Really Wednesday July 31

Even though I stayed up way too late, I was up first with Sofia, who demanded breakfast. She and I got dressed and went downstairs for the free breakfast. I’ve never seen such a line at a hotel breakfast! It was odd, indeed.

The boys took forever to wake up and come down, and when they did, they intended to first go work out, but there was only 20 minutes left of breakfast, so they ate instead. They actually did go work out after breakfast, so I went online to search out activities for the day. Then we packed up the car and headed into Portland again.

First stop HAD to be the giant Paul Bunyan statue. Because...well...because it’s a giant Paul Bunyan statue!

Then we went over to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. I had not expected it to take us so long, but we were there about two hours, including some time for tea. It was lovely. Very peaceful (except when Sofia decided to get stubborn) and lovely.

 

 

 

Gotta bring dolls with you...

 

 

  

  

  

  

I just had to take a photo of this...

  

At the tea house, David had a “tea flight” with three different kinds of tea. The lady helped him do the tea ceremony for the first type, but then he had to do it himself for the others. The boys and I just had our own single pots of tea, and we got some baked tofu and pickled bamboo to munch. There was a guy playing Chinese harp right next to us, too, which was such a pretty sound we purchased a CD.

 

  

   

  

When we left the Chinese garden, we headed east toward the Columbia River Gorge. Really beautiful scenery. I did fall asleep for a few minutes, despite Sofia’s best efforts to keep me awake. We finally arrived at our hotel in The Dalles, a tiny Comfort Inn right near the damn and a bridge across the river.

We were all very hungry, so after we settled into the room, we went back into town for a very tasty late lunch/early dinner. David and Sofia and I all had fish tacos. And I had a great cucumber lime drink - my favorite taste.

Sofia ate steadily, but once she was done, she wanted to leave immediately. So I had to walk her to the car...and then back to the restaurant because David had the keys...

We drove over to the supermarket to get some snacks, since we’ll be here a few days. Then a little drive around town. It’s a very old-fashioned western town, complete with a store-front  JC Penney (not a big-box mall anchor!). There are intricate murals on a lot of the walls, too, which is cool.

Before returning to the hotel, we drove over the bridge and took a few pictures of the dam. It was just about sunset, and the sky had cleared, so we could see Mt. Hood in the distance (we’re on the other side from last night; we might go there tomorrow of Friday).

 

Enough with the camera, Mom!

 

 

The kids all went swimming for a while; pool is same size as yesterday’s hotel pool. Sofia just loves to swim and jump in. Now we’re back in the room, watching the Garfield movie. It’s 9pm, so trying to settle down for sleep.

(And Rebecca, I miss you! So glad to hear from you.)