We don't seem to have time to lake long trips, but we had time to head south and visit Portland, Oregon and friends in the area. What a hoot.While I really enjoy rural America, city living does have its merits - like access to some amazing restaurants, art and parks and during our short stay in Portland, we managed to get in a bit of all of it, plus shopping.
We met our friends in a suburb of Portland called Beaverton and parked the car, opting instead to use the amazing Portland transit system where we bought a $4.oo all day ticket and with that took trains, trolleys and buses.
Our first stop was to Goose Hollow where we found the most amazing restaurant for lunch. I had a ruben, drenched in melted cheese, corned beef, sauerkraut and since I am doing Atkins, I didn't even miss the bread.
We walked through downtown, window shopping, art galleries, brousing and sightseeing. Found these little bears playing in a troth, which was one of many artforms in the city.
Our next stop was to Washington Park. The docent told us it was the biggest park in the US, but unfortunately there was a news article in the Portland paper a week later that ranked Portlands green space and only #14 th in the nation. It is large and you could spend days there, checking out the zoo, the museum, the hiking trails, etc. but we opted for the two very famous gardens, the Japanese garden and the Rose Garden. The Japanese garden made us homesick for Japan as it was 'right on' correct. The Rose Garden was a mixture of beautiful sights and smells.
There is much to see and do in Portland and we just scratched the surface. We will be back.
