Visiting Portland Oregon

This last week, I was on vacation--of a sorts--visiting all the sites in our fair city of Portland Oregon, with my sisters-in-law. They went downtown to the famous Powell's Books - the city of books on Burnside - while I was at work. Then when I was off work, we went to the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park. It was a lovely day with plenty of shade for the hot summer day with the strolling pond garden and koi to watch; the tea house; the sand and stone garden; the Shoji Gallery; beautiful Japanese Maples; traditional pagoda's; and plenty of tranquil beauty.

Portland is a great place to visit! More about the area in Thursdays post!

OMSI Museum trip

The other day, my daughter invited me to go with her and my two grandsons to OMSI. That's Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It's geared for children of all ages, even ADULT kids! It was so much fun! It's an educational, hands on learning place! There are exhibits about all kinds of science, from mechanical to life science. There is a planetarium, an IMAX theater, a submarine in the adjacent Willamette River and a wonderful cafe that serves extremely health choices. :)

If you are planning a visit to Oregon, you can visit the Omsi site or the IMAX site for more information. Admission fees are much the same as any museum or aquarium.

My grandsons and I were fascinated with the huge globe of the world that was lighted by an [apparently] inside projector that changed all the time! [Not really sure how it worked?] My photo didn't come out that well, but you can see the size of the globe. It played the cloud weather patterns, as you see here; the ocean heat waves in colors, including El Nino patterns; the revolving light and darkness of a day, you could see the lights of the cities in the darkness with the lighted airplanes crossing the oceans; one set of sequences tracked the population growth from pre-AD time to the present by adding little lights that represented people--fascinating! We wanted to just sit and take in this one exhibit for hours--but we didn't have that kind of time!! Don't miss it if you are ever in Portland!

My Rose City Home

Portland is called the Rose City. This is one is from my front yard!