Washington Park Summer Festival

Looking for some free fun?  Check out the Washington Park Summer Festival going on all this week – August 5-14.

There is a wide variety of performances.  Tonight we listened to Opera in the Park.

It was a beautiful summer evening and the music was lovely.

The concerts start at 6:00 p.m. and are held in the amphitheater in Washington Park.  They run shuttle buses from the various parking lots on a regular basis.  The place was packed tonight so you may want to go early to get a better vantage point than we had.

Put together a quick picnic lunch and enjoy a fun summer evening.

Portland Children’s Museum

The Portland Children’s Museum is one of the local “go to” places for families.  Located off of HWY 26 at Washington Park, the museum is located right next to the zoo.

Santa left a membership in our stockings last year and we loved popping up there on any given rainy day.  My children love everything about the museum but are especially fond of their special exhibits and of course the water exploration area!  I love all the entertaining storytellers and musicians that are part of the museums staff to interact and entertain the children.  I also love that I can go to the museum, play with my children and not have to clean up a mess when I’m done!

Aside from indoor child friendly exhibits the museum also offers a cafe, art classes, k-5 Opal school, field trips and a place to host birthday parties!  Membership is great, if you can swing it.  In my stay at home mommy opinion, it more than covers the cost in sanity if your children are the right ages.  But if you still aren’t convinced go and check it out for yourself.  Many local libraries offer a cultural pass, permitting individual families entry to several local institutions free of charge, once yearly.

For hours and more information on the museum, please visit them here.  Also check out TriMet for special offers and transportation to the museum.

Hoyt Arboretum

The Hoyt Arboretum is a 187 acre living museum of trees and plants. Located in Washington Park it is conveniently located just 2 miles west of downtown Portland.  It is easily accessible by car (the Zoo exit off of Hwy 26), bus or the MAX light rail which stops just down the road from the Arboretum (the Washington Park zoo stop). 

What was once the hunting and gathering grounds for the native Atfalati tribes and later the site of a “Poor Farm” and sanatorium for people with infectious diseases and mental illness, is now a beautiful “green jewel” in the middle of a major metropolitan city.  Thanks to the vision of Portland’s civic leaders the area has been preserved as a public park dedicated to the growing and conserving of tree species from around the world.

Whether you are looking for a quick botany lesson or just a peaceful escape to enjoy the beauty of nature the Arboretum is the perfect spot.  The grounds are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and there is a visitor center.  Check the Arboretum website for their hours.

Pick up a map at the visitor center for one of their guided walks. 

The trails are well marked and you can identify some of the over 1,000 different species of trees and plants using the plant markers on many of the trees.

Many of the trails are wheelchair accessible too.

“He who plants a tree plants hope” – Lucy Larcom