On the Oregon Trail

The bus stop for the "OMSI" was at the top of a bridge, with trains noisily going by nearby, and traffic that gave the feel of an earthquake as it passed. This was NOT our favorite hike!In front of the "OMSI" (see text below)

The OMSI.

Can you recognize any of these things? It listed the things that one would recognize from X number of years ago. It was easy to recognize things up to 45 years ago, but I had never seen ration stamps or a button holer (60 years ago)before! more pictures will be listed on facebook.
After a long search, and passing it by twice (!) on the street, we finally found the restaurant "Blue Plate Lunch Counter"
We shared 2 orders of the same meal. At this restaurant, there are 2 daily specials, and about 5 other things on the menu. Not a big selection, but VERY good! Of course, there's a whole menu of sodas, shakes, and ice cream choices. Mmmm-mmmm - this Chicken parmisan sandwich was soooo good!

Walking to Powell's Books The books were stacked wall to wall and ceiling to floor. And also divided by category into different rooms - each room a store into itself! We loved the "used book" prices the best!

At many of the bus stops, they had a screen (computerized) that would let you know in how many minutes the various busses would arrive. They had a good and dependable bus system.

Day 3

So, this is our first "real day" and this time I (Chris) will be writing the blog. We got into Portland without too much trouble, although it was late and we were extremely tired. Of course, in the morning we ate breakfast, woke up, etc. etc. Our first destination was Powell's City of Books. On the way there we found out about the .... colorful city of Portland. It was like heaven on Earth for a bookworm like me. I can't say how big it was, because we didn't even get close to seeing all of it in the 2+ hours we were there. After getting loaded down with books, we headed to the Blueplate Lunch Counter and Soda fountain. It is well hidden, I guess they really want you to work for your meal! We passed it by on the street 2 times before finding them, and we were right across the street from them when we called them to ask for directions!

It was well worth it when we got there, though. We all got the "Chicken Parm" sandwiches (we split 2 of them.) It was really good, and was really messy and saucealicious. They also came with cheesey, creamy, amazing mashed potatoes. After we filled ourselves up we got dessert. Russ (Dad) and Jonathan got peanut butter chocolate milkshakes which were really good (in the top three) and I got a strawberry soda float. The soda was homemade and tasted really good.

Our final stop was the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). It was full of cool exhibits about physics, life science, and geology. I liked it because of the interactive exhibits instead of just statues. We spent some time there shooting a cannon made out of a drum, making sparks, surfing the web with an over sized mouse, and experiencing pregnancy! Sounds weird, but it was fun. After that, we took a bus home and have been relaxing. That's pretty much it, so I guess I will end this post here.