The Importance of Scaled Maps

A couple of weeks ago our family decided to take a mini-vacation to Portland, Oregon for no other reason than we had never been before and wanted to explore the city. While we were there we heavily relied on a map put out by the department of tourism to get around.

Our first full day there we carefully planned an outing (around Hannah's nap schedule) to view the Japanese Gardens and International Rose Gardens in Hoyt Arboretum. Portland has an awesome mass transit system that puts California to shame. We hopped on the streetcar and then on the light rail. We exited at the Portland Zoo - which according to our map was approximately 2 blocks from the gardens. We consulted another area map and noticed the gardens were slightly farther than we thought - approx. 1 mile. But we were enjoying the walk so we decided to go anyways. After 25 minutes of walking up hill we stopped for lunch at an awesome picnic table among the trees.

We decided to stop in a little naturalist rest stop and ask the best way to get to the gardens. The woman gave us yet another map and highlighted the way. Then she looked at our stroller and assured us we could make it. Just another mile and a half down the way. On our way out she added that it might be a little muddy.

Well, as it turned out it was A LOT muddy. At times, Matt could barely push the stroller down the path. Hannah had a ball and was laughing while Matt and I were both grunting trying to get the stroller down the hill, up the hill, through the mud, and over a 2x4. Here's a video giving even more insight to our adventure. Listen carefully at the end for the sounds of the stroller squishing through the mud.





For a more in-depth picture of the mud - see below:



Never the less we eventually made it to the gardens after 3 miles of hiking with a baby in a stroller. And sadly nothing was in bloom. But we definitely had our share of laughing and have learned not to rely on unscaled maps (as 2 blocks can really be 3 miles).