The Lavenders trip to Oregon

The Lavenders came to visit us during my last break and we had a rootin' tootin' time. Here are some of the wonderful things we did while they were here.

The Scenic Columbia River Highway Waterfalls

Laura Lee Lavender (LLL) and Quinn Lavender at the Vista House over looking the mighty Columbia River

Latourell waterfall

I wasn't sure who that was in the background so I asked Challene. She said she'd recognize my cute behind anywhere! Ethan is there too. I failed to mention that LLL was 15(?) weeks pregnant at the time they visited us. (she's due December something and they're having a girl, congrats to them!) She sure was a trooper to do all that hiking and walking.

This waterfall was cool because you could actually hike right up to it. If the water wasn't near freezing temperatures I surmise you could even wade in it!

On the trail to Latourell falls

This rock should look familiar to Mom and Dad. We took them here too, and Dad stood atop it and posed for a picture.

Multnomah Falls

This is the famous-est of the falls on the Columbia River Highway. One of my least favorites, frankly.

The bridge to Bridalveil falls

Where is Will? And what happened to the bottom half of him?

OMSI

(Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

Gunther VanHagen's Body Worlds exibit was on display at OMSI while Quinn and LLL came up. Quinn and I decided we'd like to see it so we ditched the women and children and payed the $19 each to get in (yeouch!). For those unfamiliar with the Body Worlds exhibit, I'll explain. Ol' Gunny invented a radically new way of bodily preservation called "Plastination". This process allowed the bodies to be impecibally preserved. Naturally, he patented the process and decided to make millions off of displaying his dissections to the world. It was pretty cool. His dissections were flawless and rather incredible to behold (having attempted my own dissection I could appreciate his skill quite well). Once you've seen one posed dead body, you've pretty much seen them all, though. What I liked were the different pathologies he displayed. A post-stroke brain, the classic "smokers" lung, Abdominal Aortic Aneurisms, etc. Also, he was able to inject his plastination things into the arterial system of several animals (chicken, lamb, human arm, etc.) and then let flesh eating bacteria take care of the rest of the animal so that all you would see is the arterial network. It was so intricate. You could see the many arteries branch into arterioles and then to the capillary beds. Thus, you had a trillion arteries shaped like a chicken, lamb, human arm, etc. Does that make sense? It was a good experience, but $19? Seems a bit steep in retrospect. Anyhoo, the girls had the camera, so here's their day at OMSI:

Ethan and I in a rocket ship (Post BodyWorlds when Quinn and LLL went to take a tour of a submarine -- natrually Quinn used his best Sean Connery impression while down there. What else would he do?). Don't know how this turned out crooked but Challene kinda liked it. It was set up as if a real rocket such that you were lying on your back. Pretty neat!

Joshua as usual puting stuff in his mouth. Yes he did get sick about a week later. Yah go figure put germy stuff in your mouth and you get sick.

Ethan playing at the water tables. This one had a mountian theme.

The Classic Chinese Garden

This is in downtown Portland. Like right in the middle of a business district. Not exactly where I would have thought a Chinese Garden should go, but what do I know about the Chinese, eh?

The entrance to the gardens

This here is a rock. It's in the gardens... Joshy's sitting on it. Gosh, what do you want from me?

Ethan was pooped. A nice hippy lady took this picture for us.

Lunch at the Thirsty Lion Pub in downton Portland

We went to the Saturday Market too. Basically just a huge flea market held every Saturday. It was long and we got hungry so we went to the pub for a couple pints.



Ethan and his sauce again. I think he's had enough.

I have no comment about this one. Except that those fries were very, very good.



China Town

This was our first and last trip to china town. What you see in the picture is all that there was worth seeing. Quinn and LLL are in the bottom left of the photo.

Pictures of the boys

Challene and I don't wear hats and the boys were fasinated by Quinn's.


We had a fabulous time with the Lavanders here. They were lovely and gracious guests and we hope they will come again. Also we are always up for anyone who would like to stay with us. We would love some company. So here is another official invite for those who need it. Come, stay, see what Oregon has to offer.

~Fin~