After a few days in Spokane, we moved on to visit my cousin in Missoula. My mom was there and it was great seeing her as well. Missoula was nice, but by far the most remembered and talked about place was The Big Dipper. We made a point of going there every day.
After Multnomah Falls, we detoured by the Grand Coulee Dam. It was impressive. We ended up not going in because there was a huge wait on 4th of July weekend.
Day 4 of our trip was the drive from Portland to Spokane down the Columbia River Gorge and by the Grand Coulee Dam. We made a quick stop at Multnomah Falls.
Day 3 of our trip was Portland. We started at OMSI because of course it was raining when we got there. OMSI was great, it is the only museum of that sort that comes close to the Exploratorium. In some ways, it may even be better.
After the OMSI, we went to the International Rose Test Garden. After that we checked into our fancy hotel in downtown. We ended up walking around downtown, getting supper, going to Powell’s Books, riding the trolley for free. All in all, we enjoyed Portland very much. It is on the list of places to return.
The next morning we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. Sam got a doughnut with a mustache on it. We got cereal doughnuts and lots of others. We all had too many that day, but Pokie took the title at 7.
Day 1 of our trip around the Northwest. We stopped in Ashland. Elizabeth and Margaret and Sam are right now at a Shakespeare play in the Elizabethan Theatre. I am back in the hotel sleeping and getting the website up to date. Ashland is a nice little town. Seems full of retirees, people with dreadlocks and no shirts, and people from California.
UPDATE: They got home about 11:30 last night from the play. Apparently, Sam made it until about 10:30, then he was completely out. He didn’t move when the pedi-cab guy carried him to the door.
We tried to hike to the waterfall. The hike was nice, but we ran into snow shortly after we crossed the bridge on the Tahoe Rim Trail and lost the trail, so we didn’t actually make it to the waterfall. It was a good hike though, we got to walk over some snow and the dogs had a good time.
Margaret finished 5th grade. They had a ceremony to commemorate the event. Next year she will be at the middle school. Margaret was one of about 5 students that read their essays during the ceremony. Margaret is excited about going to middle school. She has qualified out of math 6A and into math 7A, so she will have one class with 7th graders. Next year we will have a child in 3 different schools.
Katy and Margaret had their piano recital today. They are now with the advanced set of students.
It has been a strange spring in Tahoe. We got about 6 inches of snow when I was up there near the end of May.
Another year another day at Maker Faire. Again, it was more than we could see and do in a day. We launched rockets, rode some strange 2-wheeled contraption, did some silk screening, and a bunch else.