35/52 - Last Week Before School

This was the last full week before Anders starts school again. Summer can't be over already, can it?

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Corinne and Anders took the Amtrak train to Portland for a visit to OMSI. Bingen has an Amtrak station, but it's not intended as a commuter train. There's only one train per day in each direction. Going east, you can actually take the Empire Builder line from Bingen all the way to Chicago!

After I dropped the two of them off at the train station first thing in the morning, I received periodic updates on their travels.

Observation car!

At Union Station in Portland, the two transferred to a bus. Their combined cuteness - and out-of-town status - earned them free day passes from the driver.

Once at OMSI, the IMAX movie Walking With Dinosaurs was on the agenda.

When we visited the American Museum of Natural History in NYC earlier this summer, the Hayden planetarium was closed for renovations. So the OMSI Planetarium would have to do this summer.

There was only about a 5 hour window before they had to get back on the bus to catch the train heading West again.

But I think it was just enough time.

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Back in the Gorge, the 3 best friends had one last hurrah at the Hood River pool.

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For the last week it has been quite a bit colder, with one morning reaching down to 36°. We've even had several days of real rain! It feels like fall is already here. One of the upsides is that the Cascade Creek fire is now 80% contained, and all of that rain was actually snow at the higher elevations on Mt Adams. Such a pretty sight and a beautiful way to end the week.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders