Oregon, Part 1

During the whirlwind summer I've had, I was able to go to Oregon with Conor to visit my brother, his wife, and my 3 nieces: Jon, Jen, Madi, Livi and Gabi. I always have a blast while in Wilsonville, and this time was definitely no different. Conor was busy with boring baseball, and Jon had to work all day, so that left us ladies to go wild and crazy! You'll never guess what crazy antics we got into! That's right, we went to an Oregon Trail Center and the Oregon City Museum. Jelly?

In all honesty, I am a huge nerd, and after teaching about the Oregon Trail for 3 years, I really enjoy learning more about it. Olivia suggested that we go, and how do you resist a cute 11 year-old that wants to do something she thought of for you on her summer vacation?!? Although I think Olivia wished she hadn't brought it up once we got there, I still had a blast. Here are some highlights from our adventure:


Madi being a typical teenager on her cell phone, even though she is surrounded by lots of dead animals...


A list of ways to receive "lashes" from your school-teacher back in the day. Children all across North Carolina are lucky I'm not teaching this year, this would have been upheld for sure.  (You should be able to click on the picture to make it a bit bigger to see better.)


In case you were wondering if Gabi is a Bean or not, the kids all sat down at old fashioned desks, and Jen asked us questions that might have been common knowledge in the mid 1800s. Gabi drew this instead.


A list of items that may have been needed to get started on your journey from Independence, MO to Oregon City, OR. Told you I was a huge nerd.


This box is a replica of one that a black female slave rode in for the entire 2,000 mile journey to Oregon. Slaves were not allowed to make the trek, but this woman was free, and chose to stay with her family that she worked for. They had this box built into their covered wagon. Can you imagine? She only came out at night once everyone was asleep so she could stretch her legs and grab something to eat.


I love that this was in a book of common remedies used in the 1800s, since doctors were hard to come by.

After we left the Oregon Trail center, we drove up to an outdoor elevator which took you from one city block to the next block below it. It is the only outdoor elevator in the US, and it's a bit bizarre. There were lots of pictures to show how they built the elevator, and there was a man behind plexi-glass that took us up and down. Somehow I forgot to take pictures - check the link above to see it.

After that, we decided to make one more stop at Multnomah Falls and the Oregon City museum. The girls were so excited that they could hardly contain themselves. Poor girls. Jen and I had a blast, and they really were troopers! More photo highlights:


Oregon City is one of the earliest settled Western cities - it is where most pioneers were heading when they left the East Coast for fertile lands, religious freedom, and a new life. This part of the day was the most interesting. There was some seriously weird stuff in the museum, and as I look back on it now, I'm not 100% sure what it all had to do with Oregon City. Anywho, they had lots of pictures on the walls, some interesting "artifacts" and the remnants of an old pharmacy.








Out of this entire wall photo, this is the one kid that stuck out to me (can we talk about his arms - they're enormous!)


Gross.

After a fun day, we came home to relax for a bit - we played the Wii (Gabi is ridiculously good), ate a wonderful dinner (homemade pizzas where we were attacked by killer bees, according to Madi and Livi), then went for a couple rounds of bowling - it was going to be Gabi's first time!

You have to check out these two videos I took of Gabi. The first one is of Gabi playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii. She is competing in the Trampoline, and her determination is amazing. The second one is of Gabi bowling for the first time - she did great!





Here are some other great pictures from bowling - all in all, Jon won both games and Jen has the best strike dance, but I really won because my sunglasses matched my shoelaces.









Part 2, OMSI coming up soon!