Portland Zoo Weekend

Last weekend marked our second Portland trip of the summer. And it won't be our last either!  We head back down there for Joe's cousin's wedding in a few weeks.  This time, the occasion was Joe's 20-year high school reunion.  He went to Evergreen High School in Vancouver, WA and graduated in 1992.  It seems strange that is has already been 20 years for him, but he also graduated at 17 so he was one of the youngest in his class.

His reunion was on Friday, so we drove down that morning to get to Portland to visit with family and unpack.  We had lunch at Izzy's then kept cool indoors the rest of the afternoon (it was in the high 80s).  The reunion was at Camas Meadows Country Club back up in Washington and Dylan got to stay and hang out with Grandma for the evening. It was a disappointing turn-out for a 20-year reunion, only about 55-65 of his classmates made it, possibly due to it being on a Friday and part due to the cost.  It was $79 per person and dinner was BBQ hamburgers, beans, salad and cookies!  I was not too impressed with the meal for what we paid.  And the evening was pretty low-key as well.  Joe said he likely won't be making it to the 30-year.... (I didn't take any pictures at the reunion).

Saturday, we had plans to go to the Portland Zoo.  I had heard great things about this zoo and was excited to try all my photography tips throughout the day.  I managed to not take a single photo on Auto setting!  It was very tricky considering lots of the animals' habitats are in very low-light and I needed to try and capture them moving, so it was quite a challenge.  I took lots of photos trying to get ones to turn out.  It was a great lesson to get out there and have many obstacles to deal with and see how I would adjust settings to get a decent picture.  I ended up having to delete tons of pictures, but did manage to get some that were okay! It was really warm out but a really beautiful day and the zoo grounds are just perfect.  In comparing to Woodland Park, the paths are much wider, and there's so much greenery, you feel like you are really out in the wilderness.  And everything is spread out nicely so even when it was really crowded, it didn't seem that way.  I would recommend anyone visiting the Portland area to make a day of it! You can also take a $5 train ride (35 minutes round trip) that goes around the zoo and over to the Rose Garden and Japanese Botanical Garden  so you can see all the sights in one trip! Link to Zoo Map

Sunday, we headed home fairly early because we had a birthday party to go to that afternoon.  It was a busy weekend but very entertaining!

Ready to head to the zoo!

Tour Director

Train  

Petting the goats

Hitching a ride, getting a little tired

Observing the elephants

Watching the fish swim with Grandma