Schwakida's Invade Portland

We continued our traveling road show as we met up with the Schwartzs' in Seattle and journeyed onto Portland.  I must admit that traveling with the Schwartzs' continues to be like putting on that old comfy hoodie . . . you know the one . . . the one with holes in it, all of the comfy cotton has been worn and washed flat, there are multiple stains on it, and their is a distinct smell to it.  Now I am not saying that the Schwartz's are in need of a good scrubbing and that they stink, but there is some comfort in traveling with another family that can put up with the quirkiness of the Hikeats.  As parents, we all have our roles when we travel . . . Mich and Lisa spend countless hours planning our day trips, believe it or not I try to throw in my two bits here and there about what we should do, and Tatum, who is usually indifferent as to what or where we go is surprisingly decisive about where we should eat.  Lisa is the human sherpa as she often has a kid draped on her, Tatum is carrying his camera pack and snapping photos, I am battling my kids in the hotel pool, and Mich is supervising the pool deck from her lounger or from the comfort of the hot tub.  The reason why our Schwakida Adventures work is because we all know our roles and we do it well.  Mich said it best, "We don't have to drive five hours to have fun, we could be in Hope, BC and have a blast being together".  Apparently, Michelle has told me that Lisa has blogged about us being compared to a pair of old jeans . . . personally I think of us as a fine wine . . . a diamond in the rough . . . every cloud's silver lining . . . the twinkle in your eye.

Our little chickadees in an eagle's nest.

The kids loved seeing all of the different animals at the Portland Zoo.  Josh enjoyed being our tour guide as he directed us around the zoo with his map.

Emma does love her music.

Yes, we even managed to have S'mores in our hotel room for a sweet treat.

I love my kids, but this is the main reason why I will do everything possible not to sleep with them on road trips.

One of the highlights of our trip to Portland was going on the Willamette Jet Boat tour.  Although the captain of the boat shared his knowledge of this area, the kids loved the 360's, power slides, and especially the Royal Flush.  The Royal Flush is where the boat travels in a straight line and then the Captain buries the nose into the water causing a flood of water to pour over the front window and into the seating area.  We were all soaked and Mich even had a small pool of water in her lap.  Advice: 1) If you want the full experience, try to get on with a boisterous baseball team that is willing to banter with the pilot 2) bring a zip lock bag to keep your wallet and cell phone safe.

These two were fun to watch as "Jackie" was a little unsure at times as to how to deal with our little princess.  One of my favourite things to do was to eaves drop on Emma's and Jack's conversations . . . I think sometimes these talks were a little one sided.  I wonder where she gets the gift of the gab from?

One of the things that we have been trying to do a little more is introduce our kids to some new experiences like the jet boat tour.  Luckily our hotel was one of the stops for the Portland Train that travels from the airport to Beaverton . . . so we decided to take advantage of this and make our way to downtown Portland via train.  Lets just say that the Train was quickly nicknamed the Milk Run as it made a 'couple' of stops along the way . . . what else would you expect of public transit?  As the driver in our family, I found it quite relaxing not having to deal with Portland traffic and trying to follow the Schwartz's car, but I guess there were a few too many stops for one of our traveling companions.

 When completed our last stop on our Milk Run we managed to find our way to Powell Books . . . a book store that is one block long and has an incredible childrens' book selection . . . well lets just look at our group: five kids who love books, three teachers (one classroom teacher, one district consultant, one librarian), and one physiotherapist/photographer.  Hmm . . . does anyone else see a possible black sheep of this group who might not appreciate this bookstore as much???  Now I am not saying that Tatum does not read, but once he got through the photography books which took about 15 minutes, he spent the next hour and fifteen minutes trying to figure out why were we still there.  We managed to do some reading, some searching, some selecting, and we even got to see an author read aloud her book during story time.  Once the decisive Hikeats made there selections we were off to Jamison Square to cool down and splash in their fountain.

It was hot today so it was a nice reprieve from the heat as the kids frolicked in the fountain.

Even in this heat, Mich managed to steal a few snuggles from the kids.

Tatum made a great choice as we stopped for lunch at this little burger shop called the Little Big Burger.  I think I got my salt intake for the week eating those fries.  I would definitely go back again if I had the chance.