Food, Falls and Physics with Cari and Julio

Next in our month-long lineup of July visitors were Aunt Cari and Uncle Julio, who jetted up to Oregon after their one-year wedding anniversary trip to Napa Valley. Since Julio had never before been to the Beaver State, some fun touristy stuff was necessary in addition to fun times with Alton.
Cari and Julio drove out to the coast to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cape Meares...

Then we were on the hunt for the best sandwich in Portland. A quick search online uncovered that such a place existed, so we checked it out. Julio ordered a BLUE cream soda and we all thoroughly enjoyed our lunch before hitting the famous Powell's bookstore in NW Portland and dropping by our favorite chocolatier for dessert.

But we weren't out and about all the time. Alton goofed around with Aunt Cari...

And showed her how good he is at jumping in the jumpster that she and Julio gave him! (video below)

We also took advantage of technophile Julio while he was in town and tapped his expertise about televisions so that Andy and I could buy a new HDTV as an anniversary gift to each other. Cousin Matt was also happy to weigh in on this decision, and I'm sorry to say that now our TV is so big that there's no way we could ever be considered Amish. I guess we'll have to turn in our plow and butter churn. Had a celebratory bbq dinner with Matt, Di and their boys before resting up for our hike the next morning.
Alton tells Uncle Julio how happy he is to have the new TV. Now if only Mommy and Daddy would let him watch it....

The next day was our big hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls, which is the second largest waterfall in the nation. We got out there by mid-morning with a borrowed frame backpack for Alton to ride in.


We admired the falls from the ground before beginning our one-mile ascent to the top.


We all proceeded to huff and puff our way up the trail, clumsily wiping the sweat out of our eyes so that we could people-watch and goggle at some of the sights (flora aside). We passed clumps of teenage girls languorously strolling upward in jeans and flip flops. We passed Croc-clad families where each adult's shoulders was adorned by a child riding shotgun. We were PASSED BY couples twice our age who were NOT huffing and puffing and didn't appear to have a hair out of place. We saw septuagenarians and babies in slings, tiny dogs being carried and Japanese tourists. We saw teenagers playing leap frog on the trail switchbacks (I had an "old" moment because I yelled at them as we walked by) and kids who apparently thought a one-mile trek up a mountain was a good place to make out. All in all, it was a fun trip, but you try telling that to my calves at the end of the day.
Our triumphant view from the top.

Exhaustion, thy face is Katie.

Even Alton our navigator looks tired.

We capped off Cari and Julio's visit with a trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a place full of hands-on technical learning and rooms called "Turbine Hall." Needless to say, Andy and Julio were in heaven. There are too many pictures of them dorking out to include here, so click the link below if you want to see more of our two favorite pretend astronauts.

To see the rest of our pictures from Cari and Julio's visit, click here.