Walk #16

After our marathon walking adventure on Saturday, we got up Sunday morning and did another walk.  Or, at least, Davan and I did.  Anthony wanted to get a bike ride in.  We did have company, though...

This walk in north Portland started at a great park - Peninsula Park, which, it turned out, had a great playground as well as a rose garden.

We then headed south to one of the Portland Community College campuses.

Here, the girls found an interesting set of bike racks.

I eventually tore them away to walk some more.  They don't seem too upset, eh?

It got warm as we strolled through some nice neighborhoods.

This is one of those detail things I've forgotten.  I know there was a reason for taking a picture of this building, but I can't even remember if it was a library or what.

At one point, we were supposed to ride the MAX a bit, but we moved the van instead.  And guess what?  Found another park.

Here Davan and Lena practiced handstands.  I've noticed a lot fewer handstands happening in our post Lena life.  Sigh.  We miss you, Lena.  And not just for the handstands.  :)

They also explored the possibilities of this climbing cargo net structure.

There was this great willow tree, which was discussed in the book as a lovely natural fort.

The park was situated on a bluff, overlooking the Willamette River below.

By the time I lured the girls on, Davan had somehow become barefoot.  Shocking.

Part of the park was an off leash area.  Ranger made a friend.

We were trying to get a picture of the girls holding up the bridge, but it didn't really work out.  It's still a nice picture, though.

I have no real idea what was happening here.  Just Davan and Lena being Davan and Lena.

There was a small community center in the neighborhood to the north of the park that could be rented out for weddings or other events.  The small grounds were pretty and included a really great climbing tree.

These walks were, obviously, all drudgery and no fun.

We really liked this lovely, tree lined and shady neighborhood.  This tree, growing around the power lines, caught our fancy.

We discovered that the intersection near us a painted design is not as unique as we thought.  The book called this a traffic calming device.  We just think they're pretty.

We liked this London telephone booth in someone's yard.

This "park" was just a small area under a pedestrian overpass.  It didn't seem like much of a way to honor Simon G. Stanich.

Going up and over the overpass.

Walking past a community garden where you can rent a plot to grow things if you don't have the area to do it at your home.  These are all over Portland.  Are they in other cities, too?

Ranger with some pretty foxgloves.

This was a very nice looking and whimsical house and garden.

As we continued north, we came to the Adidas campus. 

Although the associated playground was small, that didn't stop the girls from checking it out.

The campus also had a lot of space for cartwheels, as well as tennis, soccer and basketball, all outdoors.

Checking out the astroturf.

Looking through the middle of the campus.

We made a detour to check out these huge shoes.  The girls had hoped to climb in them, but climbing wasn't allowed and the shoes were not hollow.  Bummer.  They settled with posing like car models.

This detour gave us the chance to cross over Interstate Ave on this pedestrian bridge.

Then we had a stretch of road overlooking the bluff.

We ended up going quite a bit further north than we needed to.  By this time, I was feeling a bit like we needed to get a move on because the girls had a gig at Do Jump that afternoon, so I left them to walk at their leisure while I went on quickly ahead to ride MAX back down to the car and then come and fetch them.  We'd ended up back on the same street where we'd started so I told them I'd pick them up at the park so they could play there more.  However, they'd just gotten there and were taking a breather before playing when I showed up to drag them away.  We'd wanted to go back to the park before Lena left, but, sadly, there wasn't ever time to do so.  Next time you're in town, Lena.

This walk totaled over 6 miles and took quite a while with all the stops, but was one of our top walks.  We liked the views, the neighborhoods and all the parks.