Sept. 7, 2014 --- Portland Rose Garden, Portland Japanese Garden, good bye to our friends:
Hard to believe 10 days have passed already (starting in Las Vegas).  After another breakfast at Lil' Sambo's, we were off.

 They didn't have to be at the airport until about 4am the next day, but we all decided they would probably prefer to spend the night near the airport instead of heading up there in the middle of the night.  Our first stop---Drift Creek Covered Bridge.  Originally it was somewhere else and was going to be destroyed, so a couple on the other side of this creek bought the bridge, took it apart, then rebuilt it by their home. 

 So it is a functioning bridge, although driving over it now is driving on private property.

 Then we drove through Dallas again and on up to Falls City.  Couldn't get a good picture of the falls, but the river above the falls is neat, too.

Then we headed up to Portland.  This is from the viewpoint off I-205 overlooking the Willamette Falls.

 I don't know if this is ingenious, or stupid---or, like Portland, just weird---as were the skateboarders on the highway!

 I made them all go up to the free International Rose Test Gardens in Washington Park.    The garden has 4.5 acres and has several tiers.

 I knew Coni would enjoy it.  Figured the boys could use the walk.  The roses bloom from April through October with the peak coming in June, depending on the weather.  For the 2nd week of Sept., they looked great!

 New rose cultivars are continually sent to the garden from many parts of the world and are tested for color, fragrance, disease resistance and other attributes.

 It is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States and exemplifies Portland's nickname of the City of Roses.

In 1917 a group of Portland nurserymen came up with the idea for an American rose test garden. Portland had an enthusiastic group of volunteers and 20 miles of rose bordered streets, largely from the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition.

The garden served as a safe haven for hybrid roses grown in Europe during World War I. Rose lovers feared that these unique plants could be destroyed as a result of the war.

 Foreign hybridists sent roses for test from many countries and the garden was an immediate success.

 Hard to believe some of the flowers are even roses!

There's even an amphitheater in the garden that hosts many events throughout the year, mostly  classical music concerts and a few plays.

  Today, Portland is the only North American city that can issue its awards to roses of merit throughout the world.

 The roses are tended to by one year-round gardener—two during the summer—and many volunteers.

 Eventually we made our way to this exit and headed UP to the Japanese Garden.

There was a shuttle that went up to the Portland Japanese Garden, but it didn't come fast enough so we walked---up and up and up.  Washington Park has a few hills!  Finally got up to the entrance and found out there's a $9.50@person fee (slightly less for the old guy Ken).  No reciprocal garden membership here, so we paid the fee and walked around the garden.
The garden was dedicated and design began in 1963, though the garden didn't opened to the public until 1967.

 The 5.5 acre Portland Japanese Garden is composed of five distinct garden styles: The Strolling Pond Garden; The Natural Garden; The Sand and Stone Garden; The Flat Garden; and The Tea Garden.

 Three of the essential elements used to create the garden are stone, the "bones" of the landscape; water, the life-giving force; and plants, the tapestry of the four seasons.

 Secondary elements include pagodas, stone lanterns, water basins, arbors, and bridges.

 As a Japanese garden, the desired effect is a sense of peace, harmony, tranquility and the feeling of being a part of nature.

 Japanese gardens are asymmetrical in design and reflect nature in idealized form.

 In a study conducted in 2004 by the Journal of Japanese Gardening, this garden was ranked a very close second place out of 300 public Japanese gardens outside of Japan for highest quality.

 The tranquil rake patterns are often present in Japanese rock gardens.

Raked white sand represents water and vividly contrasts with the lawn, moss, evergreens, and azaleas in the Flat Garden.

 The east veranda of the Garden Pavilion overlooks downtown Portland and Mount Hood, which resembles Mount Fuji.  If there's a haze in the air, like there is today, Mount Hood may not be visible.

 Strolling along.

 The lower entrance features a 100-year-old authentic temple gate, a 1976 gift of the Japanese Ancestral Society of Oregon.  This is the entrance we came up from and went back down through.

 It was getting pretty late and we were hungry, so we looked to Garmin to find us somewhere to eat.  It showed a McMenamins Tavern and Pool not far from the park.  We enjoyed Kennedy School so much, we decided to give this McMenamins a try, too. 

 It was nice, but it really wasn't converted from something else.  It had been a bar and it was just redecorated.

 A toast to our last dinner together on this trip.

Our flatbread Hawaiian Pizza.

And rueben  sandwich.

some of the decor here.

 more decor.

By the time dinner was over, it was time to drop Coni and John off at their hotel by PDX and make our way back to Lincoln City to the Sandpiper Resort.  It was a lot of fun showing off "our" Oregon.  But we weren't done enjoying it yet!