Roses and hummus and donuts...oh my!

On Monday, we set out for downtown Portland, but found lots of cones, road work and traffic. We began the day trying to find the farmers' market at the Pioneer Courthouse Square, but, alas, it was not there. We started our day over then at the International Rose Test Gardens. We wandered in and around the four and a half acres of rose beds admiring the rows and rows of beautiful flowers. To spite us, Mount Hood stood in the background just above the trees and buildings of downtown, looking majestic and a bit smug for our taste. Ha! 

The test gardens were established in 1917 after Jesse Currey, a former Portland Rose Society president, convinced city leaders one was needed. By 1905, to bring attention to the Lewis and Clark Centenntial Celebration, the city had 20 miles of rose-bordered streets. With Portland's damp and cool climate ideally suited for the growth of roses and the new test gardens, Portland was dubbed the "City of Roses".

Calla lilies
in the Shakespeare Garden

Trellis along the Queens Walk

The test gardens were used to safeguard rose species from Europe during World War I and are still used to test new varieties of roses for commercial development. This huge garden is the oldest, continually-operated public rose test garden in the US, and it is part of the larger Washington Park, a 400 acre plot of land encompassing the rose gardens, the Oregon Zoo, the Japanese Garden, the Hoyt Arboretum, two museums and 15 miles of trails and hiking paths.

Habibi

The Portland Rose Festival, first established in 1907, is a month long series of rose-related events during June that attract over 2 million visitors to the city. Over the course of the week, we saw some of the activities being arranged for the event around town, like the carnival down on the waterfront and hordes of spectators waiting for one of several parades through the streets downtown.

VooDoo Donuts

Coffin of donuts: $100
Cardiology appt after eating them all:
priceless

After the roses, we headed back downtown for lunch. We parked and quickly found Habibi, a little Lebanese restaurant with green awnings. Everything from the glasses of water with a slice of cucumber floating in them, to the lamb shwarma sandwich (with hummus and pita) was fantastic. We also shared an order of grape leaves stuffed with beef and rice, which arrived coated in a delicious lemon sauce. Yummy. The hummus may have been the best we've ever had. It was outstanding.

Not to be outdone, we next headed back to VooDoo Donuts, where the line again stretched halfway down the block and back...this time at 2pm on a workday! Seemingly hundreds of people took pictures of the sign advertising "Good things come in pink boxes" and "The magic is in the hole".  While we waited in line, we saw a display offering a 'coffin' of 3 dozen donuts for $100. Yikes.

In any case, Ken ordered the maple bacon bar and I chose the VooDoo doll, a silly looking chocolate covered voodoo doll with red raspberry jelly oozing out. So tasty.

After all that excitement, we rolled ourselves back to the car. To waste some time, we stopped in a thrift store and then at the library in Tigard before driving out to Jon and Denise's house for dinner. The gang was all there: Jon, Denise, Linda, Sierra, John and Logan...and, of course, Ruby, the dog. We had a really nice time chatting with them and listening to Ruby snoring on the couch while we dined on pizza and berry pie. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the RV to pack up for the trip out of Portland the next morning.