weekend away

We had a nice family weekend in Portland. We managed to pack in a LOT of activities; alas, I managed to NOT pack my camera when I was putting everything into bags and suitcases on Friday. OOPS.

Highlights:

* The Portland Zoo and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They have some seriously fun things to do with your family in Portland! Also, we bought a family membership at OMSI which cost half the amount of a membership at the local science museum here in Vancouver, but which allows reciprocal admission to more or less every science museum in North America and a few in other countries besides.

* Another trip to Powell's, my #1 favourite bookstore. I only bought one book - wasn't that restrained of me?

* discovering the gluten-free peanut butter cookies at Whole Foods Market. Oh, my goodness. I sure hope they sell these at the Canadian Whole Foods stores, or this will be yet another excuse for frequent trips to the US.


Low points:

* getting caught in terrible traffic due to road work very late in our journey, when it was past bedtime and we were all feeling pretty cranky

* my kids not letting me sing along loudly to my "Best of the Smiths" CD while we were stuck in the terrible traffic

* getting stuck in the maze of one-way streets, inaccessible bridges and highway onramps in downtown Portland

On the whole it was a really nice way to spend our last weekend together until the end of the summer. Jeff and I enjoyed ourselves and it was a great break from the usual routine.

Now I need to go read some bedtime stories...