Cooling off in the woods...

on a hot Portland summer day.  We love where we live - the ocean is just a little over an hour away, and within an hours drive we are also at the mountain {Mt. Hood that is}.  The girls went to a birthday party earlier in the day.  It was a pizza party.  I called ahead to the restaurant to make sure the dough, and it was :) So both enjoyed pizza at the party and then we went back home to pick-up Ron to take off for the mountain for the day.

Portland was nice and hot yesterday.  We left late, so Trillium Lake was too far and instead we went to the Wildwood Recreation Park.  It is close, but far enough to be emerged in nature.  There are trails, a river salmon viewing station {we saw coho fry, a couple of salamanders, crayfish in the water}, a perfect place to cool off in the Sandy river, plenty of picnic stations with grills,  and even - if mother natures playground is not enough - a big play structure, baseball field, volleyball field...It is a great place to spend the day

We first took the 1 mile walk along the Wetland Boardwalk trail,

and then followed the Cascade Streamwatch trail along to the river access to cool off.

And yes, mother natures playground was not enough for our children so we ended our visit at the large  family picnic area and the playground...