Pumpkin farms are always so much fun. The good ones have fun animals to look at and pet, tractor rides, rusty farm equipment to play on, corn mazes (Dad calls them Maize Mazes, but that's just confusing), and plenty of pumpkins to pick. This year, our realtor hosted a ho-down and dinner party at a local pumpkin patch.
Best part about having a ho-down at a pumpkin patch - fresh, hot apple cider. Mmm... Apple Cider is what you get when you take normal apples and turn them into deliciousness. Apple cider is best warm and it feels like getting a hug your favorite stuffed animal after a long day of adventure-ing. Second best part about having a ho-down at a pumpkin patch - you get to ride the tractor to pick the pumpkins (as you can see in the photo below).We ended up with 7 smaller pumpkins - you can never have too many pumpkins.
After a busy week of school, the next weekend we took a quick trip to Bend, OR. To get to Bend, you have to drive through the Cascade Mountains, while bending. First bend to the left, then bend to the right, then bend up and finally bend back down. Somehow after all of that bending, you should arrive in Bend. Bend is a cool city. Dad says it is situated in the high desert plains of Oregon, where they do not receive too much rain; but has some of the best cattle prairie in the west. While in Bend we saw a few cows, hiked through a lava field, climbed an old volcano, and went to a museum about being in the high desert (funny, since we were already there). As you can see in the photo below, the scenery is just outstanding - mountains, trees, prairie (although no much of that is in the picture below, just me striking a pose on top of an old volcano)
Bend was so much fun, but it was a lot of driving in a short amount of time. We drove down Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. At least it was an outstandingly beautiful drive. To get home, we pointed the vehicles towards Mt Hood and just kept on driving
After a busy week of school, Mom said "Lets go to a pumpkin patch." Amelia mentioned that we were just at a pumpkin patch "yesternight." What was special about this 2nd pumpkin patch (other than they had large pumpkins and sold caramel corn) was your rode a train to the fields and a little boat back to the parking lot. No wonder mom wanted to go, she loves trains too. In the photo below, Amelia is sitting on the pumpkin that we later turned into her Jack-o-lantern.
Our Fall fun adventures were capped with a visit to the Evergreen Air & Space museum. Even before we moved, Dad has been talking about going to this museum. I would tell him that we have two fantastic air & space museums in DC/Virginia, but he would always talk about a few special planes they had at Evergreen. Well, we went and the Evergreen Air & Space museum was fantastic - a museum I would highly recommend. In addition to the entirely wooden Spruce Goose, the museum has a fantastic kids sections with a lot of planes for Amelia and I to fly. Like our Virginia Air & Space museum, they also had an SR71 Blackbird; only at Evergreen, you got to touch the plane & they had an engine pulled out for you to look at!
Although we did not go, the museum also has a waterpark. Yup, an airplane themed waterpark, where 4 slides start 7 stories up (they were probably chapter books and not the little books Amelia likes) from an airplane parked on the roof of the building. I know! Waterslides in a 747- you can check it out on this video someone else took (since we did not go on the waterslides).
Regardless, I look forward to going back to this museum another day, even though it is an hour away! One of Dad's favorite parts of the museum, they converted a golf cart to look like a space shuttle - he was ooh-ing and ahhh-ing like a little kid (silly Dad).
Peace Out,
Phin.
