Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My niece is visiting me and I am having a very hard time coming up with things she would like to do. She is 12, likes anime, hates shopping, not really into nature, likes to think of herself as emo/goth. She seems content to spend most of her time on her computer talking with friends and reading which is fine for me but I don't want her to be completely bored either.

So far we have gone to voodoo, Hot topic, the park and the beach. I thought about taking her to powells, downtown to walk around, maybe the japanese garden. Would Oaks park be worthwhile?


Can anyone help me come up with some fun ideas?

OMSI

Does she like arcades? Maybe take her to Ground Kontrol!

Walk up and down Hawthorne--comic shops, Powell's 2, food carts.... What about watching the Rose City Rollers roller derby team? Would she be into pedicures at the Aveda training school or something like that, or is that too froufrou? What about the 24 hour church of Elvis, the grilled cheese grill on Alberta, the Saturday Market (which I hate, but I see lots of teenagers there), going to a movie at one of the old cinemas?

All good suggestions so far. I used to take her to OMSI pretty often until I overheard her joking with her mom about all of the lame places I take her. A little rude but whatever. Part of the problem is that she will say she wants to go someplace just to be nice and so we end up doing things that neither one of us wants to go to and then I hear about it later from her mom. On this trip I am mostly content to let her do her own thing and entertain herself but I already heard her tell her mom how bored she is so I can't really win. She is at the age where it is not cool to be excited or enthusiastic about anything so she can be tough to read. Keep the good ideas coming!

When I worked with teenagers, I took them to Music Millennium's free in-store performances, even if neither one of us knew the band. That always went over pretty well! They have a schedule on their site.

Also, Movies in the Park! http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=52643

Reading Frenzy is right by Powell's. She might like that.
http://www.oregonzoo.org/Concerts/ There is a possibly cool concert coming up on Friday, Afrocubism.
The Hat Museum in Ladd's Addition sounds kind of odd. http://www.thehatmuseum.com/

Odd is good! She loves Odd!

If you can get up to Bellingham tomorrow, you could go see March Fourth Marching Band! http://www.marchfourthmarchingband.com/

Take her to Mississippi, you can go to Rebuilding center and she can search for some neat goth looking lamp or wall fixture or something, and then you can walk up the street and go to all the shops, there's Missing Link which I'm sure she'll like, and this other one that I cannot remember the name but they are SUPER goth, lots of victorian-y mixed with modern stuff. There's also Pistils Nursery which is totally like a goth nursery. They have baby chicks too (well maybe they're a bit older than baby by now but there's always chickens), and lots of very 'unusual' plants and items.

does she like to thrift?

Ungrateful!

I suggest she hang out in a cardboard box in the living room. That'll teach 'er.

We just got back from mississippi! She loved missing link! We walked past the nursery now I am sorry we didn't go in.