WESTERN JOURNEY--SEPTEMBER, 2011--DAY 13

Portland, Oregon
September 19, 2011
Day 13

Strolling through the Portland Japanese Garden provided a feeling of being a part of nature. The desired effect when entering a Japanese garden is to realize a sense of peace, harmony, and tranquility. In a deep sense, a Japanese garden is a living reflection of the long history and traditional culture of Japan.

When His Excellency Nobuo Mausunago, the former Ambassador of Japan to the United States, visited the Portland Japanese Garden, he proclaimed it to be "the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan."

From the Japanese Garden we walked down to the nearby Portland Rose Garden. In the garden there are over 7,000 rose plants of approximately 550 varieties. The roses bloom from April through October. New roses are continually sent to the garden from many parts of the world and are tested for color, fragrance, disease resistance and other attributes. It is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States and exemplifies Portland's nickname of the City of Roses.

After wandering through the lovely rose garden, we drove to the nearby home of Denny and Lyndsay Schuler and their children, Jake and Hannah, where we had been invited for dinner. Denny grew up across the street from us and has known Maia since they were both children. Denny's parents, Jack and Sherry Schuler, still live across the street from us and are very close friends of ours. We enjoyed dinner, conversation, and the view of the mountains from their beautiful hillside home.

Later in the evening Lyndsay and Hannah took us to see a very unusual sight. Every summer thousands of tiny Vaux swifts swoop into Portland, Oregon, to spend several months feasting on flying insects during the day and roosting in the tall chimney at Chapman School at night. NW Portland is a regular vacation stopover for swifts during their annual migration from Alaska/Canada to Mexico/South America. Every evening 20,000 to 40,000 of the little four inch birds gather in the sky just before sunset. Shortly after sunset, over a period of 10-30 minutes, they fly into the chimney of the school to roost on the brick chimney's interior walls until they depart at sunrise. Hundreds of people gather to watch this phenomenon, and we were among them on this night!

Vaux's Swifts entering the Chapman School chimney to roost for the night