Travel Log May 31, 2011

Has it already been three days in Portland? It's going by much too quickly and we feel like we still have so much to see.

We are staying in a lovely condo on the River. It has two bedrooms so we are very comfortable and we would be getting decent rest here, but our baby girl has been out of sorts due to some major teething and from bring out of her comfort zone (we think anyway). We are pretty worn out from her broken nights of sleep and the enormous amount of energy it takes to keep her happy during the day. She and I will have to forgo an afternoon of sightseeing tomorrow and have a snuggly nap together instead.

Portland is very cool. We are finally getting our bearings and confirmed what we MUST see. There are still a lot of things on our list.

We spent sunday wandering around the centre of the city. We took in the portland saturday market - ate some very indulgent crepes and breakfast burritos and bought some very portlandia skirts for Violet and I. We decided to take in the oregon zoo in the afternoon. It was just ok. There were a lot of cool exotic animals and it was well organized but it just didn't have a wow factor somehow. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation. Greta slept through most of it though she was pretty impressed with the giraffes when she woke up - so was her big sister. Violet said that was the highlight though she was also very excited about the sickeningly pink elephant with the velcro hands that hug her neck and the grape flavoured cotton candy.

Speaking of cotton candy, Violet has enjoyed many many treats on this trip so far. I think she particularly liked the lunch of smarties on our first day (yes, almost an entire king size box eaten while Greta was recovering from car sickness, sigh, we should pay better attention) and the cherry flavoured jolley rancher slushie at the rose fair. This is a multi week fair that happens in portland each year including several parades and a rose princess. Unfortunately that part comes about a week after we leave. We did take in the memorial day festivities complete with all the expected and unexpected Americana including a parade, cannons, tanks and a flyover. We spent most of our energy (and money) in the fair grounds on rides and games. Violet and Jon rode the ferris wheel and I think they were both pretty excited. Crappy stuffed animals were won so Violet was a very happy girl.

As planned, we are walking a lot in portland. Yesterday we enjoyed about an hour and a half of quiet (ahh) while Violet snuggled into Greta's stroller for a nap and Greta napped happily in the carrier. We certainly weren't rejuvenated from walking our sleeping kids around for 90 minutes but we were relaxed and happy to have time to take in the sights and talk without interruption.

The weather has been hit and miss. As it was raining this morning we decided to do some shopping early in the day. Off to Target we went as we needed a few things we knew we would find there and by all reports, this is a MUST visit store in the US. We weren't really impressed. There were some deals to be had but you had to wade through a lot of crap to find them. We didn't stop there, we big boxed it over to Olive Garden and to Safeway as well.

This afternoon we were back on our feet and checking out the public transport of portland. Violet LOVED the street cars, the MAX light rail and the cable car to Oregon Health and Science University. On our way home we hung out in pioneer courthouse square to let the girls blow off some steam. Greta tried her luck at chasing pigeons and climbing the red brick stairs. Then on to FINALLY try some portland street food. A Taste of India was incredible as was the mexican shrimp platter we got for the girls. We had much more food than we could eat for $18. Oh yes, we will be back. Especially since Greta has lost her mind in the last 2 restaurants we visited - oh yes, we are THAT family.