Portland Walk: Washington Park

Chuck and I took a nice long walk up to Washington Park and back right before I left for Columbia, SC. It boasts both the Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test gardens, however we just went up to get a lay of the land on this walk. My parents are coming to town soon and we may head up there for one or both of the gardens while they are here.

On our way up to the park we may have been honked at/scolded by the MAX heading into town. There wasn't exactly a sidewalk there, and we had possibly ignored some signs about where we weren't supposed to be. Fortunately we were able to cross shortly after this picture was taken and continue on. We will figure out a better route when my parents come, possibly on the bus or something, so there's less chance of being hit by transit.

 

We had some elevation to climb while trying to stay out of the path of some skateboarding kids. There's Chuck on the left demonstrating this elevation change, it always helps to have a scale figure even if he doesn't like his picture being taken. We came up on the side with the city reservoirs, #3 and #4. We walked between the two, then around one side of the one pictured above.

 

There was a nice little area at the top with sculptures, a fountain, and the state seal for Oregon as well as three other surrounding states, including Washington our former home. I am starting to wonder if George Washington had a really big nose. It really sticks out on this version of the seal. Also it was pretty big when on the big bust of Washington in Olympia we saw a few years back. Was not the most notable thing about the sculpture in Columbia however. Although looking at it now....hm...it's not small.

 

Uh...anyway, we were also impressed with the size of this huge tree as we wandered back down to the city. It's not quite redwood size, but not bad for inside the city limits. I am in that picture on the right, at the very bottom, that little white spot, that's me!