2015 Mini Road Trip: Enchanted Forest and Portland

A couple of days after we got back from our Utah/Montana trip, we were lucky enough to have some friends come and stay with us. Josh and I were in the same year in the art history graduate program, over seven years ago. It was really fun to see him again and meet his kids. We showed took them on a ferry on one of the days that they were here, and then we headed down south to the Enchanted Forest theme park in Oregon with them.

 Sam and Josh's daughter T waiting in the ferry terminal before we boarded the boat. These two became fast friends, really within minutes. One morning they were talking about something that they both liked, and T commented on their similarities by saing, "I can't believe it! And we're not even cousins!"

When we arrived at the Enchanted Forest, we met up with Josh's family and also our mutual friends the Roses. Richard and Josh knew each other during their freshman year of college.

Outside The Witch's gingerbread house (the story of Hansel and Gretel)

Lucy was smitten with the decorations and animatronics in the fairyland section of the Enchanted Forest. She especially loved watching the animals help tidy up the home of the Seven Dwarves.

Sam and T riding down the slide of the Old Woman's shoe

We probably got the biggest laughs and reactions from the kids on the Frog Hopper ride. They all loved it. 

It was so fun to have Josh and Jaime visit! And thanks to Josh for letting me fulfill a dream of having Sam become friends with the children of my friends from graduate school. Now I just need to introduce him to a few more, like Shelley's girls!

Lucy was "Enchanted Forested out" when we left the theme park. She fell asleep in her car seat before we even left the parking lot. This is her asleep at the restaurant where we ate dinner.

We decided to spend the night outside of Portland and explore the city the next day. In the seven years that we have lived in the PNW, we still had yet to expire Portland as a city. I had hoped that we could have visited my Ant Bee when we were in the area, but they were at the Weber at the exact same time.

We first visited the Portland Art Museum. I think their collection rivals the one at the SAM - they definitely have some more well-known European artists (even van Gogh and Manet!). Here are some of the works of art that I particularly liked.

Federico Zandomeneghi, Interesting Conversation, 1895

Detail of Georges Rouault, Head, c. 1920. I love the downward-moving brushstrokes used to define the cheeks.

Detail of Gene Davis, Yankee Watermelon, 1967

Helen Frankenthaler, Spaced Out Orbit, 1973 (The Clement Greenberg Collection) 

All of the paintings on this wall belong to The Clement Greenberg Collection. Although the art critic never bought a painting himself, he did have a collection of art that was comprised of gifts from artists who found Greenberg influential.

We also visited Finnegan's toy store, Powell's Books and VooDoo Doughnuts! I feel like we covered a lot of territory in just a short amount of time!

Lucy was in heaven at Finnegan's - a whole entire wall, filled floor-to-ceiling with stuffed animals! She wanted to hug every single one.

 Voodoo Doughnuts!

The last place that we visited was The Grotto, which is basically an outdoor Catholic church (although there are other churches/chapels on the site too). We heard that there were nice gardens and a good view of the city, so we decided to check it out. It did not disappoint! I was also excited to see some art there.

This man-made grotto os carved into a cliff. It serves as a natural "apse" for the outdoor chapel. A replica of Michlangelo's Pieta is placed inside.

 The meditation chapel at the top of the cliff (accessible via elevator) has a rare bronze cast of Michelangelo's Pieta. The cast was made from a plater mold of Michelangelo's original sculpture, and is one of only a few copies that have been authorized by the Vatican. It was neat to see some details in the sculpture that are more visible through the darker bronze medium, like the wispy hair of Christ's beard.

A panoramic view of Portland from the meditation chapel. The glass wall afforded for some very scenic views.

We followed the labyrinth in the garden, which Sam enjoyed. It is based off of the labyrinth found in Chartres Cathedral.

After this whirlwind trip, we headed home. We have had some fantastic adventures on our travels this summer. Now we're looking forward to settling into a more normal routine in the last few weeks before Sam starts school again!

2015 Road Trip: Glacier National Park Hikes

We got to go on two hikes in Glacier National Park. They were quite unique and distinctive from each other. I found these hikes by looking at the site "Best Easy Hikes in Glacier National Park." I knew that we needed to do hikes that Sam would do (especially if we were going to hike more than one trail in the same day).

The first hike that we did was the Rocky Point Nature Trail. This hike was about two miles in length. We took the wrong turn at the end of our hike and ended up in a campground, but we eventually found our way back. There are signs to mark the trail, but the lettering is quite faded and you really need to pay attention to where you are going!

This trail is interesting because there was a fire that devastated the area in 2003, about twelve years ago. It was interesting to see how the landscape changed as we walked in and out of areas that were affected by the fire. The hike also has really nice views of Lake MacDonald and mountain peaks in the distance.

With half of my siblings 

Lucy slept... 

…and slept on this hike!

The second hike that we took was in the afternoon, after my dad and sister L arrived. We all went to Hidden Lake Overlook, which is just above the Visitors Center at Logan Pass. My brother C was jokingly complaining that we weren't doing a real hike, because part of it was a boardwalk, but it definitely counts. Sam liked the boardwalk, actually, and said that he felt like he was walking on the Great Wall of China.

J and I think that this is the most scenic hike that we have ever taken in our lives. The drive up to the Visitors Center (on Going-to-the-Sun-Road) was stunning, too. Everywhere we looked on there was something beautiful to see: majestic peaks, wildflowers, cascading streams, a lake. We even saw a hoary marmot on the trail! I hope we get to come back and hike in this beautiful area again.

This is a picture I took outside the window of our car as we drove on Going-to-the-Sun Road. 

Lucy slept for part of this hike, too!

It was hard to hold a casual conversation with such amazing views surrounding us on every angle!

2015 Road Trip: Montana

After our trip to Utah, we caravanned up to Montana with my sisters V and C, as well as my brother C. Our ultimate reason for going to Montana was because of a family reunion in Kalispell, but we went up two days early so we could camp in Glacier National Park.

We brought Sam's long-range walkie-talkies on the trip, so we could have them between the two cars while we drove. It was fun to chat back and forth intermittently, and they also became useful a few times when we needed to pull over and get gas, etc.

We finally brought the Landcruiser to the place of its bumper sticker's origin: The Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. We didn't have time to go through the museum exhibits, but we went in and bought a few things from the gift shop.

We camped at one of the group sites at Apgar Campground in Glacier National Park. We liked this campground because there were a lot of trees and the campsites were spaced out well, so you had a little bit of privacy. This also was a good choice for a few other reasons, since the campground is on the western side of the park (closer to Kalispell), and it also wasn't affected by wildfires! Half of the park was closed off beyond Logan Pass. We did go on some great hikes, though, which I will write about in another post.

At first, Lucy wasn't sure about eating breakfast at Sykes (which was too bad since she was wearing a Sykes t-shirt that used to belong to Sam)... 

…but then she changed her mind and really loved Sykes. She actually was uncharacteristically wired while we were at the restaurant, probably because she was overly tired.

Grammie and Gramps' home on 3rd Ave W 

 Grandma and Grandpa D's home

The Brintnall House (on the historic record). Grandpa Chet and Nona lived here. Aunt Tete and Uncle Oz were married here. 

We had our reunion at Woodland Park. My cousin Adam spearheaded the reunion. We are so grateful that he took initiative and gathered everyone together!

I met some third cousins who live in North Bend! 

Phil, my second-cousin-once removed, playing the bagpipes! 

I like this picture of the Thereses looking at pictures together. 

 Sam with his second cousin and aunt!

Mostly second cousins, but the girl on the right is the daughter of Megan, of my third cousins. (Does that mean that Sam and this little girl are fourth cousins?) 

Before we left to drive home, we said goodbye to C. It will be two years until we see him again, since he is leaving to go to Hong Kong soon.

We left the park and started driving home immediately, with plans to spend the night in Coeur d'Alene. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, mostly because the sun was a brilliant orange-red (due to all of the wildfire smoke in the air). The cloud layer was hazy enough, too, so we could directly look at the sun. And since we were driving directly west, this gorgeous orange-red ball was constantly in our field of view. At one point, we drove alongside a river, and it was neat to see the orange-red color reflecting on the ripples of the water. It immediately reminded me the orange reflections in Monet's Impression, Sunrise. I tried to take some pictures of the sun as we drove, but none of them did justice to the actual appearance. So I'm just going to conclude with Monet's painting instead, so I can at least have something to remind me of the drive home:

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872