PARK BLOCKS

If you find yourself this fall needing an outing but not knowing where to go, walk the park blocks. With plenty of attractions along the way for your kids to crawl on including the Portland Art Museum's particularly climbable sculpture, the Museum for Contemporary Craft (free, but plenty of breakables), a playground close to Powell's, and a path right through the middle which makes it easy to allow the kids to run and play with plenty of room to spare away from traffic. Beautiful statuary, leaves, water fountains and benches, what more do you need (besides a bagel break?)

FULLER'S COFFEE SHOP

Real story: we recently visited Fuller's ( 136 NW 9th, in the Pearl) for lunch. It was lunch time, so we naturally ordered lunch fare. The hamburgers are are similar to In and Out Burger, the type of sandwich which we are very fond of ($3.95, pretty good deal). The fries are solid. The reuben? A little off. As we were settling the bill the waitress said, "You had lunch? Well, come back for breakfast, it's really good."

Apparently everyone knows you only go to Fuller's for breakfast, even the staff. But we enjoyed it despite, and the kids loved the counter-only seating. They both sat still and ate their entire lunch without screaming, squirming or sassing. Rare treat.