Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Ode to Portland: Forest Park and OMSI

Two more absolutely wonderful places we have enjoyed here: Forest Park and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).

Forest Park is a public municipal park with over 5,100 wooded acres, making it the largest, forested natural area within city limits in the United States. It is pure lushness with ferns, Douglas firs, bigleaf maples, western red cedar, shrubs of all sorts.... the list goes on. In short, a temperate rainforest. Incredibly beautiful and moist smelling, a cool shaded green on the hot days here. In some ways (the deciduousness, I suppose) it reminds me of Michigan and the forests there. Although that hasn't been my physical home for a long time now, it will always be, in many ways, the place that calls to me most and pulls at me with its lingering childhood memories. 

I remember moving to Colorado and enjoying the dryness of the area. Now, I can also appreciate the moisture. Very different places. Both very beautiful in their ways.   






OMSI. Oh, OMSI.... you wonderful place to go on a rainy, dreary day or when I haven't been out of the house for awhile and need a good, long activity. You are big. You are fun. You have things of interest for kids and grownups alike, making a kid's outing much more enjoyable for me when we return again and again and again. You teach my scientifically-minded child so many wonderful things, from Archimede's Screw to which things put in our recycle bin to chemistry experiments and water rockets and the stages of fetal development and..... oh, I could go on. What I'm trying to say is, you are a wonderful place of knowledge and fun, and we will miss you so dearly. Thank you for being such a favourite companion here.

photo courtesy of Danna Almeter


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