Summer Bucket List ~ Portland, Oregon

It’s still technically summer, right?

We took a family drive up to Portland. Seeing everything interesting in Portland takes much more than a day, but we hit a few memorable locations.

After a morning of fighting and yelling and unpleasantness (yes, really), the above moment was the first bright spot. The kids yelled, “The Librarians!” when they realized that this is the exact spot that The Librarians was filmed. The stone base on the lower right is the entrance to their “Annex.”

In the distance you can see part of Forest Park (more about that in a minute).

St. Johns Bridge is a steel suspension bridge spanning the Willamette River. It was built between 1929 and 1931.

After we crossed the bridge twice, we walked a small portion of a trail in Portland’s famous Forest Park. The 5,100 acres of this urban park (one of the largest in the nation) contain 70 miles of trails. We may have walked one mile. This is Leif Erikson Drive. [The boys have enjoyed the Wildwood series which takes place in Forest Park. One of these days, we’ll walk the 30 mile Wildwood Trail.]

After Forest Park, we spent a short hour at Powell’s Books, reportedly the largest new and used book store in the world.

After Powell’s, Russ dropped me off for a visit with Mandi Ehman who was in town for a conference. I haven’t seen her in person since our trip to visit Susan Wise Bauer over 5 years ago! [Photo from Mandi’s phone.] I met two new friends as well!

Russ went fishing with the kids back near the St. Johns Bridge while I was socializing, then returned to pick me up.

The wildfire smoke was awful in Portland. It bothered me more on this trip than it had the whole month before. I’ve never been so glad to see a week of rain in the forecast.

We hit Fuddruckers for dinner on the way home, and I think that was (predictably) the highlight of the day for the kids.