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Portland, OR

a trip to portland to see the roses.

on this trip to Portland, we revisited the Portland Internation Rose Test Garden (PIRTG) and there were a lot more roses than our trip in february (when there were none whatsoever). we also visited the Peninsula Park Rose Garden which i read somewhere was larger in area than the other, but it’s not maintained as well and most of the flowers were in drought mode or past their prime. the PIRTG was definitely the best bet – so it was swamped with tourists on Sunday, and only slightly less swamped on Monday. show up early or prepare to walk from the car.

other fun things we did in town included attending the tail end of the last day of the Oregon Brewers Festival at Waterfront Park. our favorite (out of the beers that remained) was “Lakefront White” by Lakefront Brewery of Milwaukee, WI.

i’ve posted my photos from the rose test garden up to Flickr:

mikeyboy.com’s portland international rose test garden photoset

Vancouver, BC

an afternoon north of the border.

a daytrip to Vancouver, B.C. on the second leg of our “thank goodness mike didn’t have to work” weekend, we drove up to Vancouver. we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time to spend there, but this was impacted even more by an accident that closed down I-5 northbound (although we did
enjoy the twisty/rocky SR 11 ride into bellingham to avoid the congestion on the interstate).

in Vancouver, we ate brunch at the elbow room cafe. a restaurant famous for it’s lively atmosphere, large portions, and abusive staff. and when they say ‘abuse’ they mean ‘abuse.’ i don’t blush very often, but i did several times on sunday. leave your thin skin at home. thankfully, the abuse was served up with a delicious pancake the size of a frisbee® flying disc.

Monte Cristo, WA

a long day hiking.

the going is easy, it’s an old gravel roadbed, 4 miles back to the site of the former mining town. there are still some relatively modern (or semi-modernized) structures on the site, and a few vestiges of old equipment. the last of the original 19th-century structures burned down in 1983, apparently.

a nice walk, a bit long though. 8 miles round trip, an elevation difference of only about 400ft. next time we’ll opt for something that works the muscles harder, but doesn’t abuse the joints for quite so long.

Mount Vernon, WA

the beautiful tulips!

we went up to Mount Vernon, WA for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

It’s a series of events and activities geographically separated around a few square miles. the centerpieces being several farms who let you pay a nominal fee to wander through their fields. and a lot of people like to ride bicycles in the area, so if you go, keep an eye out for two-wheelers.

we parked at RoozenGaarde and walked around their display grounds, and out into their vast fields of flowers. it was pretty amazing.

Portand, OR

a trip south to Oregonia.

it rained pretty steadily for the whole time we were down there. we still had fun, drank some good beer, saw some nice waterfalls and left with about a dozen ideas of what to do on our next trip.

i especially want to revisit the Historic Columbia River Highway (info here, here, and here). the sky was quite overcast while we were there and we couldn’t see any of the mountains, but the Vista House building itself was quite impressive.

Big 4

a trip to the meadow at the base of Big 4.

what an incredible trip up to Big 4. we were surprised to find that the Mountain Loop Highway was still open to Barlow Pass – it’s usually closed by late November/early December. we only went as far as Big 4, and the last mile getting there, the road was snow-packed and turning into a slushy/icy mess.

Big 4 was gorgeous. there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground at the base, and you could see it snowing up on the mountain. the whole basin was full of snow which reflected the sun peeking through intermittent clouds.

200 miles for cookies

we drove thru Stevens Pass, over to Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is a little town on the east side of the Cascade Moutains.

washington pass

we took a ride up to Washington Pass, in the Northern Cascade Moutains. the destination was chosen because of snow – we miss the regular snowfall that we were used to back east (and seeing mountains and driving twisty roads never hurts, either).