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Sunday Parkways

Portland has an awesome event once a month in the summer called Sunday Parkways, where they close down a big loop of streets (8-10 miles) to all car traffic for five hours on Sunday morning and afternoon. The route usually winds through 3 or 4 parks, where you can find food carts, live music, games, and other entertainment. Thousands upon thousands [update: 28,000+ according to the city] of bikes, pedestrians, roller bladers, and skateboarders come out to take part in the fun.

The event rotates around to different neighborhoods, and this month it was in NE Portland, which makes it easily reachable from our home across the river in Vancouver. We loaded up some water bottles (90 degree temperatures forecast) and Everett’s balance bike into the cargo bike, slathered on the sunscreen, then headed across the bridge. We had a great time cruising around and playing in the parks. Everett rode his bike a little bit, but I had to stop him after a while because there was so much bike traffic that it was a little nerve-wracking watching him veering back and forth across the road, or trying to catch up when he decided to sprint.

"Let me out! I see an ice cream cart!"

Cooling down with some shave ice has the added benefit of turning your tongue colors.

 

Posted in Bicycles, Family.

Pub Quizzing

For the last few years I’ve been spending Tuesday nights down at a local watering hole, playing trivia against other like-minded nerds. My team — their name to remain unmentioned on this family blog — has captured the first place season trophy for the last two seasons and I’ve brought home countless beer and booze t-shirts as prizes.

Because Everett is a pretty smart kid, he’s intrigued by this and will occasionally ask us to give him a quiz just like he knows his Dada does. We oblige by trading questions back and forth with him about state capitols, seasons, trains, animals, or whatever else comes to mind. He loves asking the questions almost as much as he does answering them.

This weekend, though, he finally got to go to a real, organized pub quiz and play with us! Well, it wasn’t technically a pub quiz because it was in a pizza place, but still the same idea. The questions ran a little too pop culture for someone who’s only seen a a few hours of TV in his life, but he knew a couple of answers to other questions. There was also a dance round (don’t ask), and Everett’s skill and enthusiasm in that earned us an extra five points, which was enough to put us one point up on the second place team by the end. Such a close finish!

Ready to write down our answers.

Thanks to Allison, Chad, and Jasper for joining us. We’re looking forward to next month when we can pay for lunch with the gift certificate we won!

Posted in Family.

Tepee

Everett’s been in a fort building phase recently, with blankets hanging over the table or off the couch, broomsticks used as tent poles, and great walls of pillows. We thought it would be fun to add another structure to the mix, so we got five bamboo poles from the garden store and a twin sheet, then built a tepee.

There’s even room inside for a grown-up, so we’ve done a few story times inside it.

 

Posted in Family.

Hanging Out

I’ve been taking an aerial trapeze class for the past month, and this is a photo of the coolest thing I can do so far. I’ve got my work cut out for me in terms of climbing and actually getting into the aerial part, but for now I really like to get to hang upside down.

Posted in Misc.

Astoria

We headed out to the coastal town of Astoria for a day trip last weekend, armed with a long list of suggestions from friends on where to go and what to do. It’s a neat place, and less than two hours away. There’s a lot more to explore, so here’s hoping we get back soon.

At the base of the 125-foot tall Astoria Column. We all threw balsa wood airplanes off the top.

Heading up the spiral stairs inside the column.

A trolley runs back and forth along the waterfront.

At the Maritime Museum there was a demonstration on how rope used to be made. Everett turned the handle to twist the strands.

Everett pilots a tug in the Maritime Museum.

Too windy! At the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a steel sailing ship that ran aground 106 years ago.

The sign at Fort Stevens said to beware of open pits and steep dropoffs, so Everett set out to find as many as he could in the complex of old bunkers and gun batteries. The Japanese actually fired on the fort during WW2.

Posted in Family.

Sweep!

You laugh at it every four years—”Look at them with the brooms! That’s not a real sport!”—but this winter I got a chance to try out curling. After the first introductory course my friends and I were hooked, and we quickly signed up to play the upcoming season. We won a few games, lost a few, and had fun the whole time. The sport requires a good balance between the strength required to get a 44 pound rock down the ice and the precision to get that rock exactly where you want it 100+ feet away.

I eventually got Sara to take the intro class and she liked it too, but not to the same extent. Everett watched one of our matches and decided he was going to do it as soon as he was old enough. He even got to do some sweeping from the edge of the ice.

If you get a chance to try this out, take it!

Posted in Misc.