We had a wild trip downtown Portland for some amazing sushi where Kaia taught herself to eat creme brule with chopsticks. On our way we saw a hacky sack club doing some wild moves that mimicked dancing, where Kaia joined in with her own funky jig, and a street performer painted all in silver pretending to be a statue. When Kaia put a buck in his jar, he began to juggle and really got her attention. We ate some really expensive chocolate (I think it was silver moon or man in the moon or dancing moon) and I wasn't really all that impressed.
Our next adventure took us on a hike up Eagle Creek Canyon where Kaia got to ride on Mom's shoulders. There were some sketchy parts of the trail that concerned us both, but it was funny to watch Kaia's reaction. She grabbed my by the eye sockets and pulled me toward the mountain side trying to get me further away from the edge. We were glad when our new backpack came so that Kaia will feel safe and secure on our next adventures.
When Ben arrived, we went to the zoo where we witnessed a couple of scary looking grounded hornbills attack and kill a stork. Man, those birds are vicious! It was pretty horrifying, and we all felt bad for the stork. The giraffes in the exhibit attempted to intervined, and even kicked at the hornbills to get them to leave the stork alone, but I think the giraffe knew that the stork wouldn't make it and left him to the continued attacks of the hornbills. We tried to get help, but it arrived too late. By the time the zookeeper came, all she could do was kick at the stork to verify his death and get those hornbills to stop pecking at him with their giant, vulturesque beaks. As brutal as it was, is makes an interesting story to tell and we will never forget that trip to the zoo.
The next day we left Kaia with grandma and went kayaking in Scapoose. We saw bald eagles, lots of geese and some pretty amazing blue herin. We paddled up a river for about an hour and it really felt like we were in the bayou. Big, moss-covered trees hung down in the slow moving water and made for an interesting obsticle course. It ws fun to wind around and see interesting new things with every bend of the river.
On Sunday, we went down to Silver Falls and took a beautiful hike under a 175 foot waterfall. This is one of my favorite running trails, but we didn't have time to do the whole 10 miles, so we just visited 2 of the 7 named falls. GORGEOUS!!! I had forgotten what it was like to have so many living, growing, beautiful things.
We spent all day Monday packing and preparing for the next few legs of our trip and flew down to Vegas. We are now at Ben's parent's house and are getting ready to head out to his Brother's house for a little family reunion. I am hoping that we can catch a show this evening, but we have to make sure that we can get a sitter for Kaia.
Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Red Rock for some day hiking and then we head to Havasupai Falls for Kaia's first real backpacking trip. It should only be about 20 miles round trip, but I think it is going to be hard going because it is pretty steep. I really don't think we could have picked a better time of year to go though. I think temperatures will be just perfect for us and we will avoid a lot of the summer time tourists.
After Havasupai, we will go visit more family and friends in Phoenix, then we are off to Zion's National Park for more camping and hiking with friends. I think we will spend 2 or 3 days there before heading to Salt Lake for a family event and maybe try to squeeze in a hike up Timpanogos. We shall see.
So far, this trip has been rejuvenating and spectacular. It is sunny and 65 here in Vegas and we are loving the change of scenery.
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