy. Our first stop: the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Greg was skeptical about this stop and yet he found himself strangely transfixed with the process of slicing up those huge blocks of cheese. And I guess he was then further transported by the experience of sampling every type of cheese available at the factory, because he turned to me and said "I know what you should name the blog for today." And so I did - I suppose that he now feels that he has made his contribution to this blog for the week. I told the kids that I would not buy them cheese at the gift shop since we had a block of Tillamook cheese in the RV. They never cared about cheese before, but for the rest of the day Dane and Drake asked non-stop for more of that "medium cheddar" (clearly pronounced to make sure I understood that they didn't want just regular old cheese). Next stop: Oregon City for the "End of the Oregon Trail" museum - interesting, educational, hands-on displays (nicely making up for yesterday). Since 90% of the kid's pioneer information comes from Primary songs, I think that it was good for them to realize how many thousands of pioneers settled all over the West. Next stop: Multnomah Falls (second tallest year-round waterfall in the US). The drive to get there followed the Columbia River Gorge, which was stunning. And of course, despite the fact that we had neither tennis shoes nor water bottles with us, we trekked straight up the mountain to peer over the edge (2.5 miles total). I got a little altophobic and didn't want to stand by the edge - Greg thinks I am neurotic. At the top, Dane fell out of a tree while playing in the river and disturbed a wasps' nest. He and Drake both got stung, but only once each so they were lucky. Bet you have never heard of Mill Ends Park in Portland - a most unusual site that Greg found out about and the kids made a must-see. It did not disappoint. Downtown Portland was really beautiful along the river, with bike trails and huge spraying fountains - which of course the kids ran through and got totally soaked even though it was 8PM. But the car was close by; it was our first time detaching our mobile unit from the mother ship and our re-docking was successful.
Soooo happy to hear the detach and redocking were successful. Dagny and I laughed after you guys left that as Greg hooked up the car he was asking himself "what am I doing." Glad you took it. Glad it is working out. Where do we get some of the "mild cheddar."
ReplyDeleteKeep it coming.. we LOVE checking in each morning.
Dad