Why is Portland called the City of Roses?

So we have just now (within the past 20 minutes) walked in the door from Portland and we are quite sad to have had such a short trip in such a cool city. The get away was just what Katie and I needed after some intense months of work and school. But seeing a well designed city and lively streets makes me long for a more urban environment to live and work.


This exemplifies one of the many reasons that Portland is awesome (and conversely why other, un-named cities are less awesome). If you look closely at the sign, this place has "Wine + Beer + painting your own pottery." Take one activity that can be somewhat dull (painting your own pottery) add alcohol and you have an awesome time. Pretty much everything in Portland follows the formula "Something + Beer/Wine/Liquor = Awesome" Day spa/wine bar. Dentist/wine bar. Spinning class/wine bar. The possibilities are endless.

Also, the weather in Portland was great. Barely rained at all, nice temperatures, and Spring was in the air.

Pretty much everything we did on the second day was a direct suggestion from Laura (thanks Laura!) and it was all cool. Multnomah falls is the second largest year round waterfall and it was pretty killer.


This was Katie's now-we-have-to-leave-Portland face. Pretty sad, I think.