Oaks Park Homeschool Day

There is an amusement park in Portland called Oaks Park. It's not huge like Six Flags where we're from - it has some rides, a roller coaster, and the usual fair rides.  In the same park are a roller rink and a mini golf course, and the roller rink is also home to the Rose City Rollers, PDXs roller derby girls. The park is also ... well, a park - there are picnic tables, trails, and a lovely view of the Willamette river.

Oaks Park has a series of discount summer days, but the one we went to was homeschool day  - because of our move we haven't done very many outings this summer, so we wanted to squeeze in some fun while we could. Daddy even took a half day off so he could join us (and go on the rides that would make me dizzy - which is pretty much all of them).

 

First, the carousel! Kiernen loved this, and ended up riding it three times over the course of the day. 

 

Then the smaller roller coaster. Cool because Daddy could ride with him, but not so cool because it was pretty jerk, causing them to slide back and forth. There was no second ride for this one. 

The boat. as rides go, I would call this the hit of the day. Kiernen and Daddy rode this one no less than four times. Four! It kind of went back and forth and spun way around while playing pirate music. It also had shade if one was lucky enough to sit in the middle section, which they were at least once.

 Go Karts! Not included in the price of the ride bracelet (LAME!) but we had to. Unfortunately because of it not being included, we were the only ones driving. So we were racing ourselves. No matter, Kiernen wanted to do it anyway! This was one of the two rides I was able to manage. Whee!

 

It was HOT, so we had an ice cream break.  What's an amusement park without some sort of chemical sugar concoction to fuel the fun?

 

And then the train - all three of us rode this one. 

 

It looks just like the trains at the St. Louis Zoo! Except more pink. I honestly didn't know these types of trains existed anywhere else. 

 

On the boat again!  

 

An we couldn't leave without playing some mini golf. Kiernen LOVES mini golf. And his is a REALLY nice course - shaded by some really old growth trees. It is BEAUTIFUL. And! One of those old growth trees was a honey tree! I looked up and saw bees flying in and out. I'd have taken a photo, but from my vantage point all you'd have seen was trunk and branches - the hive was WAY up in the tree. Awesomeness. 

 

Then at the end of the day, Kiernen felt like this from all the fun, and let us know it was time to go get some dinner. Honestly the amusement park doesn't offer much in the way of food to those who wish to eat...actual food. Mongolian BBQ, here we come!