Portland for Spring Break

We were lucky enough to be able to leave Ephrata for a few days over spring break. The dentist that I work for was taking the staff to Portland for a dental convention. I am still pretty attatched to Grey, at least for overnights and didn't want Justin to struggle for the 3 days that I would be gone so I told Dr. Klingel I could go if my family could come along. He agreed so we planned our trip. I did go to 2 classes, but we had a lot of fun as a family as well. We left Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Portland about 6. We stayed at this swanky place called The Nines. I was bummed there was no pool, but it was pretty sweet other than that. We ate that night with the staff at the restaurant in the hotel. Justin had a 24 oz Porterhouse. And he had no problem putting it away either. Elliot was entertaining us all throughout the meal. Grey was getting a little antsy, but we managed to make it through our meal.


Thursday morning we woke up and headed on the light rail train that Portland has that runs through the city. It was GREAT! I LOVE mass transit! Ever since New York City last spring, I have loved trains and subways. They are cheap, fast, and easy to use. We didn't have to use the car at all, no parking, and no trying to manuever in a strange city.




The train picked us up right outside the hotel and dropped us off right at the Children's Museum about 10 minutes away. It was a fun place for Elliot to play. There was so much to look at and do. They had babies, food, shopping carts, restaurant, building things, a forest, dress-up, and a Bob the Builder area. Elliot was a little overwhelmed with it and it would have been more fun to have someone to play with.




We stayed for a hour or hour and a half and the Justin suggested that we go over to the Oregon Zoo that was just across the parking lot since we were here. Elliot thought that would be fun so we headed out. It was a lot of fun to see all the animals- bears, bats, elephants, cougar, mountain goat, snakes. It wasn't very crowded and the weather turned out better than expected- the sun even popped out a bit. I didn't get the best pictures here looking back. I think Justin was in charge of the camera at this time. Grey slept the whole way in the stroller which was great for us all.

This showed how big the bears are.
The coolest part was seeing the polar bears swim.

Of course, there is no picture of this to share though :(

After we made it around the zoo, Elliot's legs were tired and it was close to time to get back anyways, so back on the train we went. Justin and the kids rested in the hotel while I went to the convention center to a class. I got back around 5:30 and we went across the street to the mall and walked around and did some shopping. We saw a restaurant that was all-you-can-eat seafood and sushi and kids eat free so we thought we would give it a try. It was decent and very convenient. Even Grey was having a good time!

I went back to the hotel with the kids (and watched the ER finale) and Justin headed to Powells Book Store to have a few hours to himself. Friday morning I went to another class and then we all met up for lunch again before we headed out of town. It was a long ride home, but the kids did pretty darn well. Grey is getting over ear infection #2 and the altitude changes bothered him a little bit towards the end. Overall the kids were terrific and Justin was so supportive in taking the kids and letting me go to my classes and tagging along with a couple of meals with my co-workers. And a big thanks to Dr. Kligel for his generosity in making it possible for my whole family to go and for our team to go and be treated so well. If your family is looking for a new dentist and are in the area, I know I am biased, but I highly recommend Desert Sun Dental. Check out our website too. There is a link on the right hand column of my blog. Great people and great dentistry.