Annika made the most of her time, as you can see:

Annika, Water Warrior, stand ready for the next cousin attack.

Annika savors a shaved ice on a hot afternoon at the county fairgrounds.

1. For readers who are not familiar with the USA, it is a magical place where you can purchase gasoline for the amazingly low price of $4 per gallon.
2. Jonathan’s therapist assures him that he’ll be “just fine” by next year’s trip.

We had quite the time.  We all made our first visit to the Portland Children’s Museum, which featured a special exhibit on Bob the Builder.  Bob himself was there.  We also got to enjoy a “Tractor Petting Zoo” with some shiny yellow earth movers.

We showed Nathan our compost pile and explained that it’s where earthworms eat our vegetable scraps and make dirt.  Nathan, being a budding Master Recycler and Earthworm Aficionado, wanted to see the worms dining.  We suggested he come back in the summer when we actually bother to turn the compost pile.

Our trip to the Columbia River Gorge was memorable, partly because we’ve never seen it so windy there.  We arrived at Crown Point (which overlooks the Columbia River) to find winds so strong they were preventing people from returning to their cars.  Elsewhere, fallen trees lined the road, and we drove under one of the trees.  The waterfalls coated the rocks behind them with ice, making it appear they had been flocked, like a Christmas tree.