feral kids meet the city

Some catch-up here.  If you know me (and surely you do by now, right?), you know as much as I love vacations and seeing family, writing about it is not my cup of tea.  In this space, I love finding the beautiful ordinariness of our everyday.  But alas, for the grandmas and my own record of life: our annual razor clamming expedition at the end of March.  (Click here for 2010, 2011, and 2013 adventures.)

We had a couple of extra nights before meeting with family on the coast, and chose to spend them in Portland:
     
:: No agenda.  No obligations.  Just our nucleus of four.  A day at the zoo.

It's not evident from this picture, but Juniper ran through the zoo.  We could hardly keep up.  Actually, "we" didn't keep up.  One of us would stay back with Hazel, the other running after our wild monkey, dodging through packs of people, looking in the patches of forest off the paved path.  And every time we caught up, she had some new piece of greenery or flowers in her hands.  She insisted she found them on the ground, not on the plant.  I was relieved when we could get her to sit.  We explained the rules of the zoo and crowds.

Riding trains through the city.  Rules about riding trains through the city.

My favorite used bookstore.  Rules about disappearing in the isles of my favorite used bookstore.  

(In college, I'd ride Amtrak up to Portland, spend the day in this city-block used bookstore ^ top it with a beer and a walk through the Oregon Art Museum followed by a sleepy ride home with a new pile of books.  Good memories.)

We pounded pavement and congratulated ourselves for having the foresight to buy a cheap umbrella stroller.  The ability to carry both kids = no meltdowns.

After a full day of chasing wild, feral country kids around a zoo, a bookstore, a city, I was ecstatic to down a thick, meaty Deschutes beer, just a block from Powell's.  

Sidenote: I was in the mood for a salad, but couldn't resist this pizza.  I have since replicated it at home, semi-sucessfully.  From the Deschutes Brewery menu: "Briar Rose Creamery goat cheese, balsamic grilled pears, whole milk mozzarella, and toasted hazelnuts topped with white balsamic vinaigrette tossed baby arugula."  Oh my heaven.  Best pizza flavor combinations EVER.  I've done a lot with pizza, but I've never served it with a heaping pile of fresh, spicy greens on top.  So good.     

Hotel pillowfights: blowing off bedtime steam.

Road to the ocean.

Even a fifth generation (or something) forest is beautiful in all it's foggy, drippy, mossy, pacific northwest glory.  

As it turns out, flower collecting became a theme of the trip.   Our own home had nothing more than snow and pines when we left.  I got it, and readily bowed to their excitement and wonder.     

Juniper with western trillium. ^

Up next: coastal clamming