Pages

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

portland walking tour

We went on a walking tour of downtown Portland today with a local homeschool group. I think one of my favorite parts was getting to try out two different echo chambers in the downtown area, one in Pioneer Courthouse Square and one further south, near the Keller Auditorium.



Both kids in the funky chair at the Center for the Performing Arts. Samuel was being timed by one of the moms and you can see by his face that something is up.



Anansi topper outside Center for the Performing Arts and the world's smallest park, measuring just 24 inches across.



Portlandia (second only to the Statue of Liberty as a large copper statue) and 19th century building with iron and grotesques (gargoyles without the water...) Apparently they used to use the different decorations on the buildings to give directions, as in- I'm in the white iron building with the grotesques sticking their tongues out...

The tour guide brought magnets so the kids could find out which of the older buildings had iron in them for decorative purposes. Portland has 20 iron buildings (down from 200), second only to New York City for cities with iron buildings.



Salmon Street Fountain and Eva looking at the Willamette and the Hawthorne Bridge.



There was a fantastic flower display in Pioneer Courthouse Square.




The kids doing crayon rubbings. (There is one block with several bricks with words and quotations etched into them. The tour guide brought crayons and paper for rubbings.)

1 comment:

Shady Lady said...

Your day was even cooler than I thought! We've never done a walking tour of the city. I think we have to schedule this!