Advertisement
Published: June 23rd 2017
Tom McCall Waterside Park
Looking south on the Willamette River.Geo: 45.5118, -122.676
Portlanders value their outdoor space. So it came as no surprise that a forward-thinking governor, Tom McCall, reclaimed land formerly used as a highway and created a park by the Willamette River. It is a nice green space to stroll along when the weather is good (it was raining this morning...). Alas, the view across the river isn't the most picturesque; the highways bypassing Portland are all on the other side of the river. The park also contains a poignant memorial to the 100,000+ Japanese Americans interned during WW2.
Portland is twinned with the Chinese city of Suzhou. As part of a cultural exchange programme, each one created a garden in the twinned city. Portland gave Suzhou a rose garden. In return, the Chinese created a classical Chinese garden for Portland. It is very pretty and the plans conformed to the rules of a classical Chinese garden. Everything has to be in harmony. Plants, architecture, water, rocks and sound. We followed a guided tour with a very knowledgeable 'docent' explained the subtleties of the Chinese scholars' concepts of garden design and even the intricacies of classical Chinese poetry.
A little bit of retail therapy was called for next and afterwards
Japanese-American Peace Plaza
A memorial to the Japanese who were interned durivn WWII. it was time for lunch. Continuing our Oriental/East Asian theme we found a small Japanese restaurant which served a bizarrely named 'Caterpillar Roll'. Sushi purists look away now: Avocado on the outside and grilled eel inside. It did look like a caterpillar.
The Scottish element of today's post is Scottish Country Dancing with the Portland branch of the RSCDS. The venue was a dance studio in Vancouver. No, not in British Columbia, but in Washington State. It is the oldest settlement in the state. We had great fun walking through and dancing the dances, many of them not familiar to us and the group was very welcoming, not to mention glad to have two extra men! We went at it full pelt for hour and a half without a tea and shortbread break! A good way of burning up some of the nice Vietnamese food we had for dinner. Who'd have thought in such a small town, we could find good Vietnamese food?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.048s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mavis
non-member comment
Ha ha! Seriously thought you were off round the world for a moment. Sorry there were no photos of the Highland Fling. Mave