15 June 2005 ... Portland Road Trip

My Dad was in Portland on Sunday, and partner and I drove up there to visit him and do some sight seeing. It was a fun day and we got some exercise by using the great public transportation in the city.

We started out with some church. It was a different branch than I grew up with, but they were using a traditional service and I could sing the chants without looking at the music or words. Their choice of hymns was undesirable, tho, music too complicated to enjoy.

Next was Powell's book store, yay. I picked up a big ol' hard back, Glory Season by David Brin, which was signed by the author. cool, huh?! The book is not in perfect condition, but it's decent and it's still got it's dust jacket. Now we just need to kill off David Brin, so the book will be worth something! haha, just kidding, that guy better not die any time soon, he's still got a lot of explaining to do with his Uplift series. :)

Then we headed down to the International Rose Test Garden, and wow, the perfect time of year! Everything was in full bloom, and in fact they were judging "Portland's Best Rose" that very day. The winners of that contest get to go to the Gold Metal Garden, where partner found his favorite rose: Secret, the 1997 winner, which had big ol' blossoms that smelled of lemonade. (More info about the different gardens, the Rose Garden Store: International Rose Test Garden.)

Looking across the gardens and all the rows of roses, seeing all the different shades of reds and pinks and purples and blushes and yellows and whites, it was so incredible. I liked the red and white striped ones, and the ones that are trying to be blue. And some of the hugest blooms you've ever seen, and some of the smallest. And it was interesting seeing what all the roses' names are. Of course, no one remembered a camera, so I have to send you to another web site to see photos of roses... Rose Garden photos by David Sessions

Next we headed to the Portland Saturday Market, an arts and crafts fair. They were just closing up shop, which was probably a good thing since I have no money to spend and would have just stood around sighing at all the wonderful things that I wanted to take home with me. Blank books, rainbow-coloured watercolour paintings, 40$ handmade wood pens, soy candles... etc, etc.

And then dinner at the Old Wives Tale, which I recommend because it has several vegan dinner selections! I actually had a hard time deciding what to get! I settled on Sesame Peanut Tofu Scramble, yum.

We chatted for a while at Dad's hotel room and went and played with the hotel's crappy computers. Then partner and I headed home.