Portland Oregon
This isn't at all what I pictured Portland would look like. Alexis and I flew into Portland, got a rental car and a hotel room, and checked the internet for something interesting to see. I actually went to yelp.com and typed in "interesting" and "portland." The first hit was a city park called Tanner Springs Park. We typed the intersection into the gps and went to go find it. Strangely, we couldn't find it anywhere. We parked the car and went walking around what turns out to be called the Pearl District. Down by the river we found this horse barn.
We found our way closer to the river and found a bumper crop of Himalayan blackberries, the Pacific Northwest's most delicious invasive species! (though, to be fair, I haven't tried nutria)
Himalayan blackberry flowers are bigger and pinker than those back home.
We wandered around the area for an hour or so, stopped for a snack, and then headed back to the car. That's when we found Tanner Springs Park.
This part of the city was a wetland originally, and this city block has been restored to one. The spring's streams go into culverts before flowing to the river. The park is just under one acre, and is slightly below street level. We looked past it when we first parked, because it's not really visible from where we were. I'm glad we found it; it's definitely interesting.
The water lilies are covered in tiny insects.
I assumed they were springtails, but now that I see this super close up, I'm not sure.
Then
omphalina guided us to Forest Park; a very different city park indeed.
More later. If you need more now, Alexis' pictures are here, and they are much better than these.