Category: Places
The weather was ambiguous so we had no plan to go to a park, but then after treating the kids to treats at a cafe, it was quite nice out so we pulled into a nearest park from where we spontaneously mused some sunshine time.
There’s like a billion parks in and around Portland, if we had looked up for a park, we would have never found this one. But it turned out to be such a gem! There isn’t any impressive play structure here (who needs those anyways?) but beautiful mossy trees surrounds a small grassland.
Each of these trees have such character!
I adore the moss on the bark.
And the grassland is full of cute little white flowers.
The picnic area had a grill onto which someone have stenciled “Knowledge is Power.” Random, much?
We made use of gorgeous spring weather to go to a herb farm. I don’t even know if my parents know this, but I really enjoyed going to the herb farm every year growing up in Seattle. I imagine the reason why I love the “garden chic” look despite that I’m a lousy gardener is because of that place. Anyhow, few minutes of poking around internet found us Red Ridge Farms located in Willamette Valley area which is famous for Oregon wineries. It would have been a 30 minute drive, but we forgot to make an exit and took a detour. This turned out to be a fun adventure because got to go on a two minute ferry ride just to cross the river!
There were lots of beautiful farm lands on the way.
Pretty vista from Red Ridge Farm.
I found cute little horsetails (I had to look it up, I just learned that’s what its called)!
We got cheese plate so that we can enjoy the sunshine. Immi loved the mini-pickles (why are they called gherkins? such a silly word!).
This little pot of daisy (? I’m not sure if it’s daisy) had the most beautiful colors ever. It was very modestly priced too, but I’m not good with flowers so I just took a picture and we got small pots of basil and rosemary for our garden.
We made use of the perfect weather to go to Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. I guess I’ve forgotten to realize that it’s definitely spring (weather has been strange here — it sprinkled snow 2 days ago!).
Needless to say, there were lots of tulips.
But I really loved the gears on their collection of antique tractors!
These gears look heavy and I love the colors of the peeling paint too.
Tulips aren’t really my favorite of flowers but the field was lovely and kids had lots of fun. The Pacific Northwest makes me love spring, not because it rains a lot in winter (which I don’t mind at all) but because it really is beautiful here. And I’m grateful for Immi, Ashland and Lucian — without them, I probably would just spend all my leisure time indoors with tea and craft and miss out on such a perfect day.
Shortly after we arrived Sauvie Island, I gasped because I saw a huge rainbow through our car window. (Todd took this photo, just so you know!)
The forecast told us “rain” so we weren’t expecting to walk around. But the weather turned out so lovely that we stopped by the creepy “country store” to buy the wildlife area parking permit…
…and decided to go for a walk. It was quite warm out actually. And not raining at all, not *here* anyways.
There are many beautiful places in Oregon, some of which we’ve been to, and many more we have yet to explore. But we really like Sauvie Island — somehow we feel more “alive” every time we are there, and come out of it feeling more grounded. Besides, it’s only 20-30 minute drive from where we live.
Just a few months ago, I wondered what my [not so little anymore] family would look like as a family of 5. It’s a strange thing how it feels like Lucian has been with us forever already.
Spontaneous excursion with unexpectedly perfect weather makes a very special Saturday!
It was such a gorgeous day out yesterday that we took an impromptu trip to Multnomah Falls.
We took a super mini hike just up onto the famous bridge (0.2 miles).
There was an odd looking bird (s/he is really quite big!) as we got out of the forest area.
On a completely separate note, I’m 37 weeks today — which means I’m officially full term (though we still got 3 weeks left till the due date). At the prenatal appointment we found out I’m 4 cm along, which made me nervous (had I known, I might have not gone hiking, not even 0.2 miles!) because we have absolutely no arrangement for babysitting (for Immi and Ashland) for another 10 days should the baby decide to make his appearance early. I know that whatever happens will happen no matter what I do, but I’m planning on doing a lot of sitting around over the next 10 days in an attempt to slow things down a bit!
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