IMG_2956.CR2, Originally uploaded by evancparker.

Summer vacation, finally, and I am hanging with the hippies of Portland, Oregon.

Part of the Oregon Zoo complex on the outskirts of Portland is a Japanese Garden, which is maticulously maintained. It’s rare that I feel like something was worth the cost of admission, but here not only was it a steal, I felt that my $8 was actually being folded back into the park itself. I can’t imagine how much they spend to keep this place up, but it is certainly more the cost of admission.

Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/…0520/

IMG_2985.CR2, Originally uploaded by evancparker.

Just outside of the Japanese Garden is a HUGE Rose Garden, which serves as a kind of public square for Portland families. The garden has hundreds of different kinds of roses, each layed out in 8 foot by 2 foot plots, side-by-side and end-to-end across acres of land. It’s simply overwhelming.

Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/…2809/