A Fall Walk

One of the things about Portland that I most looked forward to seeing and enjoying was the nature that bloomed all year long. Last winter, when Jac was doing her best to convince us to move to Portland, she'd send photos of flowers blooming. It amazed me. There I was in the middle of winter, in freezing New York where everything was D.E.A.D. And here she's sending me these flowers. Even though it's not winter or December (and honestly it barely looks like fall yet - some streets don't even look like fall has started!), I'm still amazed by all the flowers that continue to bloom as the weather gets cooler and the leaves begin to change and fall. 

Someone growing black tomatoes. Jac, P, and Z got us some a couple weeks ago from a CSA. Yum.

An example of a place where it barely seems as fall has started. 

Lauralhurst is staying pretty green, for the most part. You can see some leaves have fallen, but when you look up, it's still pretty green. Ooooo and it smells sooooo amazing there! I wish I could bottle it up and bring it home! 

Kale. There's a house a block or so away that has the most kale plants and pretty large ones too. Think about how many yummy kale chips you can make with all that kale (which is what I've been doing every couple of days with kale from the backyard garden). 

Park Day

I joined Pheonix, Zia, and Jac for P's Unschooling group park day in Sellwood Park yesterday afternoon. What a beautiful, beautiful park! The trees are so magnificently tall there, and even though it was another hot one yesterday, it felt perfect in the shade of these trees! 

New York's parks developed a love for parks and an appreciation for good parks - not the typical midwest parks we had grown up with. I always thought I'd never find something quite like the parks around NYC, and while these aren't exactly the same (they need to have some more live music and events... at least from what we've compared to NYC parks so far in our short time here), the parks in Portland are quite amazing and a very suitable replacement for the parks we fell in love with in NYC. One thing these parks had that cannot quite compare to most NYC parks is the trees. They are soooo tall here!!

Right near the dreamy playground shaded by the giant trees is a swimming pool (that is unfortunately NOT shaded by giant trees). We spent some time in the afternoon at the pool so P could swim. No swimming for me - even if I had my swimming gear, I'd have probably stayed out - too crowded with kids, too sunny, too hot, NOT too interested in being RED and BURNT! I did wade in a couple times though, and it made me really excited for taking our future little one to the pool!

The Great GoogaMooga!!

Courtney's original dates to come visit were Memorial Day weekend, but after hearing about this new FREE music festival being thrown in Prospect Park, I convinced him and his friend, Jordan, to come the weekend before. I was hoping that the music festival would be all that I had anticipated it to be... and I think it was. Seth said he laughed at the two of them quite a few times during the afternoon as they talked about how awesome the whole thing was :) 

  
We got in early enough to get decent spots on the top of the hill. Since we didn't actually know any of the musicians, (well - turns out we did know some music from Hall & Oates - but we totally thought they were some local band that was just trying to make it big - obviously we are a little out of touch!!) anyway - since we didn't know any of the musicians, seeing the stage wasn't that big of a priority. 

  

  

A little arm wrestling. 

  

Food was another big part of the festival. According to the website, over 70 local places were represented! Restaurant tents pretty much lined the whole perimeter of the festival. It was a little torture since I now have to be more careful about what I do eat :) but I enjoyed some food and a delicious ice cream sandwich!

  

  
This is about the part where everyone starts standing and we start wondering why they are standing... and how they know the words to all the songs & who are these guys anyway! (Hall & Oates... we did recognize a few of their songs though... We aren't completely out of the loop!)

As Seth and I enjoyed the afternoon, we talked about how this would DEFINITELY be the type of thing we'd miss about Brooklyn. We love live music outside, and especially the FREE type!

On the Roof of the Met

There is something about being on the roof of the Met enjoying the summer sculptures at sunset! The views are absolutely beautiful, and I'm often so shocked that this is even my reality! I think Who am I and how did I end up here!?

Ted, Seth, and Hans posing ;) 

We stayed up there until the roof closed for the evening. What a treat to watch the sun setting with that view!