Dwayne's mom came out for a visit early in June and had offered to stay with the boys for a couple of the days so Dwayne and I could take a trip by ourselves. We went to Portland and both really enjoyed the trip. We spent two days in the city and two days out at the coast. We were very fortunate to have had beautiful weather almost the whole time. We enjoyed a long walk along the waterfront and saw one funny highlight of our trip in a traffic median. It's called Mill Ends Park and has the distinction of being the smallest park in the world. I've always liked mini things. Here's a link if you'd like to read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park


Washington Park, a huge area on the west side of Portland, houses the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Garden (among other things), both of which we were able to visit.




The 550 varieties of roses were in their full blooming glory and were incredible to see and smell.

We did a guided tour at the Japanese Garden which taught us a lot about plants, rocks, water, and elements of Buddhism.


On our way out of the city, we stopped to see the beautiful Portland Temple.

We enjoyed this view of famous Haystack Rock a few yards from our lodgings in Cannon Beach. We took an incredible hike a mile or so north of here along the coast through old-growth forests full of Sitka Pine. It circled back on cliffs that overlooked the ocean. There were many places of historical importance in the area from the Lewis and Clark expedition.

On our last morning, we signed up for an Artisan Breadmaking Class at the Cannon Beach cooking school, EVOO. Lots of fun, great recipes, and several yummy loaves currently in our freezer!