Trip to Portland

Despite being only 20 minutes away from Portland, we hardly ever go.  Mostly because we generally avoid eating in restaurants with a baby, because Gabriel takes a nap in the middle of the day, etc, etc.

We decided to make a 1/2 day trip into Portland and thought the girls would enjoy riding the MAX, which is the "above ground subway" in Portland.  So we drove south across the river and parked our car at an outlying MAX station.

After buying our tickets we waited for the train to come.  The train in the opposite direction came by and the girls were very disappointed that we were not getting onto that one.

And we waited even more, for what seemed like an eternity (to the girls).  Actually, it was only about 8 minutes.

 This was their first time on mass transit and Eliana was amazed at how fast we were going.

Gabriel just wanted to get down and not be held.  After about 4 minutes of sitting on our laps, he was done and had to be distracted in various ways.

Once we arrived in Portland, we walked to our destination, which was a few blocks away.  We made a pit stop at a store because the girls suddenly got the urge to go potty.

Along the way, we passed by a trendy cupcake store.  They display the various kinds and the girls took a few moments to view them and salivate.

 At last, we reached Jamison Park.   It's basically a large water feature, with water that fills up to about knee height, then recedes again.  There were lots of other kids there.

As you can see, the water flows in from hidden pipes.

All of our kids enjoyed it.  Gabriel enjoyed exploring and feeling the different textures of the rocks.

 Karina enjoyed sloshing around in the water.

Eliana is our little amphibian.  She was rolling in the water, laying in the water, sitting in the water.  She never got tired of it and played in the water for more than 2 hours.

We went to some surrounding restaurants to grab slices of pizza and had a picnic.  Gabriel enjoyed walking around while munching on his granola bar.

Afterwards, we had dessert at an ice cream shop close by.  Although the girls opted for the traditional vanilla, the shop has interesting flavors like Saigon cinnamon and kulfi (a flavor common in India of pistachio ice cream with a hint of cardamon).  Those two flavors are what Elvin tried.

And here we are waiting again for the street car.  This time, with ice cream in hand, the kids were more patient.

And finally, we head home!