Put Your Petal to the Medal

The rose medal, that is, if you actually got one for growing the best rose in all of Portland!

I'm not surprised why I fell in love right away with Portland - The City of Roses. We already love Oregon. The day we got here it was gray and cloudy, and really, really quiet. But the town was just waiting for us to get ready, and it never held back its charm or its embracing character.

There's so much to do, so many things to see, and yes, I want to see 'em all. Today was still very cloudy and normally I'd be depressed before we even get to midday, but as we hang out at Pioneer Courthouse Square - the heart of Downtown - I can't help but marvel at how beautiful this city is: the glazed terra-cotta facades of buildings, the soothing water fountain, the colorful blooms of summer flowers hanging by baskets here and there, that girl with heavy eye liner and red and purple streaks on her jet-black hair who offered me a warm smile, even the guy eating a bagel for late lunch sitting next to me - everything, everyone was nice. There's a life-size bronze statue of a man offering his open umbrella (or was he hailing a cab?) to anyone who might need a cover. See, even the inanimate are hospitable in Portland :-)

I could be just missing urban life and social interaction after several weeks of traversing places where bugs outnumber people, nevertheless, something in this city inspires me. I'm not a big fan of roses, but to see it as an analogy with this city, the beauty you see outside is just a reflection of the what inspires it from inside. Maybe a trip to the city's many magnificent and impressive gardens tomorrow will be an intimate segue from today's cultural and metropolitan exploration, to Thursday's in-depth exploration of the city (and by "in-depth" I mean "underground" - yes, we're going to see below Portland!!! where once nefarious shanghaiing took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) . I can't wait.

We're going to get to know this city, one petal at a time.