Today has been, so far, one of our more-successful days. We were able to sleep pretty well, without too much trouble from the train. After our hearty breakfast of coffee, pancakes and sausage, we decided to go into Portland for the day. We were able to get into the city, but once we got there, we got confused and I almost threw the GPS out the window. The first stop we were going to make was to the International Rose Test Garden, which is in the middle of Washington Park. It is a huge park, with a bunch of other parks, and the zoo, inside its boundaries. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us. It seems to be working out that way for a lot of our stops here. There weren't any parking spots, so we drove around some more, and decided to fill up with gas, since we figured we'd have a lot more driving around to do. Once we did that, we continued to drive around some more, and found a parking spot at the Garden. We spent an hour or so there. Luckily, we came at the right time of year, because the roses were in bloom, although some of them looked a little dried out. It was really neat because from the road you could see Mt. Hood, the city skyline, and then all of the flowers. Although in the pictures, you can't really see the mountain.
After that, we decided to take a detour and look for the house from Twilight. We found it, alright, and drove up the drive-way before realizing that it was not a road. I don't know how they ended up filming there, because it didn't look like there was much room around, but it is an AWESOME house! We were able to get a picture of the deck...then we realized we shouldn't be there and left very quickly. (The house is on Quimby Street, which for Simpsons fans out there, is the street that Mayor Quimby is named after. There is also a NE Flanders St. and a Lovejoy St. Matt Groening is from Portland and named his characters after the streets. There is also a Burnside St. which we are thinking may be where Mr. Burns came from...)
After that, we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts, which is a doughnut place (obviously) out here that has its own cult following. They make a whole bunch of different, random doughnuts, and apparently that's where you should go when you're in the city (the lady from Canada, who made fun of us for making coffee in the morning, told us, too). So, we found it alright, but the line was literally out the door, down the street, and around the corner. Again, same idea as us. So, we decided to forgo that, and kept driving. Maybe we'll try again on our way out...
Our last excursion was to Roloff Farm, for mom. Before that, though, we took a small detour to Beaverton. Nike's World Headquarters are located here. There was a gate, so we couldn't go down it. From there, is was out to the farm. It is on the outskirts of the city, maybe about 10 miles away. From the street, all you could see is the house, and not the rest of the farm. It's closed until pumpkin season, so we could only do a drive-by. We got the pictures, so that's good. Maybe during pumpkin season, we can come back for a $300.00 family-member-led tour. There's not much in the town either. It's in the "agriculture area", so there are a bunch of farms around.
After we found our way out of Portland (rather easy, which was surprising), we headed back to the campground. Since it is Sunday, there is a whole new group of campers here. Our neighbor is one of them, and he is mighty interesting, to say the least. The first thing he pulled out of his car? A pair of antlers. He proceeded to put them into one of his tents after he set it up. I'm not even kidding. He also had two inflatable kayaks. Those didn't go in the tent. They just book-end it. Then he asked us if we knew how the weather was supposed to be. Wouldn't you check before going camping?! He is one of those people who walks around barefoot. I guess when it's really dusty, it doesn't matter anyway. But, he was nice enough to offer us a spare lantern. (He probably has three more in his van.) I don't know where he went, though, he kind of just disappeared...
From what we saw today, Portland is now high on our list of favorite cities. But, now it's off to bed, and Mt. Hood in the morning!
(I know we haven't put any pictures up in a while- We're trying our best! The internet connection at the campground isn't the best, and it's taking a while to get them all up!
Life Is A Highway- here are a few pictures, hopefully!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment