It finally dawned on me that since Gathering was generally held in interesting cities—Oakland, CA, Boulder CO, Alexandria VA—that maybe I should stay an extra day or two and check these towns out. Last year I stayed in Lowell, one extra day, Monday, but of course all the museums are closed on Mondays. Moreover, I didn't feel comfortable traveling from Lowell to Boston, where all the really cool stuff was. This year, however, Portland featured proximity to relatives and outdoor goodies, most notably gardens. And, since I stayed two extra days, I was able to check out the Portland Museum of Art as well. Some of the walking tour stuff such as the Chinatown gate, the Japanese-American internment camp memorial, and the really cool double-decker Steel Bridge, I stumbled upon by accident as I did my daily jogs. —MAX, the train part of Portland's wonderful public transportation system, and cars, run along the top part of this bridge, which is generally high up enough it doesn't have to be moved; the bottom section, which can raise independently of the upper, is for trains, and an add-on separates pedestrian and bicycle traffic from the vehicular.
I should note that, in addition to the best public tranportation I've ever encountered (not that I've encountered all that many, but this one was so head and shoulders above anything else I've ever experienced) Portland is also the most bike friendly town of my knowledge. In fact, some of the traffic signals are bike specific, (for bike turns) with little bicycle logos on the red, amber, and green lights. I was so sorry not to get a picture of the one I encountered, nor of the steel bridge, though that is documented elsewhere on the web.
Portland generally has mild and relatively rainy weather, which makes it great for gardeners; in fact, it is the ‘City of Roses’ not least because the International Rose Test Garden is located there. They have three big waves of blooms, the first and most dramatic being mid-June; the second was just coming off its peak when I visited at the end of July; and the third is in September. The vivid pleasure I felt among those roses isn't something I can really describe—not joy precisely, but revved up serenity, perhaps.
The other two gardens I visited were
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