Portland, Oregon Family Outing

Sorry for the long delay between blog postings.  I'll try to get several updated entries posted.  This is from the weekend of April 9, 2011.

We had tickets to see a Dave Ramsey show in Portland so we decided to make a family weekend of the outing.  We got there and checked into our hotel  in a suburb of Portland to the east that is close to the light rail system.  Then, we headed to the Pittock Mansion on a hill overlooking the city. 

  The century old mansion, built by a newspaper magnate is an architectural masterpiece.  Appointed with period furniture, it was a neat tour.  Justin got to play the antique grand piano.  The view from the 1000' high hill was spectacular so we took a few pictures.

 The next day it was time to go see the Dave Ramsey event.  Ramsey is a nationally famous radio host who focuses on "Financial Peace".  I've listened to him for years and was excited when I heard he'd be coming out west as he is based near Nashville.  We got to meet Dave and get this picture and enjoyed a great show.

It just so happened there was a bicycle show at the convention center the same weekend as Dave Ramsey, what a break!  We had a great time seeing the bikes, bicyclists and accessories.  The picture above shows Ryan Leech, he is a professional mountain biker and the things he can do on a bicycle are amazing, you can watch this video if you'd like to see his show.

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Nate and I did a sprint race on these stationary bicycles.

We also had a chance to test ride some unique bikes.

After the bike show, we headed for the Saturday market in downtown Portland.  We had fun browsing the vendor booths with lots of arts and crafts.  One booth caught out attention as we each got to try out our "through the head" items.

The weather was a little gray but the rain held off, it was a great view along the Willamette River complete with street vendors like this silver painted guy juggling glass balls.

On the way home, we stopped at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.  I had been here numerous times but had never hiked to the top to look down so we made the hike with a great view from the top!  It was an enjoyable weekend!