Our First Week of Summer

Our first week of summer has been, well, a transition. I took the summer off from teaching, which means neither of my children are going to any school or camps or, well, anything. At least without me. Monday and Tuesday it was in the 50's and raining, and we were mostly cooped up inside. I was starting to wonder how my children and I were going to survive an entire summer with each other. But by Wednesday the weather improved, and we were able to spend time outside, which seemed to save us all.
I made a big bucket-list for the summer. Mostly of places we have never been to, but that look inviting from the online descriptions. Some of them are bigger day or weekend trips, but most are places within an hour or less.. easy to head out for just half of a day. Well, so far our luck hasn't been so great.... The first park I tracked down wasn't so much a park as a small area of bushes that was situated adjacent to a running track. There was no parking nearby, and well, not much to do anyways. Bust. Our next adventure was to a "nature park". Which happened to be a series of super steep trails leading down into a deep dark patch of forest. We never even attempted to get out of the car.  One look at the steep steps down reminded me of the grand canyon, and I knew I would be carrying at least one kid back out. We had another failed adventure when we tried to get to a wetland nature park near where Finn goes to occupational therapy. The wetland is magnificent, however, you can only get a good view from the parking lot of an industrial complex (see photo above). And, after finally finding trail access that went towards the wetland, I realized that there is no way to get close enough to see anything. The grasses surrounding it are so tall that it's not possible to see the actual water (unless you are in the parking lot of the industrial complex). We did have fun walking the nearby trail, and watching birds fly overhead, but... it wasn't quite what I had planned on.
We have had some good adventures though... a trip to the science museum to see Bears (the movie) on the imax and to play at the museum, a trip to the Portland Rose Test Garden, and a visit to the Pittock Mansion which has the best views of Portland that I have ever seen. We have painted. A lot. Gone on walks.  Played in the sprinkler. Eaten ice cream. You know, summer stuff.
And we have a whole bucket list left to tackle. Let's just hope we find some of the other places a bit more up our alley.....