Portland and Family

This morning we had breakfast at our Sonesta Suites hotel in Vancouver, Washington. We packed up and hit the road around 9:30. Shortly thereafter, we entered Oregon. That makes US state number ten for this trip (plus one Canadian province).

In Portland, we first visited Lan Su Chinese Garden. It was a beautiful tranquil oasis in the middle of Portland:

 One of the neat things about the place was that the pathways were made of geometric shapes filled with pebbles inset into the soil. I've never seen anything like it:

Oh, and this plaque gave me the idea for what to call my back yard from now on:

We then decided that we needed a healthful meal, so we visited Voodoo Doughnuts in Old Town Portland. We both ordered "Portland Cream" doughnuts, which seemed nearly identical to a Boston cream, except for the fact that they were made in Portland.

We then visited Powell's City of Books. This was without a doubt the biggest bookstore I've ever been in. It's so big, they have information counters where they pass out maps of the store. A couple of book nerds like me and Carol really could have spent several days exploring the racks:

All the perusing worked up a powerful thirst, so we had to walk around the block to Deschutes Brewery and try a flight. I must say, I'm very impressed by the quality of the beer at Deschutes and in the Pacific Northwest in general:

 At this point in our trip, my car was telling us that it needed an oil change and tire rotation, so this morning I made an appointment with a Honda dealership near our next destination. Our next destination is the home of Sue and Les, who are my brother Bill's in-laws. They had graciously extended an invitation for us to stay with them for a few days. Not only that, they also picked us up at the Honda dealer.

After picking us up, they took us to Durant Vineyards, where they treated us to a flight of several Pinot Noirs and where we enjoyed this spectacular view of the Willamette Valley:

See those purple things? They taste really great when they are squished up and fermented:

 We then all went back to their lovely home for some wonderful dinner and conversation. I'm looking forward to a day of sightseeing tomorrow.