Rock Climbing at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, OR

I took the kids to an indoor rock climbing facility in Gresham, OR right outside of  Portland.  It is in the aquatic center at Mt. Hood Community College and it was a super cheap, fun activity.  Kids 4 and up can participate.  They have open climbing times when you can drop in.  Open to public Mon.-Fri. 3pm-8pm Sat. 12pm-4pm

This was N's second time and he made it up the wall multiple times. This was E's first time and she did great. A little intimidated at first, but after a few tries, she was really into it!

J just watched. My good friend Jenn is holding him.

Portland

FDR Memorial - Washington D.C.

FDR Memorial is a very beautiful memorial with multiple waterfalls.  It is closer to the Thomas Jefferson monument than the White House.  Make sure you pick the right side of the National Mall to park at, because otherwise you will be walking a ton to get there.  I know because I made this mistake!  Study a map and how everything is laid our before you go to D.C.  I really did a lot of walking because I didn't not do this simple thing.

Walking around Washington, D.C.

Once we were done at the Supreme Court we crossed the street and were at the back of the Capital building.   This is actually the side your enter on for your Capital tour.




It takes a while to walk around it!




Unfortunately while we were there this was as close as you could get. Used to you could walk up the stairs, but this time they were closed to the public. I saw a sniper up there trying not to be noticed!




Now we are leaving to capital area for today and headed to some of the Smithsonians.   All of the Smithsonians are completely free.



We did stop briefly at the National botanical gardens. I was hoping to go inside but the kids were not up for it.   It looked really awesome in there, but it was quite hot.  I think they could have made it through there if I had just brought more water with us!




This is outside the botanical gardens.  It was such a hot day I let them get pretty wet.