Great Big Western Trek

Wednesday, August 29th Recovering from our whirlwind tour of the coast on Sunday, Mount Hood on Monday and Mount St. Helen's on Tuesday, this woman was NOT going out of Portland today! So today we went to the International Rose Garden to view the more than 8,000 rose bushes. Wow! Mom was in her glory as she stroked and sniffed the gorgeous blooms. We found out that the hybrid roses don't have that real rosy smell and some don't seem to smell at all! Enjoyed a man who was busking on the grounds, playing the hammer dulcimer. He was quite good! He showed me how to play it and where the different notes were. It was fascinating! Don't think I'll be playing one any time soon though. I have enough trouble with the fiddle! The view from the Rose Garden is spectacular. It's on the side of a mountain and you look over the city of Portland with Mount Hood looming in the background. We could barely make out Mount Hood because of the hazy skies today though. When we had our fill of roses, we started up to the Japanese Rose Garden. There was supposed to be a shuttle to get you to the top of the mountain, but it wasn't running. And the sign said, "If you have difficulty on uneven ground, do not attempt this trail." So - since I have trouble on uneven PAVED ground, I determined that I'd be really impeded by the uneven rocky ground and we didn't go up. Next time when the shuttle is running. On the way back to Marcus' house, we decided to go to see Mount Tabor which is a mountain rising right up out of the southeast portion of the city. You drive along, minding your own business, and WONG! There is a mountain on the next street! Volcanic, no less! SO we drove to Mount Tabor and guess what? Mount Tabor is closed on Wednesdays. Did we have a laugh over THAT one! I went to the mountain, but it was closed. LOL! They don't allow cars on it on Wednesdays as it turned out. Oh well, thwarted again! Marcus and Danni did take us out to a very unusual place for dinner. It more than made up for the mountain being closed.  Go here to see the Kennedy School.

Two of the stars in the International Rose Garden

So we drove down to the Columbia River to the beach near the airport and chilled, watching the boaters and fishermen. Also found out later from Marcus that the Willamette River, which runs through half of Portland, is a Superfund Site because it's so polluted. Ouch! After eating, we packed our clothes for our trip to Vancouver tomorrow and went to bed. Have to leave bright and early! Just as well because the activist group is coming over tonight to make signs for the protest march on Saturday. We won't be in the way then.

Thursday, August 30th Off to Vancouver! Can't wait to meet up with the infamous gracie sue! I feel like I already know her. I hope I'm what she expects, too. This is exciting, seeing the West Coast of the US AND the West Coast of Canada! Cool! It took the 5 and a half hours the map program said it would. We stopped in Marysville, Washington to eat lunch. Nice little town. Read the local paper and they have a lot of the same problems in school that we do. Must be universal. Found the hotel, which was RIGHT over the bridge into downtown. Almost missed it! More one-way streets. Oh joy oh rapture! Walked into the lobby to find Sue waiting for us. At last! She's wonderful and it was nice to hug her and put a real face to a name. She talks just like she types, by the way.

Looking out over the bay from Stanley Park to West Vancouver

Checked into the hotel and Sue took us on a whirlwind tour of Vancouver. We had just about 8 hours to see what we could see since we had to leave bright and early the next day. We went to Stanley Park and drove around. What a beautiful park! It has everything, hills, walking trails, the sea, trees, and GBS some weekends.

Looking out over the bay from Stanley Park to North Vancouver