Is there a detailed schedule available yet?

Show up drink make fun of somebody drink some more
eat
sat
eat drive retrun to hotel drink make fun of me
sun
goto track park drink make fun of Dr Dave parade lap go home

seems like a good weekend? Now, who can stick around Monday to help me bring bak my olympic blue raffle winner?

Oh boy, where to start...

First, the summer heat out here is DRY! Too hot for you (I doubt it, I've experienced the south in the summer time when I was in the Navy in SC) then simply get in the shade. This also means the ladies can fix their hair up and not have to worry about humidity frizzing it out or 'undoing' it. Oregon/Washington is green for a reason but unlike the south we don't get those 1-gallon rain drops as often as you. The city is bike friendly and people do a lot of walking/running...Adidas HQ is in north Portland and Nike HQ is .2 of a mile from my house (very nice, BIG campus with a public walking path and a pond/lake) in Beaverton (just SW of Portland). Oregon is a very outdoorsy state and we recycle.

Places to go...OMSI is on the river in Portland. Though focused for children, I always enjoy myself when I go there and learn stuff, too. They have a decomissioned Navy submarine you can tour (moored in the river) and an IMAX theater.

Our zoo isn't huge like San Diego but still fun. Here a couple of pictures last summer when we went to the zoo: http://www.icbm.org/cmgallery/thumbnails.php?album=24 Hopefully they'll have the butterfly exhibt during your visit. It's a big tent filled with a variety of butterflies. Have your daughter wear a Hawaiian flower shirt and many will fly over to her (BTDT)

The NW (Northwest) is the capital for micro-brews and coffee so finding beer and coffee/tea will never be a problem! We are home to the Garden Burger and our restaurants seem to be better than most in catering to vegitarians. I'm NOT a vegitarian but I've got friends who are. When in downtown Portland you will likely see occasionalhomosexuality from the younger crowd...life in the liberal big city. Doesn't bother me but I know some people find it offensive. Just a heads-up.

I'm not sure how far you want to travel once you're here... Crater Lake Nat'l Park is beautiful! And there is the Redwood Forest. But those are in southern Oregon. Well, the forest is more like southern Oregon/northern California.

If you want to go to the ocean then for the family I'd recommend Seaside. There's a main drag where there are the touristy shops, full of salt water taffy and arcades. Lots of hotels in the area and bed-n-breakfasts. Y'all can experience COLD ocean water for once with long, rocky beaches. The NW coast line is very rugged, very 'manly' with sand dunes, boulders, cliffs, etc. Great region for hiking and scenic vistas! Plenty of light houses, too. I love the ocean and even though I've [drunkenly] frolicked on Florida and SC beaches, nothing can compare to the visual beauty of the NW coast line.

The ocean is only an hour, hour and a half away and a pretty drive so why not see the sun set? There are two routes you can take, however, it might be good to take the southern route so you hit Tillamook, then the coast up to Seaside.
http://maps.google.com/?ll=45.726315,-123....715172,1.277161
Tillamook is a good stop because you can tour the factory. Tillamook is THE premier cheese and ice cream producer around these parts. If anything, once you're done with the tour you can tell your daughter that if she doesn't finish school and at least college then she has a job like that to look forward to (seriously, the work you see going on would make you want to put a gun to your head, all mindless assembly-line stuff). Cannon Beach is a good tourist stop, particularly if you want your ladies to spend all your 914 funds. The NW Ferrari Club holds an annual event there.

Underneath the Burnside Bridge is the Saturday Market. It's on Sunday as well. It's a spot where local crafts people set up a small booth and sell their wares. Clothing, paintings, metal art, ceramics, jewlery, clothing, water fountains, etc. Food and street entertainment, of course.

I haven't been to it yet, but there's the Chinese Gardens in downtown Portland, in the Pearl District, which is supposed to be nice. I've been to the Japanese Gardens and they're nice but probably nothing I'd call "must see" unless you like such stuff. The Pittock Mansion is a neat place to consume an hour or so. I like architecture so it's a visual treat at old, rich living.

Has your family traveled outside of Florida? I ask because, when I was in the Navy, I met two guys who were from Florida and had never left the state. So when we flew into Italy and took a bus to our ship, they were floored at the "mountains" (really, just foot hills). They had never experienced snow, either. Sad in my opinion, but at least the Navy was broadening their horizons. In that vein, if you daughter hasn't been out of the state then going to the coast, seeing Crater Lake and the Redwoods (which are fricking HUGE and still awe me), maybe going up into Washington and visiting our volcano, Mount St. Helens (which I climbed), would be impressionable experiences for her. I haven't done the train ride (but I really, really want to!) and I think that is a great idea. When our daughter gets a little older...

Craig Laughlin (boxstr) would probably be another good source so hit him up. Hey, maybe you could go out to his place and visit Camp914!

Lemme know if there's any thing else.

Message Forwarded From Air_Cooled_Nut

Some more places I've thought of...

The Spruce Goose is in wine country, which you can get a bird's eye view of.
Multnomah Falls is a popular spot. It's okay in my opinion, nothing too breath-taking.
I like Silver Creek Falls better as you can actually walk underneath the falls! What's neat is there were lava flows that engulfed the forest and when the trees rotted away they left holes in the lava rock. When taking the trail under the waterfalls you can look up and see the holes where trees once were.
Actually, this site is pretty good for finding state parks if you want to do some searching yourself.
I forgot about The Portland Rose Garden. Pretty impressive display of roses and history. The Japanese Gardens are up the hill from the Rose Garden.

In no particular order:
Tillamook is less than 2 hours. Aside from the Tillamook creamery there is an old WWII blimp hanger that is now an aircraft museum: http://www.tillamookair.com/

Speaking of which, there's also the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the Spruce Goose now resides: http://www.sprucegoose.org/
McMinnville is about an hour away. I haven't been (yet) to that museum. The drive to McMinnville will take you through some of our wine country so you'll see wineries and shops dedicated to wine. Of course, the Northwest is well know for its micro-brews and coffee addiction

Just south of Newport is Seal Rock State Rec. Site. You can look down the cliffs and see the sea lions basking in the sun and swimming around. There are a LOT of them. I *think* there are tours that take you down closer but, of course, there's $$ involved with that. The Newport Aquarium is pretty good. North of Newport is Devil's Punchbowl. That's a place where the ocean travels under/through lava rock and spouts out of it. Good for some "oohs" and "ahhhs". Tide pools nearby for exploring -- starfish, sea anenome's that squirt water when you gently poke 'em If you have time you could continue north, past the Tillamook exit to Portland, and hit Cannon Beach (tourism and botique shopping) and/or up to Seaside where there's shopping and kid activities (bumper cars, video arcade, etc. and lots of saltwater-taffy!). You would then take Hwy. 26 back to Portland and it's a pretty drive.

OMSI can consume a couple hours or more if you stay for one of their Omni-Max movies (those huge, 180º ceilings) and/or tour the Navy submarine in the river. http://www.omsi.edu/

Portland Rose Garden is free:
http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder...113&c=38308
and the Japanese Gardens directly up the hill from them (easy walking distance) are a small fee. If that's what the gals are interested in.

There is the Forestly Center that basically shares the same parking lot as the Zoo:
http://www.worldforestry.org/
Click on "Visit Us" at the top of the page and there will be directions. At the very bottom of the page is the physical address which you can use with http://maps.google.com/

If I can think of more I'll send it. My g/f should be home soon and I'll get her input. If it was just you and your wife then I could recommend some night-life stuff but... Also, I live on the west side (the river runs from south to north and it is the dividing line between west vs. east) so I'm more familiar with it than the east side, which is where you'll be. I know that directly north of the motel is a mall...I believe walking distance.

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