We arrived in Portland with a day and a half or so to enjoy the city’s delightful flora, food, friends and fun before Miles’s graduation. We had a yummy pub dinner and then took a walk through Laurelhurst park where we saw the band Johnny Franco play, with Miles’s friend and fellow about-to-graduate L&C student Charlie on drums.
Friday morning we went to the Portland Japanese Garden. The docents told us this is the most authentic Japanese garden outside Japan. No argument here!
There was a glass art exhibit there too in the gallery. The artist, rui sasaki, put plant clippings between two pieces of glass then fused them in a kiln – causing the plant matter to burn away and leave a fossil or refined like impression of the plant. More here! https://japanesegarden.org/events/subtle-intimacy/
After the Japanese garden we went back to our place for lunch, then met miles at the Lewis & Clark campus, where he and his friends were having photographs taken. It was a great chance to see miles and meet some of his friends and introduce Liam and grandparents to the beautiful campus.
We reconvened later with miles and had a lovely dinner, then John Liam miles and I went to a party at Miles’s friends max and Charlie’s house. The graduates invited their parents who were in town and it was a super fun evening and great chance to meet Miles’s friends and their parents! What a bunch of really creative and nice people! Here’s us with Caroline.
Great group pics and what a lovely campus that is (a long way from the concrete look of UCD!). V cool glass art too. Looking forward to seeing more pics!
The lighting inside the Horse Brass pub was very cool, and the fish & chips were delicious!
Portland Japanese Gardens was so beautiful!
I can’t get over seeing giant sequoia trees just casually growing in the city park and on the Lewis & Clark campus!