Portland

We arrived in Portland on Tuesday afternoon, just ahead of the commute rush! Our motel was near the Max station, which provided free transportation to downtown, and many other points in the "fareless square". We headed into town, and had a wander around the downtown area. Portland is a large, cosmopolitan city, there are tons of great restaurants, and great shopping there.

Since we had a well-stocked ice chest with us, we ended up having snacks at the hotel on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday we visited the OMSI (Oregon Mueseum of Science and Industry), which provided shuttle service. We got the shuttle at the Max station, and were delivered at the door of OMSI! This is a great hands-on experience, and we spent several hours there, going through all of the exhibits and experiments, including the CSI crime solvers, in which we viewed the crime scene, gathered information and clues, and then had to determine what had actually happened. The kids LOVED this one!

After OMSI, we shuttled back to the Max station and got on the bus headed to Washington Park. The shuttle driver gave us transfers, which allowed us to travel on the public transportation system in any direction, for no extra charge! Pretty good for our initial $2 investment!

There are lots of things to see and do at Washington Park, but we were headed to the Rose Gardens. Portland is known as the city of roses, and world known for their experimental rose garden. It was a tad bit cool and overcast on Wednesday, but perfectly comfortable for wandering through the roses! We also toured their Japanese gardens, which were just beautiful, peaceful and relaxing!

Here's some pictures of the gardens:

This is the Robertson Tunnel - this is where the light rail stopped for Washington Park. After we came up above ground, we walked to the gardens, which turned out to be almost a 2 mile walk. We discovered that there was an inter-park shuttle, which we took back!

Beautiful, fragrant red roses!

Me in the rose garden

This is a shot of the Japanese Garden. Very beautiful

On Thursday we headed out of town to explore the Columbia Gorge along the Columbia River. It was a beautiful sunny day. We got off the main highway, and on Hwy 30, which meandered along all of the waterfalls and beautiful scenery. Hwy 30 was the first road over the mountains in Oregon, and gave Oregon residents and visitors a way to get to Portland besides the Columbia River.

Here is Multnomah Falls - it was quite spectacular, and the 2nd longest continually running waterfall in the US. The longest is on Mt. Ranier.

This is a picture of the gorge, taken from a lookout at the top of Hwy 30.

Isn't this a beautiful backdrop?

This is the Vista House. It was built at the same time as Hwy 30, to give travelers a place to stop. It's build like a wedding cake. There is a 3rd floor underground, which has a gift shop, museum and restrooms. It's elegant construction, typical of that time period.

We traveled east to Cascade Locks. You can see all of the wind surfers in the background. Apparently the gorge area is known for it's wind!

This is the locks at Cascade Locks. It was a cute little town, with a great deli! We also saw the "Oregon Pony" - the first little steam engine that took passengers by rain to Portland.

Thursday evening we hopped on Max and headed to town, where we had dinner at Kells' Restaurant. It's a great Irish restaurant, and tied for first place of Irish restaurants in the US! Lee had an Irish quesadilla! How's that for mixing cuisine??

Friday morning ended our Portland visit. We loaded up the car and headed into Washington, to visit with Lee's friend Connie, who lives in Bonney Lake. Stay tuned! :)