Riverfront Park

We did not have many set in stone plans for this trip, so we've been enjoying just finding things in our area to check out.  First up was COFFEE!  Several people had told us that we *had* to go to Atticus, and we are so glad we listened!  Cathy considers To Kill a Mockingbird  one of her favorite books of all time, so it was fun to see a coffee shop shaped around that text. 

Cathy loves the simple design of this sign.

Pretty chalk art!

They have a mockingbird and and the pocket watch imagery here.

They had an entire wall with all the books pages as wallpaper.

Kirk got a latte and they made a pretty design in it.

Next door is their shop, Boo Radley's!  That was a fun place to poke around in. :)

Hey, Boo...

Cool sculpture on the edge of the Boo Building. 

Boo Radley artwork.

They sell sno-cones everywhere in the park.

After coffee, we stopped by the nearby Riverfront Park.  It was much bigger than we expected it to be!  It was used as a location for the 1974 World's Fair Expo, and many of the locations are still intact.

The fountain at the entrance near Atticus Coffee. 

We walked around a bit on the trails and bridges that they had available, and admired the river and general beauty of the place.

Rapids!

Great sculpture 

The clock tower/river area.

Our river selfie.

We decided to go crazyyyy and go on the gondola AND the train tour!  (Actually priced at a reasonable $10 per person for both.)

A good shot of Kirk with bonus Gondola action.

I think we took this shot from the Gondola. 

Interesting sculptures.

Getting her Gondola on.

The train tour was about half an hour long. Our guide told us about the World Fair Expo that was held in the '70's and pointed out the many features of the park. It was a fun way to get an overview of the many wonders of Riverside.

Train selfie.  This is apparently the trip of selfies.

 We also walked the perimeter of the park so we could go over the Monroe Street Bridge, and came across this spiral piece of poetry by Sherman Alexie.  We literally got dizzy reading it.  As Kirk described it- first it made you dizzy, then it made you sad. It was an excellent poem and a good reminder of history, and how it is not always pretty.

"...tell me that concrete ever equals love, Coyote,
these white men sometimes forget to love their own mothers
so how could they love this river which gave birth
to a thousand lifetimes of salmon? How could they love
these Falls, which have fallen farther, which sit dry
and quiet as a graveyard now? These Falls are that place
where ghosts of salmon jump..."

Maybe my new hairstyle will cheer everyone.  The flowers here are stunning!  This is one of the flower baskets that dotted the bridge back to the park.  So pretty!

So bright!  So pretty!

After all the walking, we stopped at Stealhead Bar and Grille for lunch!  We were too hungry to really photograph anything we ate, but I will say that it was all delicious!

We did manage to stop gorging ourselves for ten seconds to take a picture of this steelhead fish appetizer.  Get it when you there- so good!

Served with cream cheese and bread. 

Then we headed back to our apartment to rest before we headed out to our evening activity- the ballet symphony fireworks extravaganza! 

We are staying in this charming neighborhood!

The also have sculptures.

We found out about our evening activity in the independent newspaper we were reading at lunch the day before.  It was a good time, and even in walking distance, which was a total bonus!

Kirk took a brief video.

It was a nice way to end the day!