Playgrounds to Powell's to Purple Roses

Portland served up another perfect day of sunny but cool weather for us to enjoy while we walked through city streets, park blocks, and Powell's aisles. When we got tired of walking, we just hopped on the light rail or bus, both of which are free within the downtown. When we took the light rail to Washington Park, we bought a ticket - which nobody ever actually checked. Does this entire city run on the honor system? Amazing!

In Washington Park, we were charmed by the International Rose Test Garden, which demonstrated - forcefully - why Portland deserves the title "City of Roses."

Powell's lived up to my expectations of it, though I was shocked to see a neighborhood Borders actually manages to keep its doors open. We ate lunch at the Portland City Grill, 30 floors above Portland, where we got to count and check out all the various unique bridges that earn Portland its second nickname ("Bridgetown"). We stayed close to home for dinner, choosing a restaurant called Mother's Bistro, that served up one of the best meals we've had on this trip in a warm and charming setting. At dinner, we reminisced about all of our "favorite" moments of the trip. All in all, it was a perfect final day of our vacation.

Except we have one more day left :) Today we explore Portland by car (since we're paying to have the rental car sit in a parking lot) and we will visit the World Forestry Discovery Center Museum, which sounds like anything but a garden variety museum (pun intended?) Apparently, we will be able to take a canopy lift to the top of the 50-foot ceiling for a different pespective on a Douglas fir -as well as try out a smoke-jumper training simulator - something that is taking on new significance for us as we watch images of the fire engulfing some of the woods we just visited over the past week :( Here's hoping our final day is as wonderful as yesterday was!