Day four of my trip began late. We had a hard time deciding what we wanted to do since the weather was cloudy and rainy pretty much everywhere except where we had just come from - the northwest coast that we had explored on days two and three of my vacation. In the end we opted to go south to Portland and see the International Rose Test Gardens.
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| Steph's selfie of the two of us. |
Steph had been there before too early in the season to see many roses. We hit it at the perfect time that day. It was gorgeous and smelled amazing. This is Steph's picture of me (in her green rain coat) wandering around.
Another Stephanie picture of me in front of the arch of roses.
I took pictures of like half of the rose varieties. Well maybe not half, but a lot. I have many more pictures than I posted here.
I liked the pale purple ones.
So many petals!
Stephanie's favorite were these orange-pink glowy roses.
My favorite were the bright fuscia, though my camera didn't capture the color very well. They were a lot brighter in person.
There was a large hedge of rhododendrons bordering the garden.
More pretty arches with Stephanie walking through.
Yellow and pink? Yes!
Rows and rows of roses.
So romantic looking.
Beautiful!
More pale purple.
I've run out of adjectives. This place was just beautiful.
Me!
Pink floppy rose
Steph getting an angle.
There were even roses as big as my face!
The sun came out, we went crazy taking pictures, and we got hot. "Suddenly sweating" became our slogan.
Steph's picture of me adding my not so wonderful smell to the roses aroma.
After the Rose Gardens we wandered around downtown Portland looking for some place to eat. None of the food trucks looked good so we opted for pizza at this strange punk music restaurant.
It was yummy pizza.
We weren't quite sure what to do next but I wasn't ready to go home yet so I opted to go west to the coast again, hoping the weather would remain partly cloudy as it was in Portland. I was wrong to hope that! We parked at Ecola State Park and hiked down through a gale to the point to get a view of Canon Beach and Haystack Rock. It was so windy and rainy though that we didn't stay long.
Best shot I could get.
It was a big bummer the weather was didn't cooperate.
Since it looked dark gray down there we decided to just drive south for a while and hope it cleared up soon. We stopped at a new place Steph hadn't seen called Hug Point. It was windy but at least it didn't rain more. It was so pretty there too!
Steph wandered further south away from all those people and I followed her.
The tide was going out and left these pretty little pools around the rocks. I loved them.
Heading back the way we came.
Steph was feeling done and went to find the bathroom and wait for me in the car. I said I'd follow after I explored the first cave we saw. I walked around the corner though and found this little oasis. I texted to Steph to tell her what I was doing.
It was like my own beautiful secret garden.
So pretty!
Another view.
Steph waited for a while but got worried when I didn't return soon. She thought I had been kidnapped! She discovered the truth when she finally checked her phone and came to find me.
I was rather proud of my discovery.
We drove further south to this lookout and judged by the map that it would be a while before there was another roadside beach stop so we turned around.
From another lookout we got a good look at Canon Beach and Haystack Rock.
We parked at Canon Beach and walked down there.
It wasn't raining and there was tons of people out. We were tired out though and didn't feel like walking all the way down there so we took a couple pictures and left. That was it for us that day. We tried to find a camping site but decided to go home.
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