Distraction

In my last post I wrote about my recital sickness... how I was missing the annual dance recital.  We didn't really talk with the girls about it, but I thought they were probably missing it too.  So we decided to fill their day with distractions.  And what a neat one we found too...

Okay, a confession...WE didn't find it.  Our friend Caryl asked us to meet up down there.  So, in the interest of full disclosure, it was her idea.

We took them to Portland's Rose Festival.  The Rose Parade was on Saturday, but since we're not really "parade people" (I'm sure our kids are parade people - John and I just are not), we skipped that part and took them to see the floats on Sunday.  This was MUCH better because we could get up close and see all the cool details of the floats.  Like the bee above...his beads are painted walnuts, hazelnuts, and well, other kinds of nuts.

I liked these:

And the girls really liked these:

Abby and Caryl checking out the flowers

This parade is like the better-known Rose Parade (you know, in Pasadena) where every covering has to be from nature: flowers, seeds, grasses, etc.

Then we walked along the river, sidestepping copious amounts of people, their children and dogs.  The girls were excited to see a man with a huge yellow snake around his neck...just walking through the crowd.  Nope, not a side show...just keeping Portland weird.

During the Rose Festival, they also have dragon boat races.  Not that I'm into rowing, or anything requiring physical exertion, but this looked like fun.  Some of the teams dressed alike or had funny names (for the life of me I cannot remember a single one right now!).  A crowd had gathered on the grass to watch and cheer them on.

We finished off with a libation at Rock Bottom Brewery and a Max ride back to the car.  And yes, the girls loved the Max...their first real "train ride."  (But trust me, that's a post all to itself - such interesting people ride the Max.  I kept having to remind the girls to stop staring.)