US Trip 2013 - Portland Saturday Market / Fun with Snow at Mount Hood

Last Saturday, weather was good with clear sunny sky. Our plan for that morning was to visit the Saturday Portland Market. After taking our breakfast at home, hubby drove us to downtown Portland where the market is being held at Waterfront Park & Ankeny Plaza. It was already very crowded and there were many stalls, mostly selling food or arts and crafts. There were many unique and interesting crafts but we didn't buy any bcoz they were pricey.

Tried their famous Elephant Ear, which is a fried whole wheat bread dough coated with butter, cinammon and sugar, tastes just like churro. Kids love it as it is nice and sweet. Perfect for a little break after a long walk.

We then drove around to look for food and found a Mexican restaurant. Wanted to bring the kids to try something different so we decide to eat there. They were extremely pleased with the big servings of nachos.

  Love their expressions when the food was served

After lunch, as weather was still good, hubby wanted to bring the kids to play with snow since our last trip was unsuccessful. It was an hour's drive from Portland to Timberline Lodge, which is located at the slope of Mt Hood, 6000 feet above level.  

Daddy took the kids to the top of a mild slope to slide down, what a fun and yet crazy thing to do.

Daddy slid down the slope with Jared on his lap. After that, he went back for Emily and slid down together

It wasn't snowing for the past few days, so the snow was harder on that day.

When it started to get dark, we walked to Timberline Lodge for a short rest before driving back.

Everyone was hungry by dinner time, we went to Outback Steakhouse for baby back ribs.

Exploring Portland On TriMet

Last Wednesday, we woke up to a dry and sunny day. Hubby suggested that we should take advantage of the good weather to explore Portland city while he was at work. So I quickly got the kids ready and walked to the TriMet station, Orenco St, which is just across our apartment. Both Emily and Jared were excited as they have been watching the trains passed by every few minutes from our apartment window. I paid USD5 for an adult day pass and USD3.30 for a Youth day pass. Jared gets to ride for free. Very worthy indeed..

Within 10 minutes, we were on the Blue MAX train heading towards city centre. Our first stop was Washington Park where the Oregon Zoo, Children's Museum and Japanese Garden are located. We did not visit the zoo, waiting for the 2nd week of next month to get some discounts on the entrance tickets. 

After spending some time there, we hopped on the train to continue our journey to Waterfront Park. This park runs along the Willamette River. As the weather was good, many locals jogged and hang around the park.

                                      

Saturday Market Pavillion shelters Portland's Saturday Market on the weekends

Next, we took the train to Pioneer Courthouse Square, located at the heart of downtown Portland. 

Getting ready for the Christmas Tree Lighting event on the evening after ThanksGiving Day.

Portland's Chinatown area

We saw the Central library and decided to make a stop there. Library is huge compare to what we have back home :( The other day we dropped by the Hillsboro Public Library and borrowed 44 books for the kids and 7 magazines for myself.. how wonderful.

Our last stop was the Powell's Books bookstore, claims to be the largest new and used bookstore in the world. 

It was already dark when we came out from the bookstore and we headed to the nearest station to catch a train tothe blue line station to change another train to get back to our apartment. By this time, we were all worn out from the long walk, except for Jared who was comfortably sitting in his stroller most of the time. I was not paying attention to some announcements made in the train that we should abort the train to catch another train to the blue line. When the train crossed a bridge, I realised that we were heading on the wrong direction based on the map. We quickly got down on the next stop. It was dark and cold, so it wasn't that fun to be standing by the roadside with 2 kids. Emily was a little nervous, but I assured her that we will be able to catch the next train home, thankfully Jared was already asleep. We waited for more than 15 minutes but no train was insight. The station was empty too making us doubt if any train will be passing through at this hour. We were so glad when few people came over to the station and in a short while the train arrived...Pheww.. Relieved to be warm again sitting in the train.

Back at the Blue Line, waiting for a train to bring us back to our apartment.