Danelle’s Trip to Portland – April 28 to May 8, 2012

Eleven days – that is how long I was in Portland, Oregon last spring.  A lot can happen in eleven days.  Fortunately, not much happened at home – I didn’t miss any baseball games (thanks to two rain outs!) or lost teeth or first dates (that’s a ways off, I think).  But I did have a chance to visit a state I’ve never been to before.  I went to Portland to give presentations at back-to-back conferences for work: the National Water Quality Monitoring Conference followed immediately by the River Rally (which will be held in St. Louis this year!).  But before the meetings and presentations began, I had a little time for sightseeing.  I walked or took the train everywhere – gotta love a town with decent public transit.

I visited their botanical garden, because that’s kinda my thing now that I work for one…  I happened to catch an excellent guided tour – the tour totally made the visit!!

 

After the garden tour, I went on a really long walk around the park… thank goodness I have a decent sense of direction or I might still be wandering there!!  On my walk, I saw a kind of Trillium that I hadn’t seen in Missouri. (Big shock, their native plants are different, but they fight some of the same invasive species, like the English ivy in the background.)

 

Perhaps the highlight of the trip were the donuts from Voodoo Donuts.  My favorite was the maple bacon.  Mmmmmmm, I’m drooling just thinking about them!

 

 

And what trip would be complete without watching from my hotel room as a crowd gathers to stare at some random guy climbing a tree?