Greetings from Portland, Oregon!
I have very much enjoyed my stay here. Temperate rain forest is my favorite climate. Yesterday I had a free day to explore around the area. I went to downtown Portland and roamed around, exploring an country outdoor clothing store and the farmer's market. I was pleased to find a good deal on some new Carthartt work jeans, since my last pair gave up during my recent trip to CO. It's a strange city - for as hard as parking is to find, the streets were not crowded with people. The Farmer's market was typical, but nice. A live folk-signer in the middle, honey, goat cheese, farm-fresh vegetables, and of course at least one candy stand. The whole thing was set up on a green area on the Portland State University campus, so under the canopy of 50ft high hardwood trees, and above a vibrant green carpet of grass.
Even though the ground here has been constantly wet from off and on showers, it has not felt dreary to me. Flowering trees, 50-100ft high evergreen trees, climbing ivy, moss, and bright green, soft wonderful carpets of grass are everywhere. So it does not feel dark and gloomy to me. I next explored Washington Park, which is a large green area on the hill above downtown, housing the zoo, a 200-acre arboretum, Japanese gardens, and other recreational attractions. It is gorgeous! A couple hours walking around in there and I was ready to head back to the hotel and watch the Final Four games. First, though, I drove into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Beautiful! I only went far enough to get an overlook down into the Columbia River basin, but it's enough to get me hooked! I could see towering waterfalls across the river, at least two miles away, probably more like 5. The river looked like a dark sheet of glass down at the bottom, surrounded on both sides by a shag carpet of deep green tree. Just what I could see from that point could probably occupy a person for weeks to explore it all. I recommend a visit to this place to any outdoor enthusiast out there - I will find a way back here to spend more time, one way or another...
2 comments:
Thanks for getting back on the post...indeed the pictures would have been great to see...yet the mind experiments with that great brillant green carpet and the mature forest of hardwoods and evergreens are easy to visualize...thanks again for the sharing of this adventure
Oregon is absolutely beautiful! I recommend that you head out to the coast if possible to get some of the most beautiful views. If you have time, it is also fun to take a jet boat up either the of the large rivers (good way to see bald eagles).
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