Oregon

We spent a day in Portland, Oregon eating yummy food and exploring Washington Park, a one of a kind park with a rose garden of over 10,000 roses, 2,300 species of trees including majestic redwood trees, hiking and play areas with 410 acres to explore, archery range, and several memorials including the Holocaust Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans, and Lewis and Clark Memorial.

Our first stop was Doe Donuts, a vegan donut and ice cream shop! After seeing Phil eat 6 different donuts from here on Somebody Feed Phil season 5, we had to try them! We got:

• Portland Fog (organic earl grey glaze, fresh whip made of soy and coconut, fair trade vanilla bean) - this was my personal fav!
• Maple Bacon (maple glaze, housemade coconut bacon)
• Maple Corn Fritter (fresh yellow corn inside, maple glaze, sweet corn crumble)
• Salted Vanilla Bean (organic vanilla glaze, vanilla bean sea salt)
• Lemon Snowball (lemon mousse, vanilla bean glaze, sweetened coconut)

They were delicious, and you would never know they were vegan! 

Our next stop was the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (an ASTC Passport Museum, check out my Wisconsin blog post for more info). The exhibitions included Leonardo da Vinci, James Cameron Challenging the Deep Titanic, and a trigger warning: Prenatal Development displaying the stages of human fetal development across nine months of pregnancy with actual preserved bodies of miscarried unborn children. We walked through the exhibit first before seeing the warning notice, and we were all a bit shocked since we thought they were just models.

The kids enjoyed the Earth, Paleontology, Physics, and Chemistry Labs. Our youngest especially liked the hands on experiments at the Chemistry Lab.

Afterwards, we ate lunch at Prost! Marketplace, a food cart pod which we also heard about through Somebody Feed Phil. We purchased food from 3 different food trucks, and while they were all tasty, it was a bit hard to enjoy with the long wait and pounding sun. 

Brisket and Mac & Cheese from Matts BBQ

Sweet & Sour Jumbo Wings with fries from Koi Fusion

Tonkotsu Chashu Ramen from Teppanyaki Hut

I was surprised by how close everything was to each other. After a long flight, I was hoping for a 30 minute drive so everyone could take a nap, but Washington Park was only 10 minutes or so away. Our first stop was the Archery Range, but we quickly discovered that while the range is free, we had to bring our own equipment which we did not have. So we changed courses and began to hike to the International Rose Test Garden.

With the trees and shade, the temperature was much cooler than during lunch, and it was a very pleasant hike. We stopped by a playground before making our way to the International Rose Test Garden (free admission). My oh my was it beautiful! All of the different gardens, spaces, types of roses, colors, and smells. 😍 

From the International Rose Test Garden, we took the free Washington Park shuttle back to the Archery Range. We then drove to the Wildwood Trail and took a short hike to the Redwood Observation Deck. The towering and majestic redwoods and the view up were truly breathtaking.

We ended the day by visiting the Holocaust Memorial, a memorial dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. The stories, the haunting words were heart-wrenching, but it's a reminder of why it's important to remember this hard history too.