261) A Trip To Oregon (and WA)

The other week I got almost as far away from Key West (now home) as I could get (in the contiguous US). I have a number of friends, some of which I haven't seen in way too many years, living in WA and OR.


This first group of photos is from the Japanese Gardens in Portland. I have never seen such a beautifully manicured garden anywhere.







One evening after Gabe finished work we drove out to the coast to a state park called Ecola. I almost forgot how beautiful the coastal northwest is. It was a very refreshing and stark contrast to what I have grown accustom to here in FL.




I was also fortunate enough to take a trip up to Olympic National Forest and visit the place that used to consistently come to me in dreams. I worked two summers in Olympic while in college, and hadn't been back for something like 7 years. It was almost eerie to just find myself there again, a place I had dreamed about and spent days walking through years ago. I was also happy to find I could still recall the names of almost all the plants there.






I spent a couple nights in Olympia on Eric's boat and we went up to Seattle to meet up with Paul and Ian. When I got back to Portland, Gabe had the idea to head east towards Painted HIlls National Monument. We camped in Ochoco National Forest, and then took the Columbia River Gorge back. Both the drives out and back were stunning. It was so nice to see the changes in landscape after about a year and half in Florida, mostly far south Florida.