Portland-Seattle-Vancouver Trip (Day 1 - Portland)

11-April-2008

Spring is a beautiful time to travel. Thanks to mother nature for making the season so colorful !

We decided to go on a trip to Portland, Seattle & Vancouver. One of the main drivers for this trip is the Tulip Festival in Woodburn. We flew to Portland and rented a car at the Portland International Airport (PDX).

We drove to Willamette Valley and reached Woodburn at about 10.30 am. Spring had painted the whole city with fresh green color. I was expecting to see a lot of colorful gardens on my way to Woodenshoe Tulip Farm. Until I parked my car in the Woodenshoe farms, I was not convinced that I'm going to see a lot of colorful flowers today ! Woodenshoe Tulip farm is the best garden that I've ever seen. Its a place soaked in colors. For a moment, I couldn't believe that the tulips are natural. They had a very nice compilation of tulips and the memories are hard to erase. You can even spend a half day or more in Woodenshoe farms. They've a lot of activities for kids.

We then returned back to Portland city and reached OSHU's campus. We went on the Portland Aerial tram and it was nice to see the whole city from the top. The view was beautiful.


We drove to the downtown and saw the Pioneer Courthouse Square. I was amazed to see so many people hang in there. Many of them were just sitting there relaxing, reading a book or just having fun talking. Starbucks at Pioneer Courthouse was one of the busiest locations that I've seen.

We wanted to go to the International Rose Garden, lost our way and got trapped into the Rose Garden Arena. Thanks to all the folks who rightly guided us to the wrong Rose Garden :)

We then visited Portland Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden and finally the International Rose Garden. International Rose Garden is located very close to the Japanese Garden. Both the Chinese & Japanese gardens are very unique and had a lot of cultural value. You had to hike for about 1/2 mile to get to the Japanese garden - however, it is worth the hike. We spent some halcyon time in the gardens.

We then drove to Vancouver, WA and stayed in Staybridge Suites hotel for that night. The hotel had a fully furnished kitchen and we enjoyed our short stay there.