Well it has been a very long day two, but another wonderful day in the Pacific Northwest city of Portland! We started off the day early in the morning by driving and parking in the downtown area and visiting pioneer square (pictured above).
After spending a couple of minutes around the square we walked into the local area & travel information center which was located right in Pioneer Square. We were planning on visiting both the Japanese Gardens as well as the Rose Garden and were looking for directions via public transportation on getting there. Sure enough, everybody at the center was really helpful, gave us great suggestions and off to “The Max” we were, to catch a ride to the gardens.
The Max as it is called here in Portland is the “Light Rail” public transportation service. There is also the Portland streetcar service which is a smaller light rail system, but the Max covers a much larger area and has different lines in the system serving different areas of Portland. One thing I noticed about this particular system is that unlike other public light rail systems it doesn’t interfere as much with the scenery downtown. No big rail tracks to walk over, no ugly boarding platforms. I think this system is one of the most thoughtfully planned out systems I have seen. Most importantly, it is VERY clean! Actually I can say this about the entire city, VERY CLEAN! The city is immaculately kept and maintained.
We arrived at the Japanese garden, and the photo opportunities were incredible. As far as today goes, I shot over 300 photos! The Forecast for today was rain throughout, however it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t the best weather for photos, the sky to me looks horrible (overcast), so I avoided including it in my photos where I could. The rain picked up when we got to the Japanese gardens but wasn’t extremely heavy. So as you will notice in most of my outdoor photos from today, most everything is wet!
The Japanese and Rose Gardens we visited were very well kept, and I enjoyed them very much. Very interesting, as we spent a good amount of time there. I would recommend them both to anybody visiting the Portland Area!
Now on to the great food which is an understatement! The restaurants in Portland are some of the best I have been to! Mother’s Bistro and Bar, where we ate lunch today, is no exception. The food at Mother’s to be completely honest is perfect. I really don’t know what else they could do to the menu items to make them any better. I had the crab cake sandwitch with pasta salad, and the wife had the macaroni and cheese. I had the chance to taste the macaroni and cheese and WOW! The pasta was cooked just right and the cheese was just perfect. I would really ask that if you come to Portland and you have a meal you go to Mother’s it has great atomsphere and the food is just amazing! One other little interesting tidbit about Mother’s is that while we were sitting and eating, we noticed one of the cooks coming into the restaurant with a bag filled with fresh bread, which we assumed was picked up from a bakery near by. So we know we were getting pretty fresh stuff eating there.
Since we are talking about food, one thing my wife pointed out is that in Portland aside from the Starbucks practically on every block (we aren’t complaining by the way) there really are more smaller restaurants and brewerys than fast food chains or even national restaurant chains. I think this is great! The better chance for folks in Portland to get a good home cooked meal, they can’t really get anywhere else!
Well folks, that’s all for today. Don’t forget to check my Flickrstream and vacation photo set for more photos as I post them. I took so many today I don’t have time to process them all tonight, so I am sure I will be going through them for weeks to come!
Tomorrow it is off to follow the Columbia River and see Mt. Hood! I hope to get plenty more photos then too. Who knows maybe I will have another 300 shot day! I sure hope so.