Summer Passport Adventures

A few weeks back I mentioned the summer passport program that we were doing this summer with the kids.  I didn't give many details on it so I think I will take a few minutes to do that now.  This year West Linn started a new program for families to get to know the city's parks a bit better (there are about 20 of them).  You started by picking up your passport at city hall.  Inside it listed all the parks in the city, as well as all the library events and all the parks and rec events that would be taking place over the course of the summer.  Your mission (should you choose to accept it) was to find a hidden stamp at at least 15 of the parks and attend and get stamps at 2 library events and 2 park and rec events.  If you were able to accomplish all this you were promised some sort of prize at the end.

This has been such a fun activity for our family this summer and has consumed much of our down time.  We have lived in West Linn for over four years now and I thought I was well aware of all the amazing parks our city had to offer.  It turns out I was wrong.  Over the course of the summer we found some new gems that will likely become favorites.  We also have had some unexpected adventures.  We have been on hikes.  We have waded through a river.  We have dipped our toes in streams. We have taken rides on a wild slide. We have accomplished the quintessential Oregon summer task of picking wild blackberries (we did this at most of the parks).  We listened to music in the park and Merrick won Taekwondo lessons.  We read books together as a family.  We had picnics.  The list could go on and on.  In the end what we really accomplished was an amazing summer of spending time together and all that was left was to collect our prize.

All summer long whenever I would talk to someone about the program inevitability the subject of the prize would come up.  Everyone was curious about what the prize would be and in the back of my head I would think that they are going to have to supply prizes to lots of people and I should temper expectations with my kids.  Well, this week we went to collect our prize and I have to say I was blown away by the way that this city stepped up.  Each kid got a soccer ball and a water bottle filled with toys and trinkets.  After a summer of tempering expectations we were all pleasantly surprised.  Just in case you aren't already aware, my city is better than your city.