A Cold and Rainy - and Sticky - Taste of Oregon

Today I had planned for The Mob to go to the Oregon Zoo.  When we woke up, it was raining and it seemed that a change of plans was in order.  We decided to go to the Lloyd Center Mall in Portland because there was some shopping that needed to be done. 

Going to the mall with The Mob is always a venture.  I shoulda remembered, and if I had, I woulda known better. 

Crazy people!  (I should note that I've stolen some of these fabulous pictures from my sister-in-law!)

The mall we were at had an indoor ice skating rink.  It was pretty cool.  We all stopped to watch, impressed with people who were able to stay upright.

When we left the mall, we headed home, ate lunch, grabbed the dog and dashed off to Multnomah Falls, just west of Portland.  When we pulled up to the parking area, Talon astutely noted that while we were all dressed in shorts, nearly every person walking from their car towards the falls was dressed much warmer than us.  But we forged on anyway.  Because it's pretty.  Even in the rain.  Even when you're cold. 

The Mob hiked all the way to the top.  Bender and I stayed down at the bottom and enjoyed a coconut latte and, when it rained hard, stood under the shelter of some tree limbs.  Bender got his picture taken a few times and even got an unexpected hug from a little boy that cried when his parents made him leave. 

Now, although I didn't go up the path with them, I heard stories upon my return.  First, for those that know the area, you already are well aware that we have slugs.  Big, slimy, gross slugs.  And for those that know my family, you are already well aware that big, slimy, gross anything is destined to be touched, handled and treasured.  While on the hike, apparently Wylder found a slug or two and Chaini happily picked them up and pictures were taken. 

See the slime between the slug and her thumb?  For the record, that slime is like super tacky glue that is nearly impossible to get off.  When they arrived back down the ground level, Chaini held up her hands and said, "I've been holding slugs."  Her hands were covered in slimy, sticky muck.  Everyone headed to the restrooms for handwashing.  Chaini's hands came out looking like this:

Yes... this is after washing with soap and water.  The restrooms only had blow dryer type things in them and no paper towels, so Cappi found some paper towels for her to use, and they didn't do anything more than stick to her hands. 

Note:  I was laughing sooooooo hard through this whole thing.  Seriously couldn't stop.  I'm so glad Chaini didn't cry, because I don't know if I could have controlled myself enough to reign it in. 

Ok... so next attempt was to get her hands super wet by running them over the all the sitting rain water and then go scrape them on the tree trunk.  This suggestion came from her dear ol' Dad who pulled a very similar slug handling stunt when he visited about two years ago.  (Look close, she's in there, vigorously scraping her poor little palms!)

Note:  I was STILL laughing... hard at this point!  Actually, I'm laughing a little as I type this.  It was funnnny! 

Apparently, a funny side story to this is that while up there in the land of sticky slug play, Chaini was pretending like she was going to kiss one of the slugs while Cappi took a picture.  Well, as soon as Chaini's lips were close to it, Bryan (being the sweet Dad that he can be) pushed the back of her head and her lips actually touched it.  When she pulled back, there was a string of slime from her lips to the slug.  Bryan (being the sweet Dad that he can be) told Chaini that she could wipe her lips on his sweatshirt sleeve, and according to the story, instead of removing the sticky slime, this course of action simply caused lint from the sweatshirt to stick to her lips. 

Poor Chaini!!

Anyway, we all survived, and I think Chaini has managed to get all the sticky off from everywhere at this point. 

 Family photo:

They were tired, but apparently not too tired to still be a little goofy! 

Bender, however, was wiped out.

And so am I.  Again.  Turning out the light and hoping for better zoo-type weather tomorrow. 

G'night!