Pacific Northwest: Part 5

Last leg of our journey through the Pacific Northwest! I have to admit that by the end of the trip, we were pretty exhausted — and Portland wore us out even more with its one-way streets and heavy traffic. It wasn't my favorite city to drive in, but I did love the International Rose Test Garden!

Founded in 1917, this garden has hundreds of roses and is known for testing new types and creating hybrids. We snapped tons of pictures in the hour we spent there, but my all-time favorite roses were the Paris de Yves St. Laurent. They are the most beautiful shade of pink.

The best part of Portland, though, was Powell's City of Books — a giant bookstore spanning an entire city block that includes both new and used books. I actually had no idea it even existed until we searched for things to do in Portland as we were getting ready to leave, so I was totally unprepared for the monstrous store. I still managed to find several hard-to-find Berenstain Bear books, though!

This picture only shows part of the store. It is enormous and has every book you could ever want. I felt a little like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, trying to figure out where to start reading. If we return to Portland, I will have a list of books I've been looking for. I already miss it!

From Portland, we headed toward Bend in central Oregon, passing the majestic Mount Hood. I would have snapped more pictures of it, except that we encountered a crazy rain storm in which we had to pull over several times because visibility was so poor. That pretty much killed the picture-taking, unfortunately.

As we approached Bend, we realized that central Oregon is covered in dormant volcanoes. You can see a few of them in this photo, but they dot the landscape. It is fascinating.

Bend itself is pretty cool, too. We drove up Pilot Butte, which offers spectacular views of the city and the surrounding mountains, and then we walked through downtown for a little while and got some lunch. It started to rain again (I have great respect for people who take great pictures in Oregon!), but we thought the city was so pretty.

And since my lovely friend Breanna plans to relocate to Bend someday, I liked it even more. I'd love to live closer to her, her husband and their beautiful little girls! :)

From Bend, we drove to Nampa, Idaho and stayed the night with some great family friends, and then we headed back home to Salt Lake City. It was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad we got to experience it together. We're already planning a return trip (but not for a while) to Seattle!