Lexington Street Block Party

Why on earth didn't we do this the first year we were here! We finally got around to having a Block Party. We had a great time with our keg, the band, and games for the kids that we didn't play because they were too busy enjoying having full range of the street. It was such a great way to spend the Saturday.

Peter's First Century

Yes, 100 miles by bike. I was pretty excited for the challenge and didn't take my camera, but luckily this person did.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=775635&code=69503206a037f2de8a5d29c2e10a8c82

Koonces invade Moscow

 
No, not that Moscow, the one in Idaho. The Transportation Research Board Signal Systems Committee was meeting in Moscow, Idaho, home to the University of Idaho and Susan and I took the girls on the trip to the Palouse.
 
We had a wonderful time and the hospitality at the University was very good. The Sunday night tour was not of some technical signal system like is custom, but rather was of the aboretum just south of campus. They had all sorts of plants from across the globe and Abby enjoyed the walk and taking pictures with my camera.
 
We rode the Vandal Trolley from the evening events back to the hotel. The kids enjoyed the feel of the old time trolley and especially when the driver clanged the horn for them when they got off the vehicle.
 

Goodbye from the Pickathon

 
One more photo from Pickathon that caught my attention!

Abby's Career as a Circus Clown

 
Abby was definitely inspried at the Pickathon to take part. Here's she's trying out stilts and doing quite well with Susan's help. Whatever it was, she had a great attitude about the new activities which is great.

Pickathon 2010

 
A friend suggested we join their family in heading out to Pickathon, a folk music festival out in the "country", southeast of Portland. The festival was held on the 80 acre Pendarvis Farm, which was a nice venue for a concert.
 
The bands were undiscovered (not sure that's the right term, but for an old guy like me, I guess that will do) and mostly very good and the festival has grown because of the quality of the acts. It is also growing because it seems to distinguish itself in being very environmentally friendly. This year's innovation was using Stainless Steel pint glasses as opposed to plastic cups for beer and water. The festival claimed to eliminate all plastic cups and water bottles for the four day affair. Based on our three days, it seemed that they were successful and it also was a nice marketing piece for Kleen Kanteen, since folks were constantly reminded how they were the partner in bringing the festival to us.
 
One of the fun things of the camping was that we didn't cook. Instead of schlepping food in and cleaning (wasting valuable time where fun could be had), we ate at the food carts which were similarly envrionmentally friendly and very good food. The vendors included some local organic farms, which overed very tasty eats. Food carts are amazing and they continue to grow in popularity out in P town.
 
I had to chuckle several times at the hippy culture that surrounded the festival. It was definitely good for the kids to experience the music festival and we were surprised how many kid friendly events they had, which included everything from the Cardboard Songsters doing their take on Saturday morning cartoons to Cascadia Circus doing shows and teaching the kids skills. Great stuff!

Intersection Superhero for Sunday Parkways

 
We had a great day today, yet it started off somewhat ominously with Abby being sick shortly after 4 AM. We ended up downstairs just to make sure we could get through the night. It has been hot and we're not sure if that's caught up with her. She felt well enough to head to Sunday Parkways. I was there volunteering and had a great time at SE 21st & Taylor, which was a turn in the route and there was some human traffic barrier feats for me to provide. It was a good experience and I enjoyed helping out. The girls joined me later in the day and we biked up to Mia Birk's Book Launch Party. Abby wasn't feeling great at that point, so we headed back to the car. All in all, a great day punctuated by a fun volunteer stint for the City.