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| Mt Hood, Oregon - Elev 11,249' |
We took a little trip to see the sights of the Pacific
Northwest and were not disappointed. As
for the particulars I will not bore with the minutiae. Instead allow me to whet your appetite with
highlights and photos.
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| Mt Hood From 36,000' elev. Clearly my photo is better than stock, right? |
By the way I took
880 photos! But don’t worry I’ll cull
out the ‘not so good’ ones, edit and crop the rest and keep only the cream of
the cropped crop.
Don’t you just love
digital?
The trip was a tour with the group formerly known as Elder
Hostel. Many did not know what the title
meant but they were possibly hostile to the elder part so the name was cleverly
updated to Road Scholar Tours (RST.) I can now
proudly say I am a Road Scholar! Take
that Bill Bradley.
So how do you see everything in such a large area in just 11
days?
You don’t.
But being
a scholar means knowing your limitations.
However you do get a chance to live out of a suitcase and
lug luggage from hotel to hotel travelling by trains, busses, luxury coaches,
street cars, light rail, and ferries and of course by foot.
Luckily our luggage was stored most of the time and in the
end you feel refreshed and invigorated that you did more in less than 2 weeks
than most people do in a lifetime! (As long as they don’t live very long.)
Important note: Attention spans being what they are these
days even I wouldn’t want to read about the entire trip in one sitting so I will
tell of the vacation in several parts.
If you are reading a part higher than number one and wish to go in order (no reason really but) scroll down for the beginning of the trip.
PART I
Our 11 day adventure began in Portland Oregon pronounce Err-Gone
where we spent 2 nights sandwiched around a full day before getting gone.
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| The irreplaceable & therefore nearly ever present Roger! |
After an introductory dinner hosted by our tour over-guide
Roger where all travelers introduced themselves to the group and explained what
they did or are still doing we were regaled by a local expert who spoke about
Portland’s pre Statehood history.
This type of informative lecture is a key feature of the
RST experience and we were treated (subjected?) to at least one in
every city or locale. They were well
done and I will try hard to remember half of what I heard and re-learned from
my school days. Just don’t ask me to
repeat any of it.
We had our first glimpse of all the interesting people we would
be cooped up, I mean traveling with for the next 10 days. But just as there is safety in numbers there
is also nervous anxiety among strangers.
And there were 36 of us in that room.
Most had been on RST in the past so they were familiar with the
concept. We were not. Clearly we had some work to do.
After a full buffet breakfast at the Doubletree Hotel we
headed out for our day's tours beginning with Portland's:
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| Every year since 1907 a rose is selected & the breeder anointed Queen for a year! |
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| All Hail the Queen! |
And in 1977
they crowned
Queen Susan!
The garden was incredibly fragrant and roses of all colors and sizes surrounded us. |
| A perfectly sunny day for tiptoeing, uh romping through the roses! |
Roses to the left of us, roses to the right of us, well you get the picture or pictures.
Wonderful world of roses?
The colors!
The aroma!
The diversity!
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| The Storied PEACE ROSE |
My favorite was the Peace Rose.
And finally a rose bush that
dates back to the discovery of Newfoundland by Lief Ericson
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| A tip of the hat from The Royal Rosarian and the Resches |
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| A Rose Hip from a very old bush |
I bid the roses
adieu & head
out for our
next tour.
And that next tour is of the Lan Su Chinese Garden.
This entire garden of Chinese tranquility occupies one square city block in downtown Portland.
This civic marvel was built overseas, taken apart piece by piece & meticulously reconstructed in Portland in Sept 2000.
Note the city just beyond the outer wall.
You almost feel as though you need a passport to enter but luckily just a ticket, prepaid by RST. Out of our fee of course.
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| Several objects are strategically placed to give a peaceful feel to the garden. |
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| Another panoramic view of Lan Su for you |
Exotic artwork and architecture abound.
Not sure what they did to warrant a
lineup but Hey, It's Chinatown, sort of.
Some of the beautifully carved wood panels depict scenes from the city where the Garden was constructed
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| Gorgeous Jade creatures guard some of the fine furniture. |
Lunch was at the Portland Grill WAAAY up (31st floor of the "pink" building) overlooking, well everything. Large windows basically offered a 360 degree view of Portland. Several mountains including Mt Hood and Mt St. Helens, what's left of it were visible to the north but hard to see with the camera.
You'll just have to take my word for it!
Next up was a quick visit to Columbia Gorge and it's very expensive Rest Stop/Visitor's Center.
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| The dot all the way on the upper right is the Visitor's Center. |
The Rest Stop is on the left and it's interior ceiling just because I felt like taking the photo on the right. Hey, it's my camera and my blog so tough!
Off to the famous (to many) Multnomah Falls for a delightful dinner at the lodge.
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| Enjoying my 'Fisheye' Lens again. |
 First view of the falls walking from the parked coach |
We hiked up to that bridge in the background to work up our appetite. As if we needed to walk some more!
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| A few of the wonderful people on this RST |
And believe it or not this was just the first day!
To be continued
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