Trek in the Park and Perseids

This morning we picked up Chris and Anara to go to the Apple Store at Pioneer Place in downtown Portland. Mission number one was picking out a cover for Anara's new iPad she got for her birthday. That was our present for her. She picked out a green Smart Cover.

While we were at the Apple Store, I finally succumbed and bought an iPad for myself too. I've been considering getting a tablet for a while now. Ken uses his Acer tablet a lot. Chris and Anare just recently got iPads, and Julie has one. Now there's a learning curve coming up. I haven't had an Apple product for some time.

Next we went to the John Street Cafe for lunch. Chris and Anara have been there for breakfast, but never for lunch. We especially enjoyed the roasted potatoes that came with our sandwiches.

Then we drove to the nearby Cathedral Park to stake out a place to watch Trek in the Park. Cathedral Park gets its name from the Gothic arches that support the bridge there. This is where Michael and Kathryn were married a few weeks ago. Today they biked to the park (10 miles one way). Kathryn was wearing her wedding dress, and they enlisted Chris to take additional "wedding photos" of them.

It was important to get to the park early to get a good spot to watch the show, although this venue is much larger and better laid out than the one used the first three years. When we arrived a little after 2:00 p.m., lots of folks were already there, but we found a good spot right next to Chris's friend Monica's cabana.

One benefit of getting there early is that we could watch the behind the scene preparation, including the application of Spock's makeup. We had planned to play games, but we forgot the games. Annie spent most of the waiting time asleep on the blankets, even though they were still in the sun at that point and it was very hot.

We did get a bit of shade later, and Shawn joined us shortly before the performance began at 5:00 p.m.

This year's episode is "Journey to Babel." The group, all volunteers, did a wonderful job of recreating the Star Trek magic--without benefit of video special effects. The stage was transformed into the deck of the Starship Enterprise.

After the performance, we all drove to Sandy Riverfront where we had a quick dinner and then drove to Rooster Rock State Park to try to view the Perseid meteor shower. We were surprised to find that seemingly half of Portland had also decided to do the very same thing. An uninterrupted line of vehicles pulled into the park, all of them flashing bright headlights, which made keeping your eyes dark adapted a real challenge.

We did see a few meteors, including a couple of impressive ones, but it was cold and late, and the meteors were taking their time about showing up, so we packed up and went home.
Everyone was tired, so we called it a night.