Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge was one of our favorite stops during our third annual Portland field trip last month.  Located just 2 hours south of Tacoma, Ridgefield consists of over 5,000 acres of marshes, grasslands, and woodlands.  I wanted to stop there because we just spent the year studying flying creatures and knew we'd see plenty of birds there; however, I never suspected just how fun it would be.  The kids even appreciated the stop, especially Mika.

We specifically stopped to drive their River S Unit Discovery Tour.  This 4.2 mile gravel loop wanders through one section of the refuge and provides you with plenty to see.  The posted speed limit was 15mph, but we found 5-10mph was as fast as we wanted to travel.  There was too much to see and hear to drive through it fast!

We thought we were in a heaven place just driving to the refuge.  This is just the road leading down to it.  It was green and gorgeous.

Then you come to this one lane bridge.  It looked quite worrisome to me because it looked like you needed to drive on only certain parts of the bridge.  The other parts were recessed a bit.  As you get half way across the bridge, you get an idea of how beautiful the refuge is; just don't roll down your window yet because the river stinks.

Drive on down to the visitor's center; there's a $3 fee per car to visit.  Volunteers staff the booth during the week and weekends, so you can pay there, pick up a brochure or list of animals that visit the refuge, or borrow a CD audio tour.  Each track on the CD corresponds to numbered signs along the drive.  If there are no volunteers at the time of your visit, pay you fee with the provided envelopes and pick up your brochure.

 

Then hop in the car and start driving.  This is the beginning of the auto tour.  Take note of the posted time.  The gate closes automatically at that time, and you don't want to get stuck on the wrong side of the gate.  The only way out is to call the local police department.  Expect the drive to take at least 30 minutes; it took us 45 minutes.

Not far down the road, we say turtles sunning themselves.  It was so exciting that I stopped the car and hopped out to get a photo.  During the summer months (May 1 through September 30), this is okay.  During the rest of the year, you must stay in your car.

Not too much farther, we stopped to talk to a photographer and he mentioned the owls down the road.  They weren't hard to find because all the other cars were stopped there. 

According to the photographer it was a Great Horned Owl and her owlets.  See the owls?

No?  How about now?  They were a bit far for my camera to get a good photo but it was cool seeing them there.

Here's some scenery we drove past.  As we were driving, we could here all kinds of chirps, croaks, and calls.  We stopped the car for a minute just to listen.

We saw lots of red-winged blackbirds.  They were pretty.

This guy was only a few feet from my window and was chirping at us.  If only we understood what he was saying.

There are three different kinds of ducks in this photo...and more beautiful scenery.

We eventually made it back to the visitor center and found this little guy sitting on a post.  I think he's a barn swallow. 

The kids and I enjoyed our visit so much that we planned on coming back before we even left.  We wanted to bring Daddy, a picnic, and walk along the walking trail.  It's evident that our year spent studying flying creatures was a year well-spent; the kids both said that they appreciated the visit more because of their studies.

We definitely recommend this place to anyone who likes nature and birds.  It was awesome!

OMSI

We've now taken an annual trip to Portland three years in a row. The kids now expect to go to OMSI when we are in the area. It's pretty high on their list of favorite places.


Upon arriving at OMSI, Mika and Sam begged to go to the earthquake house first. It's one of their favorite exhibits so we made a beeline straight to it. Then we took in a few of the exhibits in the area.



Sam played with this crane for a while. Josh was nearby playing in some water with some toy boats propelled by a paddle wheel on a rubber ban. The important part was the water.


Grandpa and Mika tried building an earthquake proof structure. When you are done with your building, you push the button to make the conveyor belt shake to test it out.

We also checked out the physics lab where Mika was able to hold onto a static ball thingy and watch her hair stand straight up in a mirror. Sam has a new interest in chemistry so we stopped by the chemistry lab. Unfortunately, it required more adult help and wearing safety goggles so we didn't get to do much there (Maddie can't wear safety goggles). He did get to do an experiment where you separate the colors of markers to see which colors were used.

After checking out the turbine hall a bit, we stopped for lunch and then headed to the life sciences rooms upstairs. Josh loves the hearing stations where you can see what different hearing issues sound like. You try to have a conversation with another person at the other hearing station while they simulate tinnitus or hearing loss. Of course, we visited the prenatal development area, which is really fascinating. Finally, we got stuck in the life science lab and played at the create a stream table.



At this table, you are suppose to create a stream with different characteristics like pools in shade for young salmon. The sign gives you things to create. Most of the time, though, it is just a big sand and water table.


We also stopped and tried solving some puzzles. They are really hard until your shown the solution, and then you feel really dumb. The answers are always really easy. (Don't you hate that?) This particular puzzle is super easy. My dad was able to solve one of the harder ones, and Mika remembered the solution to one that we were shown last time.

After that, it was time for our IMAX film. We opted to see Deep Sea which showed all kinds of neat things about creatures living in the ocean. They focused on survival adaptations and symbiotic relationships. It was Sam's favorite part of the visit this time. I thought it was fun because it was our first experience in an omnidome experience and it was the topic of next year's science.



After the IMAX movie, we headed over to the space exhibit where Sam talked my dad into climbing into the Apollo capsule with him. It's quite a small space and difficult to get in and out.


There was also a real moon rock to touch. That was exciting for Sam. He also liked trying out this circular bike thing that lets you experience exercise in space.



We finished our visit with the science playground. This room is my kids' favorite so I save it for last. My big kids are happy they have younger siblings because they are only allowed in there with a younger sibling. As expected, Josh spent his time in the sandbox. Maddie got her first sand experience and only tried to eat the sand once.

When we first walked into the science playground, a woman immediately looked straight at me and said, "Hi". Fortunately, she immediately followed it with her name and how I knew her. She was the sister of an old friend of mine. She told me he was there, too, and called him on his cell to come up to that room. It was great to see him. The last time I saw him was a little over a year ago, and before that it had been many years. It also happened that another friend from that group was with them so David went to fetch him. David's parents, whom I've met a few times were with the group as well. And, finally, I got to meet David's wife and daughter for the first time. It was a really nice surprise. We all agreed to meet for dinner the next evening and do some catching up. What are the odds of seeing people you haven't seen in a long time in a different city like that?

A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village

With the weather interfering with our plans, we decided to go to Salem instead and visit the A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village instead. Most of it is indoors where the rain wouldn't completely spoil the fun. And I know someone online who lives nearby. We made plans to meet at the museum and headed out.

This children's museum is a fun place. If you are ever in the Salem area, I recommend it. A.C. Gilbert, by the way, was the inventor of the Erector Set. The museum, consisting of several old houses and the land around them, provides both indoor and outdoor play and exhibits of his history and inventions.


Of course, the first thing we found was a statue. Mika loves posing with statues. There was also a GIANT rocking chair on the porch for pictures but I didn't get a picture of it (explained later).

Right outside the front door, we found this wasp nest. It was carefully cut away to expose the inner workings of the nest. Very cool! Right next to it was a real bird's nest. Inside the door, we found live silk worms (that you can touch!) and a tank of small turtles.

This giant erector set climbing structure was a hit! Holding Madelynn, I didn't get to explore. If it weren't for her, I would have gone through it at least once. It looked so fun. On the other side, there is a two story slide that the kids thought was awesome. There were other play structures as well, including a paddle wheeler, thick web-like ropes, and a dino dig sandbox.

In one of the houses, we found an exhibit about the body. You can climb through this giant mouth and enter a play tunnel that represents the esophagus and stomach. There were real lungs displayed showing healthy and smoker's lungs. It was a neat room.

In an adjoining room, was the bubble room. This room is everything bubbles, including a place where you can stand inside a ring and use a pulley to pull a giant bubble up around you. If you look at Mika in the photo, she's completely surrounded by a bubble except for the open top.

Josh found some geometric shapes on pulleys that lower into bubbles.


Maddie found some stomach parts to play with. I don't know if these balls are suppose to represent digestive enzymes, food particles, or something else.


In this same house, we found another room completely decorated in a jungle theme. Everything we green and painted with trees and a jungle animals. There were three dimensional trees and vines hanging on parts of the walls and ceiling. There were costumes, a stage, and a TV so you can watch your own production as you act it.

And that was just the first house and outside. We were getting hungry, so we all left to grab lunch makings and head to our friend's house. Our plan: to eat and return to the museum.


After lunch, this is what the kids did for the next three hours. They ran in circles chasing each other around the house. They had a ball with their new friends.

They also climbed this tree. See Mika hiding up in the tree? She's never climbed that high before, but she sure liked climbing THIS tree.

Remember I said the plan was to eat and return to the museum? Well, we never made it back there. The kids were having so much fun with their new friends that they didn't want to go back. We'll have to return to Salem some day and visit the other two houses and get that picture of the kids in the giant rocking chair on the porch.

It was a great day!

Going South

We headed south for our third annual trip to Portland today. When we made our first big trip down there we didn't intend to make a yearly thing but the kids love it. The first year, we headed to Portland to join CVA for their annual end of the year field trip. Last year, CVA was going up north and the trip itinerary didn't excite us so we opted to repeat our Portland field trip on our own. This year, circumstances have us needing to get the kids out of the house for a few days while Scott lays down wood laminate flooring, so we opted to head south to Portland yet again. Can you tell the kids like Portland?
Our trip down was very long, much longer than normal. First, we took the back roads to Yelm to stop in at our new favorite butcher. We wanted to bless my family with some supplies. Then we continued along some beautiful back roads back to I5. Sam and I decided that a few miles south of Rainier or Tenino would be a perfect place to live. When I told him all that land is someone's backyard, he was ready to ditch the city instantly.

Our plan was to head south towards Vancouver and stop in at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. We've been studying birds, and I thought the chance to see hawks, eagles, ducks, geese, and many other birds and animals in the wild would be fun. However, the weather had other plans. This was the sight out my windshield:

At a few points, it was raining so hard I could barely see where I was driving. I absolutely hate driving in hard rain. We decided to skip Ridgefield.

We ended up stopping at a rest stop to stretch our legs under cover. Then we continued until Madelynn decided to start letting her distaste for the car known. We kept her busy for a little bit but it became apparent that she wasn't going to make it the rest of the way so we stopped at a Walmart. I needed to buy Sam and Mika some jeans anyway. Then it was back in the car against Madelynn's wishes; I had meat defrosting in the car, after all. We headed straight to my dad's house where the kids were surprised with their own afghans made by my grandmother. We visited for a while and then headed out to eat and check into the hotel.

This view greeted us in our room. The kids all headed straight out onto the balcony. It's much nicer than the photo shows. There's a rapidly flowing river right outside, complete with a walking path along it.

The kids checked out the TV. They love TV at hotels because we don't have cable and found our new favorite show, Mythbusters, on. So they watched it while I unpacked our things. After we were done, we headed downstairs for the evening reception because Josh, who didn't eat his dinner, was hungry. The kids all had Shirley temples and snacks. Afterwards, we headed back upstairs to change into our swimsuits and went swimming. The kids had a ball in the pool. It was tiny but we had it all to ourselves. Josh's new life jacket worked perfectly, leaving me available to focus on Maddie. She loved the water too. Then we headed upstairs for lights out so we can have fun tomorrow.