Things to Do in Salmon Creek

A family of ducks swims along Devils Lake, river otters play across Lake Merwin, and a kayak tour floats along the water. When Tracie Driver started NorthWest EcoExcursions, she envisioned a recreation company that would combine outdoor thrills with respect for the environment. To this end, NorthWest's guides, who each boast either a postgraduate education or more than 10 years in park-ranger experience, educate their customers on local wildlife and geology during trips that run the gamut from hiking to whale watching to goat-packing tours. The staff also maintains eco-friendly practices, serving strictly organic foods on camping trips and ensuring all of their office's plants are 100% solar powered.

Marmalade Skies' helpful staff, extensive project selection, and comfortable crafting space provide an artsy nest for the newly inspired. The brainchild of studio owner Debbie Tawse, Marmalade Skies marries education and creativity with parties focusing on do-it-yourself art such as mosaic, decoupage, glass painting, and more.

Pet lovers congregate inside the Portland Metropolitan Expo Center’s 72,000-square-foot expanse for the 11th annual Northwest Pet and Companion Expo, featuring a weekend's worth of pet-centric exhibitions and more than 120 vendors. Now entering its second decade, the locally owned event entertains kids with face painting, bounce houses, and demonstrations by pet experts, while adults enjoy live entertainment and informational resources about adoption opportunities. Pets can accompany their owners through the fair's walk-through aviary and exotic animal display, and a truffle-dog tournament lets canines test their sniffing abilities in discerning pinot noir from chardonnay.

Oregon Inflatables' fleet of bouncy chambers, water slides, games, and obstacles courses brightens birthday parties, graduations, and backyard barbecues with an old-school carnival flair. Each bouncy structure decks out air-filled cavities with themed decorations, dressing up playpens to resemble sunny stacks of crayons, turreted castles, or formidable pirate fortresses. Water slides and dunk tanks cool off partiers with romps through refreshing molecules of H2O, while obstacle courses, sumo suits, and games add a touch of friendly competition to gatherings. Oregon Inflatables couples its castles and water spouts with rentable cotton candy and snow-cone concessions that entertain taste buds with the sweet notes of spun sugar and flavored snowman meat.

The team behind Kidz-Playz enhances children's gatherings with inflatable play structures whose springy, cushiony surfaces encourage hours of bounding and tumbling. By toting these portable playhouses to clients' homes, Kidz-Playz's staff continues a profession that predates agriculture—renting children's party supplies.

In ancient Greece, for example, mask makers visited parties to give kids their own drama masks, which displayed one of the two known human emotions at that time—happiness and defeat. Come the Middle Ages, parents hired clowns, court jesters, and recently usurped monarchs to entertain their offspring. But it wasn't until the late 20th century that party technology really evolved, giving children access to supplies such as hot-dog-flavored birthday cakes and the pinnacle of entertainment: the inflatable bounce house.

Since 1977, the Historic Motor Sports Association has sped classic racecars toward the limelight, exhibiting their still-speedy maneuvering and encouraging their preservation. Annual races put the steel and chrome beasts through their paces once more, and guests chat with drivers and crew members and slip get-well cards into the upholstery of hundreds of other vintage vehicles no longer in racing condition.