About a 10 minute walk uphill from the International Rose Test Garden is the Japanese Gardens.   There’s an entry fee (less than $10).  The garden doesn’t take up that much space – it’s fairly compact.  It took us less than an hour to wander around.  Of course, we had just come back from Asia, where we saw a similar style of gardens that put these gardens to shame.  There’s lots of photo ops, with streams, a koi pond, bamboo, sand gardens, and traditionally styled buildings.  Part of the garden is wheelchair accessible.

Entry to the Rose Test Garden

We visited the International Rose Test Gardens in Portland.  Getting there was easy with a car, but would have been a little difficult on public transportation – (the last bus you have to take is on an hourly schedule).

Rose Test Garden

The rose garden is free.  There is a loaner map you can get at the gift shop, which will show you where the different areas are of the garden.  If you are looking for a particular rose, there is an information center in the middle of the garden with a list of all the roses in the garden.

We really enjoyed wandering around, taking photos and smelling the roses.  There’s a beautiful view over the city, as the garden is up on a hill. We got lots of planning ideas for our garden – every rose is labelled, and so we took lots of notes of our favourite ones.  The gardens are kept up remarkably well – almost everything was in bloom.  We were able to see a lot of “new release” roses that are not yet commercially available, as well as a lot of classic roses.

View over the International Rose Test Garden

Roses in the International Rose Test Garden

Part of the Saturday Market is under a bridge

We were looking forward to the arts and crafts Saturday morning market, but we ended up being a little disappointed by it.  There is a lot of kitschy arts and crafts on display, but there wasn’t that much that we felt was truly local.  The prices were on average pretty high, and haggling wasn’t being done.  Some of the booths we remember seeing were paintings, travel photos, duct tape wallets, retro and punk clothing stores, an interesting booth selling old magazines and time-life books that had been converted to purses/bags (at ridiculous prices), art lamps, etc.

It was definitely interesting to wander around, but we didn’t come away with much except for
some soaps, and some food.

Night View of downtown towards Portlandia and the Portland Building from our room at the Hilton

We enjoyed our time in Portland.  We were happy to be staying in downtown, as the downtown area is very pretty, with lots of restaurants, great shopping, and a picturesque riverfront walk.  There’s cruises along the river, and speedboat trips are also available.  There is great public transit throughout the city.  The downtown core is a “free transportation” zone, and there is frequent tram service to areas outside the downtown area as well.

In the evening, the downtown felt pretty safe. There was many restaurants and cafes still open, and people wandering around everywhere.

Portland is a very family friendly city, with lots of fountains in squares that we saw kids playing in. At night time we were also treated to “flicks on the bricks”, which is a giant outdoor cinema in Pioneer Courthouse Square.  They were showing Ghostbusters and everyone was having a great time.

Powell’s Bookstore was also a fun wander – it’s certainly one of the biggest bookstores we’ve ever been in, but we were disappointed by the lack of chairs or anywhere to sit and read – I guess we’ve been spoiled by Borders and Barnes and Noble.

House in the Pearl District

We walked from downtown to the Pearl district.  It wasn’t the most pleasant walk, but once we got there we enjoyed the shopping and wandering.  It looks like a residential area, but has lots of interesting shops to wander around – from chain stores like Crate and Barrel, to more local crafts stores, to furniture stores.  There’s lots of restaurants and outdoor cafes as well. It took us about an hour at a slow place to wander down the main street.

When we researched where to stay cheaply in Portland in August, we found that there were seveal motels near the airport in the $60 range.  Even though there is excellent public transit, we weren’t too excited about staying half an hour (on public transit) from downtown.  We decided to try our luck on priceline.  We did our research (using sites like bidfortravel.com) and ended up getting a room at the downtown Hilton Portland and Executive Tower for $70 a night!

The location is great.  When we arrived there is parking right outside the hotel for 10 minutes – we got a free upgrade to the executive tower just by asking.  The rooms are larger, and we were on the 18th floor with a nice view of downtown.  The room was impeccably clean, the linens were luxurious – this was a big step up from our usual accomodation!

There was a couple of downsides.  The parking is expensive at $18 a night.  There is no free wi-fi, which was surprising for a hotel of this price.  The Executive tower (located kitty corner to the main building) has no pool, just a lap pool with a small gym.  The only way to get to the main building is to walk outside and cross the street (a 2 minute walk).

We wanted to stay for a night on the oregon coast, in a hotel overlooking the ocean.  Most properties like this are pretty expensive, even during weekdays.  The Windereme Motel was more reasonably priced, at $120 a night during the summer.  We were staying in the top story of a two floor house, with an expansive view out over the coastline.  The room has a kitchen with a microwave, stove, fridge, and all the supplies you’d need. The kitchen table had the best view, and we enjoyed a game of cards while watching the waves crash onto the beach.  When we opened thw window, we could hear the sound of the surf.

The bathroom is very small and cramped, although the room itself was quite large.  There are other types of rooms available which might have a better layout.  It was very clean.

There are a couple of paths leading from the property through the short dunes onto the beach itself – maybe a 5 minute walk.

The coastline is very rugged. The scenery is beautiful, with many rock islands just offshore.  The beach itself is good for a walk, but the waves seemed too strong for even wading in.

Unfortunately the weather never really cleared for us – it was pretty cold, foggy, and windy so we just hung out.

About 10 minutes off the 101 is the Brandy Peak Distillery.  This is a small family-owned business, and they offer tours and tastings for $5 a person.  The tour took about 15 minutes, where they gave a good explanation of how brandy is made and showed us the equipment and process they use.  The tasting is about a dozen different brandies – and it would be highly advised to either have a designated driver or to split a tasting with someone (which they encourage).

Tasting brandy was a first-time experience for us, since it is not legal for distilleries to offer tastings in California.  The bottles range in price from $20 to $40 (and no sales tax, of course!), and they have won several awards.

Our room at the Econolodge

On our way up the coast to Oregon, Eureka made a logical stopping point from the Bay Area. We tried to use Priceline to get a good price on a room but were unsuccesful. The choice hotels 800# actually got us the cheapest room in Eureka – a surprising $65 for a forgettable motel in a forgettable town.

Our bathroom at the Econolodge in Eureka.

The drive up to the 101 to Eureka is very pretty, but Eureka itself doesn’t have much going for it – it’s not a very pretty town, and has no real character.  The motel is a pretty average motel – the room was clean-ish, with parking right in front.  The showerhead was too low, and the bathroom could certainly have used some more thorough cleaning.

The location wasn’t great – no restaurants were within walking distance. In addition, I overheard the checkin clerk warning another guest not to leave anything tied to your car’s roof, as there has been stuff stolen.

We ended up at Denny’s for breakfast, a 5 minute drive.  However, the provided breakfast actually looked fairly good for a motel continental breakfast.

The hotel does have an indoor pool, but it’s really not much to speak of.  It’s a building separate from the rest of the buildings, and kind of looks like they just threw up 4 walls and a roof around an outdoor pool so they could tick off “Indoor Pool” in the motel directory.