Council Crest

The highest peak (correct spelling this time!) in Portland is Council Crest. From here you can see quite a distance, and under the right conditions you can see several of the nearby volcanoes located in the northwest.

The first picture is a very hazy shot of Mount St. Helens, with Mount Rainier visible just behind and to the left.

The second picture, also very hazy, is of Mount Hood.

The final picture is of my new toy set. Roads and bridges and stuff that, when put together, look just like Portland Orgegon.

Japanese Gardens

Right next door to the International Rose Test Garden are the Japanese Gardens. Within the Japanese Gardens are lots of very quaint and relaxing spots to contemplate whatever ails you. This picture is of a koi pond fed by a waterfall.

Now That Is Tame

This stupid squirrel was hanging around the International Rose Test Garden. Actually, maybe he isn't all that stupid. I was tempted to grab him by the tail and fling him far, far away.

International Rose Test Garden

What can I say about the International Rose Test Garden? I thought that we would be here about an hour. I figured that it was too late in the year for many roses to be blooming.

I was very wrong.

There were roses everywhere. Both my eyes and my nose were thrilled with this place. I have way too many pictures to choose from. Follow this link to "All My Pictures" (on the right) to see many more photos of roses (probably going to be lots of duplicates until I have a chance to go through them). Also, it will take some more time to get all the full size images uploaded (238 more to upload as I write this!), so you may need to check back later to see to full image (but thumbnails should be there now).

Audubon Sanctuary

First thing this morning, we visited the Portland Audubon Sanctuary to do some birding. The birding was somewhat slow, but we did see a couple of birds that do not occur on the east coast. We also saw, however, some birds that do appear on the east coast. In one case, it took us forever to figure it out, and the other was pretty easy.

First, we have the simple Song Sparrow. I learned today that this species can look pretty different in the northwest compared to what I see back in Virginia. The first picture shows you how much darker this bird is out here (assuming you know what they look like back in Virginia).

The second photo is of a Barred Owl. I have seen this species back in Virginia, but seeing owls is such a treat, that I was quite happy to catch this guy hanging out while squirrels squeaked at him. The picture is a tad dark, but still pretty neat.

Day of Travel

Today was travel day. There were a few minor glitches, like when the Comair folks in Richmond sent everyone who was traveling to Cincinnati down the "tunnel" to a plane that was bound to Orlando. Since I was one of the Cincinnati folks (the first leg of a three leg trip to Portland), this was highly annoying. And it made us late leaving Richmond.

It was about at that point in the trip when I realized that we would only have only thirty minutes to make it to the next leg of our trip once we got to Cincinnati (assuming the plane arrived on time). Despite that bit of distraction, we eventually made it to Portland safe and sound.

The picture here is of Skidmore Fountain, located in Portland. Every Saturday, the Portland Saturday Market is held here. We stopped by for a peek. For anyone who is from Richmond, think Arts in the Park.