Portland Sightseeing | Portland Family Attractions, Events, & Activities

Jun201023

Explore local restaurants and outstanding bookstores with a cheap Portland hotel or funky downtown accommodation as a base.

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Best Portland Hotels: Hip, Urban, Funky Accommodations in Oregon

Jun201023

Study says Portland not a ‘manly’ city

Portland is one of the nation’s least “manliest” cities, according to an annual ranking just released by Mars Chocolate North America.

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Study says Portland not a ‘manly’ city

Jun201023

I love to travel, and this summer I’m finding myself extremely lucky in the travel department! In early June my son and I tagged along when my husband went to Washington, D.C., for a conference. This week said son and I are visiting my mom in southern California. And next month we’re heading off on a road trip around southern Oregon and northern California. Throw in a weekend camping trip or two and this summer is shaping up quite nicely indeed! I’ve learned a lot about traveling with kids (OK, a kid) over the years, much of it through researching and reading articles about family travel right here in Metro Parent . Our June feature Hit the Road offers tips for Happy Family Car Trips, and a recent blog inspired dozens of reader comments offering more travel tips for parents. A few years ago, we ran an Ages & Stages article about traveling with kids and another sharing stories from local parents about their Best Family Vacations Ever! (It’s a good job for a travel bug!) You can check out more of our travel articles on our Family Travel page . I hope some of them (along with our reader comments) will not only help you get more out of family travel but also encourage you to get out there as often as you can and explore the world with your kids. Where are you going this summer? Wherever it is, whether near or far, we wish you happy trails!

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More Family Travel Tips

Jun201021

Samantha

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Ex-smokejumpers fix up old Ore. base for museum

More than 50 former smokejumpers from across the nation have gathered to help turn the former Siskiyou Smokejumper Base into a museum about the airborne firefighters.

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Ex-smokejumpers fix up old Ore. base for museum

Jun201021

Samantha

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Old-fashioned Fun at Oaks Park Preschool Rides!

I’ve never been one of those mothers who mourns the passing of every developmental phase. I seem to notice the passing irritations (colic! sleepless nights! tantrums and crying jags!) far more than the passing pleasures (yes, the little ones are awfully cute!). But there is one thing I sorely miss about my son’s younger days, and that one thing is Oaks Park’s Preschool Rides. For $6.25 per child, kids 6 and under can enjoy all the kiddie rides they can handle for two straight hours, followed by milk, cookies and a story. (Parents get in free!) It’s paradise for little kids, everyone moving at a slower pace, everyone happy and smiling and thrilled by the magic of the big pink slide, the soaring balloons and spinning tea cups, the historic carousel, the peaceful train, the bouncing frog hopper and the remarkably speedy (though somewhat rickety) mini-roller coaster. The day I realized my son had outgrown those perfect summer mornings was a sad day for me indeed. We had an amusement park not unlike Oaks Park in the middle of the city where I grew up, but that park is long gone, having been turned into a lucrative seven-story shopping mall and traffic magnet sometime during my middle school years. Maybe that’s why I was so fond of Oaks Park’s Preschool Rides. Not only did they remind me of my own happy preschool days, they reminded me that I now live in a place where a little amusement park can still exist within the city limits, providing fun-filled days for kids of all ages all summer long. Preschool Rides starts tomorrow (June 22) and runs from 9:30 to 11:30 am every Tuesday and Wednesday through September 29 at Oaks Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way. If your kids are still young enough to enjoy a good old-fashioned kiddie ride, you should definitely check it out. And say hi to the Frog Hopper for me! oakspark.com/chippersrides.html

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Old-fashioned Fun at Oaks Park Preschool Rides!

Jun201020

Samantha

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In Praise of Funny Fathers

The following first appeared as an Editor’s Note in the June 2005 issue of Metro Parent. My sweet father got a big kick out of it. Dad passed away on May 17, 2008, leaving a permanent hole in our family – and in our hearts. I’m posting this today to honor him, and all of the loving, funny fathers out there. My dad’s a funny guy – and I mean funny as in “ha ha” not funny as in odd . All of his life he’s enjoyed laughter, his own and that of others, whether it was over one of life’s countless spontaneous moments of mirth or a good solid joke. Here’s an example: Dad and three friends (all fathers) went fishing one weekend when he was in his 30s. The fish weren’t exactly biting so he and his buddies decided to stop at a roadside stand and buy several large salmon. One of the group – my dad can’t remember whom – came up with the idea of telling the wives that they caught the fish. This group of jokers then went a step further and had a local photographer take several shots of them with their “catch.” One of the proud wives brought a photo over to the local newspaper (you can see where this is going …). They published it in the next edition with the headline “Local Men Get Lucky.” Dad’s still laughing about that one, nearly fifty years later. Not all of dad’s jokes are so elaborate or staged. In fact, for the most part his humor is the seamless sort that blends into his life and relationships, an underlying premise – an assumption, really – that’s always there. It’s made the lives of his five kids so much richer and, during rough times, simply more bearable. Dad’s always looked at life through that lens of humor – and I feel strongly that it’s due to his comic nature (whether genetic or acquired) that all of us kids have funny bones. I really can’t think of a greater gift that he’s given his children – except, of course, his love. To be sure not all funny fathers are loving – and not all loving fathers are particularly funny. It’s pure serendipity when they’re both. I came across another funny father recently. The book The Poo Bomb: True Tales of Parental Terror by Jeff Vogel (Andrews McMeel, 2005) landed on my desk. The prologue promised that the book contained “everything funny that happened in our daughter Cordelia’s first year of life.” I skimmed through it, expecting hackneyed dirty diaper jokes and projectile vomiting anecdotes. What I found instead was genuinely funny stuff – irreverent, sometimes bordering on obscene, but funny nonetheless. Even the diaper jokes and vomiting scenarios were hilarious. In Vogel’s version of FAQs, he writes: “Q: Why did you use so many dirty words when writing this? A: I do not feel that it is possible to write honestly about parenting without using a lot of obscenities.” See? Funny stuff. Lest you conclude that Vogel is a lousy father – and this would be a fair assumption after reading some of his passages – it’s clear that he isn’t. He’s just another funny, loving dad. Consider this passage about his infant daughter: “I don’t have what my wife refers to as ‘foo foo’ feelings. No warm fuzzies. But I strongly suspect, if necessary, I’d get hit by a car for her.” I have no doubt that my dad feels the same way. My father is almost 90 years old now. And he’s still making us laugh. But, more importantly, he still makes us feel loved. By Marie Sherlock, editor of Metro Parent, in loving memory of Gerald Sherlock (1915-2008)

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In Praise of Funny Fathers