It’s the first annual Portlandia Mermaid Parade! I had to be there. It was a good day to wait on the waterfront for mermaids to wander by.
I wasn’t situated in the best place for photos, (next year) but here they are:
There were at least two mermaids being pulled in wagons.
Many mermaids stopped at the Salmon Street Fountain for some pictures.
The mermaid parade was a hit!
Work took us to space! Or, more accurately, the Space Exhibit at OMSI. But first, we got a backstage tour of OMSI, which was awesome.
The iconic letters
See that staff only sign? We’re going behind that door!
It was really interesting to learn how the exhibits are built and stored. Here, our guide stands in front of a poster with principals such as font size and how to make sure people using wheelchairs can have full access.
Details from the offices of the design area. I loved the house-made cubicle dividers.
Here are some exhibits that have been recovered from storage. The team has plans to update the graphics to make them more accessible for girls and for native Spanish speakers. (Also to make them not quite so 80s.)
One principle of design for a museum catering to children is “never underestimate the power of an eight-year-old girl.” Apparently children en mass can really tear apart structures, so things must be over-designed for heavy use. The design team attributes this destruction to kids not knowing their own power. “Adults could never break something, because they know they can’t. Kids don’t know that and so they can.”
Scrap wood detail.
I loved the bins for various things.
OMSI sends exhibits around the country and also has traveling presentations. Thus, things can be neatly packaged.
So many fun things were hanging, and hanging out.
Apparently no one knows where this pterodactyl came from. It’s just always been there.
They had some really great old machines, too.
Bigger exhibits are shipped in boxes on these carts.
Another really awesome house-made item.
Getting our picture taken in front of the OMSI sign.
This shake house has been part of OMSI for a very long time. I went in it as a child, back when OMSI was located by the zoo. It repeatedly played a snippet of Carol King’s “I feel the earth move”. Apparently, it did this until just a few years ago.
Puzzling through some puzzles.
You can see some of the female friendlier colors that were incorporated into this exhibit. The informational panels are also printed in both Spanish and English.
Really fun pipes.
And then we went to space. My co-worker with her head in an astronaut suit.
And me too. That’s as close to a space suit as I will ever get.
Real-time cloud cover!
Part of space was a simulation of what it’s like to be in a gravity-free environment in the international space station. You stand, the space station spins around you. A guy watches you closely to make sure you don’t pass out.
It took me about fifteen minutes to recover my equilibrium. Space is not for me.
Kind of amazing, eh?
It was the usual gathering: BroMAunts, Matt and myself getting together for an afternoon meal and a game of challenge croquet. There was pie. And this beautiful flower arrangement.
It’s another year and another Sunday and another Sunday of Sunday Parkways. As this is the North Portland Sunday Parkways, Heidi and Kevin hosted their annual post-ride party.
Kevin grills! Bella hides from the sun!
New to the party this year was Cornhole. Matt turned out to be a ringer, winning all of his games.
Bella!
Figs and umbrella
This was the party at which Matt’s birthday cake was consumed, today being Matt’s birthday. Happy birthday!
Thanks Heidi & Kevin for yet another good party!
I came home and the shoes came off, the sticker came off , the wristband came off. I drank three glasses of water, as everyone who drinks should. Then I moved very slowly the next morning.
The first thing to know is that there will be lines. So many lines. We stood in line for more than an hour to get in and then we stood in line for food and for ice cream and for drinks and for more drinks. We also stood in line to get all the special Cosmic Tripster IV stamps and stood in line multiple times for the bathroom. There are a lot of people. You will stand in line.
Standing in line is entertaining. The more I drank, the chattier I got. Among other things, I learned all about the first Cosmic Tripster party while standing in line. We ran across one of the McMenamin brothers while standing in line. There is ample people watching to do when you are standing in line.
If you are a person who likes to “do” things know that these were the kind of things to do at this particular Cosmic Tripster Party: eat food, drink various beverages. Go on the special passport hunt of the day. (Said passport hunt doesn’t get you any prizes.) Stand in line for a photo booth photo on Edgefield’s stage. Drunk text your friends. Visit the backstage at Edgefield. Play ping pong backstage. Play some of the lawn games that were strewn about the lawn. Listen to the free concert. People watch. It’s a pretty chill party.
If you want to get be there from the very first moment, plan to arrive early to stand in line. We arrived at the start time and stood in line for an hour to get in, so plan your arrival time accordingly.
If you will drink (and I heartily recommend it) don’t forget to bring cash to tip the bartenders. I only had one dollar and was not very successful at tipping. Sorry bartenders. If I attend another Cosmic Tripster Party I will be more prepared.
And now, the photos!
The line, second leg. At this point we could hear that cheering was happening, but not see what was going on and we wondered about all the cheering.
Part of the line went through the golf course, which made for some low-level excitement. Would anyone be hit? No one was while were were standing in line.
It turns out the cheering was for us! The Cosmic Tripsters! After we were checked off our list and got our wristband and sticker, we were gauntlet high-fived by McMeanamins staff. Which I was feeling awkward about, but was kind of fun.
Our first order of business was food. There were appetizers being passed as we waited in line. I was quite happy to have a hot dog. It was 3:00 and I was HUNGRY!
We sat on the Edgefield Lawn to eat. The party was just getting started, but you can see the line for the photo booth on the Edgefield Stage had already started.
Standing in line to enter the raffle and for commemorative posters. Despite Matt checking early and often, none of us won a raffle prize. Boo!
Matt standing in line for ice cream. You can see his sticker.
I wore my Cosmic Tripster t-shirt. And so did everyone else.
Eating the ice cream. Mine came in a cup, not a cone. I rolled with it.
Backstage at Edgefield. (This may have been my favorite part, other than people watching. And all the drinking.)
Burt samples the big bowl of M&Ms. No brown ones. 
Hanging out in one of the pre-show trailers. Also, behind this door is a bathroom that you didn’t have to wait in line for. 
Though the space was fairly spartan in its furnishings, I was surprised at how much original artwork was on the walls.
The view from the couch. We hung out on that couch for a while.
Laurie and Matt play ping pong backstage while I stand in line for a drink.
We did not opt for a photo booth photo, but Laurie did go stand on stage.
Burt getting Brian McMenamin’s autograph.
On the hunt for stamps! Hops growing at Edgefield.
Grapes growing at Edgefield.
Cosmic Tripster shirts abounded.
The Jerry Garica statue was in full bloom and we all posed.
The port-a-potties were very fancy, but getting out of them was difficult if you had imbibed. I was befuddled and had to slowly puzzle together the multiple steps. Other drunk people just pounded on the door, yelling they were trapped.
Laurie has found both water and beer!
The two of us were very good at imbibing. As neither one of us is known for our imbibing, we had a great time.
More people watching. (Notice the cornucopia of beverages before them.)
The program.
Our special stamps. (I have no memory of getting the backstage one.)
My sticker and a peek into my bag. 
The guy in the tie-dyed shirt was the man who put my bracelet on me. Noticing he had no name tag I inquired as to its whereabouts. He is the head of security at the Crystal Ballroom. Thus, he has much experience checking up on the overly drunk woman you can’t see in this photo. Eventually the ambulance came and took her away. I marveled that there are people in this world who don’t mind dealing with drunk people as their job. Thanks Ken!
Happy Tripsters. Part of the fun of being drunk with this crowd is that we were on the younger side of the population. There were no frat boys present. It felt like a good place to be drunk.
When the party ended we needed something to soak up all that alcohol. Burt and Laurie hadn’t redeemed their SE Portland page prize of free fries or tots. So we drove to the Barley Mill Pub and ordered more food. On the way to the bathroom I found this piece of artwork and chuckled.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from my Cosmic Tripster Party and I wasn’t entirely sure I would have fun. But it was a great time. Thanks McMenamins!
Today is the day my Notary supplies came in the mail. I’m ready to make your signature legit!
You might recall reading about PKO here. Or my photo-filled walk to her Senior Dessert. But today she graduates!
Small school graduations. So very different from big school graduations.
Here are the members of the Class of ’16. They each got to pick the color of their graduation gown. (Which was very hard for me; the uniformity of graduation gowns and mortarboards is the only reason to wear them. This just looks messy.)
PKO listening to her teacher’s speech about her. It was a great speech, filled with all sorts of fun PKO facts.
The degrees have been conferred and the tassels have been switched. She has two tassels because she was the recipient of an achievement award.
After the teachers made speeches about the students and the students said their thank yous, the staff sang a song to the students. In keeping with the theme of the teachers’ speeches, the song’s main sentiment was, “Yep, you’re done. Time to leave now. Door’s that way.” This theme was initially off-putting, and then quickly became tremendously fun. It was like a gentle student roast by teachers who knew the students very, very well.
PKO and the moms, TO & LK
PKO and more of the fam.
PKO with her friends.
Congratulations PKO!
This year we performed a fetching number to “Steam Heat” from the 2006 revival of the Pajama Game. There were hats. We tossed them up and caught them. It was incredibly fun. 
We were tasked with all wearing vests, but the closest I could find at my local Goodwill was a sweater vest. Which I washed to get rid of the Goodwill smell and it shrunk. Oh well! I still wore it.
Afterward, Matt presented me with flowers. They were beautiful and I loved that the florist wrapped them in pattern paper.
