Portland Train Rides

This week my family and I celebrated National Train Day, and had a blast riding the Oregon Pacific Railroad. The Oregon Pacific Railroad currently offers train rides on Saturday through the fall, for $5.00 per passenger. The ride is approximately 40 minutes, with a 10 minute lay over at each station: Oaks Amusement Park station and Oregon Rail Heritage Center station. My family and I got on the train at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center station and loved riding towards Oaks Amusement Park. We saw the Willamette, downtown, other trains, a wetland, and bicycles and joggers on the Springwater Trail, a.k.a. Waterfront Loop. We happened to stay in the train car for the 10 min lay over because we had really fun seats where we had to climb up into the red car. We also viewed other cars and saw what it would look like if we took an overnight train, and sat in the trolly where we could feel the nice breeze. The museum was also fun to briefly tour and learn more about trains. Overall, it was an amazing experience in which I would highly recommend because for $5.00 a person, it is a great way to get out and have fun Playing in Portland. 

To find more about Portland Trains click on Oregon Pacific Railroad.

Click here for directions to Oaks Amusement Park.

Click here for directions to Oregon Rail Heritage Center.  

 

No Nuts, No Buts, No Coconuts!

The original saying maybe, “no cuts, no buts, no coconuts,” but honest to God, I bet many mother’s and father’s who have kids with life threatening food allergies could care less if a child cuts in front of their child, unless, they cut in front with nuts!  If they do cut with nuts, be prepared to hear as a disinfectant wipe or two are being brought to you to wipe off your childs’ hands and the child with the allergy may shout, “NO NUTS, NO BUTS, NO COCONUTS!” Obviously by now you get this post is dedicated to educate people to not bring NUTS (peanuts, almonds, pistachios, peanut butter crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, any type or form of a nut) to a playground! There has been various times this year that I’ve seen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at playgrounds and it baffles me that people would have the tenacity to do so.  Just last week my children ran into two kids and two separate playgrounds eating peanut butter crackers and a jar of peanuts.  I don’t know how many times I have seen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches this summer and I should have posted this at the beginning of summer, but I thought it would be a good reminder as school is starting, and if your school isn’t nut free why not help out in making an effort to save kids lives and make it nut free!

Here are some facts to shed light on food allergies taken primarily from FARE (Food Allergy Research  & Education http://www.foodallergy.org/home).

15 million Americans have food allergies                                                                        – Many of those 15 million are susceptible to anaphylaxis (pronounced an-uh-fil-LAX-is) which is a life threatening reaction. (http://www.foodallergy.org/anaphylaxis)  

– Anaphylaxis can result in death. Symptoms can include difficulty breathing or reduced blood pressure (e.g. pale, weak pulse, confusion, loss of consciousness)

 – Every 3 minutes a food allergy reaction sends some one to the emergency department– that is about 200,000 emergency department visits per year, and every 6 minutes the reaction is one of anaphylaxis. (http://www.foodallergy.org/document.doc?id=194)

So be pro-active, and leave your nuts at home! If for some reason you forget and you have sanitizer or disinfectant wipes please use them.  If you see a parent come to you with a disinfectant wipe after you or your child eats a nut product, don’t be offended. They are just trying to save their kids life.

Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals

Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals is a nice outing any time of the year. If the weather is nice you may want to enjoy not only the astounding rocks and minerals inside, but also their beautiful landscape outside. At Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals you will be surprised at how much there is to discover! There are glow in the dark rocks, jewels, petrified rocks, meteorites, a gift shop, and much more. My kids specifically liked touching the petrified dinosaur poop and seeing the crystallized gold. I liked the diamonds and the pink rocks. Truly there are rocks and minerals for everyone; I’m convinced you will be captivated more than once. Be sure to explore the whole area and not just The Northwest Mineral Gallery as the house has various rooms and nooks you will want to see. In addition, as you are leaving don’t forget to let your children grab a free rock as each kid may take one out of the outside rock pile. Overall, Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals has been nationally recognized as the finest rocks and minerals museum in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the best in the nation. So check it out, you will learn a lot and see beautiful rocks and minerals from around the world.

For directions to Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals click on maps.

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

Playing is essential to learning and A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village illustrates their motto well by being a place to learn and play. The children museum does a fairly good job in educating kids, as there is quite a lot to explore and learn in areas such as history, science, and humanities. Most of the exploring your children will probably participate in will be outside via the elaborate play structure. It is huge!  And, there is so much to do: tube slides (one dark long one which may be frightening for little ones), a wide slide, wavy slide, sand pit, giant chess game, tic tac toe, tire obstacle, swings and so much more! The other parts of the museum that are worth mentioning are the PlayArt room by Ed Tannenbaum (known as Recollections), the shadows room (known as the Undersea Cave of Frozen Shadows), and the outside bubble arena. Those attributes were my favorite and filled with fun, but there are other great rooms to explore. Overall this museum is a lot of fun, but it seems like it could use some upkeep or better maintenance. The inside of each house smelt musty, and although I didn’t see any spiders, there were tons of enormous spider webs outside and throughout the play structure. This did make the museum a little less enjoyable. In addition, the cost seemed a bit spendy for a whole family (I think adults should be free), but if you have an ASTC membership (we got a membership at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum) or an OMSI membership it is free! You can also get a membership card from your local library. Despite those few negative factors I plan on returning because the playground is like no other, and I want to play in the recollection room again! Also I must mention outside the museum there is a beautiful long walking bridge that crosses the Willamette. My kids loved crossing the big bridge and throwing rocks in the river. We will return! So get the kids ready for an hour drive and have fun playing at the A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village!

Click on A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village to see their description of the children’s museum.

Click on maps to find directions to A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village.

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum Playground

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum has a playground and it rocks! I mean, it literally rocks like a rocket ship! There are three main structures, which include a rocket ship, airplane, and helicopter. I always love climbing up the rocket ship and I’m sure your kid’s imagination will run wild as they explore the universe on all three structures! One great thing about this playground is – it’s free!  Granted it takes an hour to get there and the museum costs, but the museum attraction along with playing at the playground is worth the time and money. Plus if you would like to hang out longer, you can continue the fun at the new water park, which is open for an additional cost and looks amazing!  We didn’t play at the water park, but we will in the future. The playground was enough for us in one day as there are numerous slides, a translucent crawl tunnel along with a closed crawl tunnel, various climbing structures, swings, a teeter totter, a rocket ship hop scotch and so much more. I should mention there isn’t much shade. Alternatively there are tables with umbrellas where you can sit and relax. Also there isn’t a bathroom outside so you would probably have to pay the entrance fee to use the museums restroom but don’t worry if you get hungry there are restaurants in both the aviation building and space building. They also have wine tasting. There are literally hours of fun at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum! It is amazing, and a playground you don’t want to miss.

Click on maps or Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum for directions to this playground.