Washington Park

Yesterday the Portland Velosos left for Seattle, so we Salkes were left to our own devices in the area for a few days. That's what happens when we don't make concrete plans, I suppose. Of course, it's hardly a tragedy to be in Portland without one's family. We made do. I had Googled "things to do in Portland" and found a few places I thought Zorah would be interested in visiting. Three points of interest were gardens, since she loves flowers. We found out from Manny that two of the gardens were right next to each other, so we decided to go to those today.

The Portland Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test Garden are both located in Washington Park. Zorah and I drove there in the truck. I didn't even think about the fact that it was Saturday, and that Portlanders are outdoorsy types, so we had some difficulty parking close to the gardens. We actually looped past them down a very windy road, and -- maybe a half mile from our original destination -- finally found several open spaces so I could park the truck without worrying about causing damage to other vehicles.

We weren't sure of the best way to get back up the hill to the rose garden, but against all logic, we decided to continue downhill to see what we would find. Not too far from our parking space, I saw a narrow path going straight up the hill.

It started out okay, but then got steep enough that we were using a vertical crawl to ascend, grabbing roots or bushes to keep from sliding down. We reached a path running perpendicular to ours, but decided to keep climbing (or crawling) straight up the hill. The light just at the top suggested we would be out in the open soon.

Finally, we burst out of the bushes into a clearing where, rather incongruously, we saw a pale, skinny, barechested man sunning himself on a lawn. A gravel path curved to the left and up, right to the rose garden. Perfect!

We happily wandered through the rose garden, taking pictures of particularly beautiful new hybrid roses. Unfortunately we were still a bit early to see all of the roses in bloom, but there were still plenty to see, like this one, called the Rose des Sylphes.

Apparently, during World War I, hybridists sent samples of their roses from all over the world to this garden to save them from the ravages of war. Since then, people still send their roses there to be observed and evaluated for four years in hopes of achieving the approval of the All-America Rose Selection. Interesting history, but, really, they smell good and look nice. That's enough for me.

After admiring the roses, we crossed the street to the Japanese Garden, which was truly a wonder. Whereas the Rose Test Garden was a straightforward nursery type of garden with even rows and terraces, the Japanese Garden was a place to explore, with shaded twisty paths and tunnels of foliage, opening into surprising clearings with fountains, pools, ornaments, and benches where we stopped for snacks.

I really could have filled a lot of space here with photos of it, but didn't want to use up all my blog's storage space. The care involved in creating this place, which is a hugh 5.5 acres, is awesome.

I think this may be one of my favorite places that I've seen in our travels. It would have been better if there were less people around. If I lived in Portland, I think I could be found there on most days. I'd love to see what it's like in all seasons.

So at this point we had done plenty of walking, exploring, and admiring of things and decided to head to the playground, which we had passed on our search for a parking space. It was a huge play area with a stone elephant Zorah honored with a flower on its head.

We headed down a similar path to the one we climbed to get to the gardens, and went back to the trailer for dinner.