Portland was a dreamy place. We got to stay with one of my oldest friends, Lauren, her husband, Alex (though sadly he was away working in Seattle), and this guy:
We quickly became friends with their dog, Remy. He was a bit camera shy.
Portland contains lovely park after park and is close to lots of natural world to explore.
Right off the bat, we visited Washington Park and their acclaimed International Rose Test Garden. We were pleased to find many roses still in bloom. Lauren and I loved all the unique names of the various types of roses.
Some of my favorite rose names: Teeny Bopper, Cary Grant, Blushing Knockout, Party Hardy, Star of the Nile, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Poet, Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, Over the Moon, Monkey Business, Sugar Moon, Winsome…
There’s an arboretum there too! We wandered about the Maple trees, only slightly disappointed there weren’t more fall colors yet.
We also visited Mount Tabor – a park on a volcano with a foggy, pretty view.
Lauren is pregnant and was absolutely glowing while we were there. It was quite special to spend some time with her.
I was obviously very pleased about visiting the best bookstore ever, Powell’s City of Books. It fills up a whole city block, plus some. I love how their used books are all mixed in with the new ones. We also had lunch across the street at Sizzle Pie, which was pretty awesome because they have vegan slices of pizza.
Niall wanted to check out the Portlandia statue (above). It is based on the city seal and is of a woman holding a trident. It sits above the Portland Building downtown – we had to ask someone where it was, because we kept looking at ground level for it! It’s enormous.
It was a rainy day, so we spent some time at a coffee shop, Stumptown. Great coffee.
At night, we visited a bar/restaurant, the Bye and Bye. Artsy, warm environment, BBQ tofu and brussels sprouts – oh my.
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