Day Tripper

 Friday was a state-wide teacher inservice day, so we decided to go visit Toe's Godparents, A and R,  in Portland. With a threat of rain, we opted to take Toe to the art museum (his first visit). Toe did really well. We wandered through Chinese and Korean art, ceramics, and then ended up in the modern art section. We spent much of our visit looking at paintings of washes of yellow with stripes, or paint splotches. We talked about how to view paintings closely and from far away. I spent a lot of time asking Toe "Do you think this one is art? Why? Why not?"

The above painting, titled something like  "Black and White," (or was it "Black and Red?")  was determined by Toe to be a volcano: magma below, mountain above, and then sky.

After the art museum, with no rain yet, we played in the Park blocks and enjoyed the dichotomy of leaves falling off trees and blooming roses.

Don't make me sit on the pavement, Mom!

With the Godparents

From there, we walked to Pioneer Courthouse Square Mall to ride the escalators. Oh the simple joys for a small-town boy.

I need to work on training him to walk around town with other people. We walked the six or seven blocks right around five o'clock and foot traffic was heavy. Toe had a hard time keeping track of us and even tried to hold hands with an amused walker (he was busy looking at his Uncle and I was a few steps behind him)... He was safe, but needs a little practice on body and group awareness in those situations.

We wandered a little, rode escalators a lot, and had dinner in the courtyard...

Skybridge

We had a great afternoon and Toe was so worn out, he slept the entire way home.