ages + stages out + about
Get your sugar high at Voodoo Doughnut
48 (Really Cheap) Hours in Portland Entertaining stuff to do in Stumptown on a budget Story and photos by JiaYing Grygiel
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nce a year, I book a cheap hotel room, and my kids get to eat sugary cereal, watch cartoons and go swimming. This is the life! Add in a free continental breakfast — food I didn’t have to make, dishes I don’t have to wash — and everyone is happy. This particular piece of paradise could be found anywhere, but when my family wants a change of scenery, we hone in on Hillsboro, Oregon, because there you can get a trendy suite for about $100 a night during the offseason, and it’s only a 20-minute drive to Portland. Just a three-hour drive from home,
Portland is close enough for a road trip with antsy kids, yet far enough to leverage reciprocal benefits with your family memberships in Seattle. Explore science The Pacific Science Center (pacificsciencecenter.org) is a convenient 15-minute trip from our house, but it’s got nothing on Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI; omsi.edu). OMSI boasts five halls full of interactive exhibits, plus a 219-foot submarine moored in the Willamette River — which you can tour. OMSI admission is free when you show your Pacific Science Center parentmap.com • March 2020 • 31