Last weekend, Grandma Pat came to visit!
Unfortunately, just like her last visit (or two) it was going to be cool and rainy the whole weekend. But we grabbed some dry moments to play outside.
And the search for an indoor attraction led us to discover the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals, just west of Portland. I've seen signs for it, and I love rocks, so I'm not sure why we didn't think to visit it earlier. When we got there we were surprised to see two trees that had fallen onto one of the buildings. We've had a bunch of landslides and trees down here lately, so it wasn't a shock. But it was wild seeing it up close and walking under them to get from the parking lot to the main building.
The building with the fallen trees was closed, but there was room after room of amazing exhibits in the main building, so it didn't feel like we missed anything. The number and quality of displays was amazing. There were fossils, petrified wood, rocks, minerals, gems, metals, and even meteorites.
I love beautiful patterns in nature, so I took a ton of photos.
There was even a "rainbow room" with plain-looking rocks that glowed in amazing colors when viewed under an ultraviolet light.
I think Malachite is still my favorite.
Grandma Pat times her Portland visits to coincide with local flower festivals, so we were definitely planning to go to the Tulip Festival. We went on Sunday, since it was supposed to be less rainy. The ground was a little muddy, but the weather was pretty good and the tulips were amazing, as usual. There were more people there than we've ever seen, so my goal of getting photos without people in them became more challenging. But I usually find a way.
We had another great visit. Thank you, Grandma Pat!
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