Pacific Northwest Vacation - Day 11: Portland

On out last 'real' day of vacation, we explored Portland.

We started out by getting breakfast from a Portland original, Voodoo Doughnuts.

There was a line but the wait wasn't too long - about 15 minutes. We got some of their unusual flavors including Voodoo Doll, Vicious Hibiscus, and Dirt.

And then we went to the Portland Japanese Garden.

It felt like being in Japan.

As it was a very hot day, we especially appreciated the many shady areas.

The following rock garden reminded us of a place we went to in Kyoto.

After going to the Japanese garden in Seattle a week ago, it is hard to say which one is better. They are both very good. It was probably more crowded here but otherwise would have been as serene as it was in Seattle.

One thing they have here in Portland are very colorful, and large, koi.

It was one of our favorite spots in the garden, or would have been if it wasn't so hot in the sun!

I also liked the following... not sure what it is called but the bamboo pipe fills with water then tips, and the bamboo makes a nice soothing sound as it bangs against the rock.

Right next to the Japanese Garden is the International Rose Test Garden.

My wife was tired and feeling overwhelmed by the heat so she sat on a bench in the shade while Kai and I looked at the roses.

Kai loved that there were so many different colors of roses.

My favorite was this pink climbing rose.

We weren't sure they were roses as the flowers are so small, but the thorns confirmed that they were.

Kai took pictures of each different color of rose. I like that he takes interest in what we are seeing and that he wants pictures of everything.

We then checked out the Portland Saturday market which is a weekly art and craft fair. It wasn't much different than our local fairs back home though I did enjoy seeing the photos of professional photographers who captured many of the places we went to on this vacation.

And then we got lunch in an air conditioned restaurant. Besides the relief from the heat, it was our last chance to eat oysters. My wife said that eating oysters gave her the most pleasure on this vacation.

In the afternoon we went to the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium, an odd little museum that had a number of freaky, peculiar, creepy exhibits.

Here Kai took photos of everything.

Big Foot was present.

But Big Foot was relatively normal compared to other oddities like this burning chair.

I can't even begin to describe the following.

Or this one:

Afterward we went to Salt and Straw, another Portland original, to have ice cream and meet up with a friend of mine who happened to also be traveling through Portland.

By then the temperature had gone over 100.

And we had enough of being out and about. We returned to our hotel so my wife could relax and recover while Kai and I went to the swimming pool.

For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant. Kai loved his coconut water.

And his green curry.

It was a very good last dinner.

Tomorrow we only have time to head to the airport and fly home. Kai is happy now and I think he enjoyed the vast majority of the vacation. So hopefully he will have pleasant memories.