gardens Archives - Pacific Northwest Explorer

Galway and Western Ireland

By Alan K. Lee

Introduction

My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Ireland in the summer of 2025. We split our time between Dublin and Galway and Western Ireland. Galway is an easy train ride or drive from Dublin and makes a good base from which to explore the west coast of Ireland. The Cliffs of Moher (Ireland’s number one tourist attraction), the Aran Islands, the Burren, and Connemara are all easily accessible from Galway by car. Several tour companies (e.g. Galway Tour Company and Lally Tours) offer day tours to all four for those visitors (like my wife and I) that choose not to rent a car.

History and Culture

Galway and Western Ireland are culturally closer to their Celtic (and Norman) roots than the more cosmopolitan and English influenced east coast. Most of the population has deep Celtic roots. A significant percentage of the population speaks Gaelic (or Irish as the British call it) on a regular basis, although everyone speaks English as well, and road signs are in both English and Gaelic. The city of Galway is a bit of an exception in that it was conquered by the Normans in the 13^th century and early in its history attempted to keep the Celts out of the city entirely. And about a quarter of the residents of Galway were born outside of Ireland, as is the case in Dublin.

The residents of Connemara, to the north of Galway, and the Aran Islands and the Burren, to the southwest, are more traditionally Irish than Galwegians. While we didn’t get to really explore the culture of Connemara, the Burren, and the Aran Islands in our brief visits, we did get at least a taste of the culture from our tour guides. And, as in both Dublin and Galway, the locals that we did interact with were friendly and welcoming.

Galway

Galway grew up around a castle that was built by the King of Connacht in 1124. One hundred years later, the city came under Norman rule. In the Middle Ages, fourteen merchant families (the “Tribes of Galway”) ruled the city, which became an important trading port. Twelve of the fourteen “tribes” were of Norman descent and two were Irish. Today, Galway is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Ireland, with a population of about 85,000.

While we primarily used Galway as a jumping off point for tours of the Burren, one of the Aran Islands, the Cliffs of Moher, and Connemara, we also had some time to explore the city. Eyre (pronounced “air”) Square is the heart of Galway. It’s surrounded by restaurants and shops, the train station is next door, and it hosts festivals and concerts throughout the year. There was an arts and crafts festival going on while we were there. We started each day with breakfast at one of the restaurants bordering the square (try Esquires Organic Coffee Company). All of our tours started from near the square (aka John F. Kennedy Park).

From the northwest corner of Eyre Square, William Street takes you into the Latin Quarter, a lively (and crowded) area with plenty of shops, restaurants, pubs, and attractions, like Lynch’s Castle. William Street becomes the well-named Shop Street after a few blocks, then High Street, and finally Quay Street before reaching the River Corrib and Wolfe Tone Bridge. Turning left just before the bridge brings you to the Spanish Arch, one of the two remaining sections of the original city wall. Walk through the arch to get to Galway City Museum.

There is a nice walking path upstream along the east bank of the River Corrib that will take you from Wolfe Tone Bridge to the Bridge of Hope, a pedestrian and cycling bridge leading to Galway Cathedral. Just northwest of the cathedral, we wandered through the south campus of Galway University, then back across the Corrib and past the ruins of Terryland Castle before returning to our Airbnb.

No visit to Galway is complete without a visit to an Irish pub, and there is a long list to choose from in downtown Galway, particularly in the Latin Quarter. We sampled a few pints at Jack J. Foley’s across the street from Eyre Square, Blake’s Bar on Eglington Street, a couple of blocks from the square, and Seven Bridgestreet, which is both its name and its address.

French brass band Fanfare Piston performing in the Latin Quarter, Galway

Music is also a big part of Galwegian culture. You can find street musicians performing during the day in downtown Galway and many, if not most, of the downtown pubs feature traditional Irish music in the evening.

Beach at An Tra, Innisheer, Aran Islands

The Aran Islands

The day after arriving in Galway, we took a bus tour through the Burren to the small town of Doolin, where we boarded a ferry that took us to the nearest of the Aran Islands, Inisheer (or Inis Oirr in Gaelic). Inisheer is the smallest of the three islands, Inishmaan (Inis Meain) and Inishmore (Inis Mor) being the others.

Village of An Tra, Innisheer, Aran Islands

After getting off the ferry, we explored the town (An Tra) and the shoreline for a while, then my wife hiked up to the ruins of O’Brien’s Castle. I didn’t feel like making the climb, so I hung out on the beach and explored the town some more.

When we rendezvoused an hour or so later, we had a little more time to wander around before boarding the ferry again, but we really didn’t have enough time on the island to get more than just a glimpse. It’s a beautiful place and I wish we had more time to spend there.

The Cliffs of Moher

The ferry returning to Doolin from Inisheer takes a detour to cruise along the base of the Cliffs of Moher. The nearly vertical cliffs range from 400 to 700 feet in height and the view from the water is truly spectacular – one of the highlights of our visit to Ireland.

Back in Doolin, our tour group had lunch at McGann’s Pub, then we bused to the top of the cliffs, giving us an entirely different perspective. We hiked the trail to the north for about three quarters of a mile along the very edge of the cliffs, past O’Brien’s Tower, with awesome views all along the way. We even got a little bit of sunshine while there.

The next day, we took another tour through the Burren (see below) that took us to the top of the cliffs for a second time. We booked both tours in hopes that the weather would be good on at least one of the days. The weather wasn’t as good on our second visit as the previous day, so we just did the short hike along the cliff tops to the south that we hadn’t done, then went to the visitor center (well worth spending some time there) and a gift shop before having to return to the bus.

The Cliffs of Moher are the most popular tourist destination in all of Ireland for good reason. About 1.5 million people visit every year. In the summer, you can expect to be sharing the view from the top with several thousand other people at any given time. But that doesn’t detract from the experience very much. If you have only one day in the area, though, take the ferry to Inisheer and the return trip along the base of the cliffs. Even on a rainy day, it will be awesome.

The Burren

The Burren, southwest of Galway, is a land of otherworldly beauty. Much of the land is bare rock, ancient limestone hills with little or no vegetation. It’s not hard to imagine that you have gone back in time a hundred million years and are walking the surface of a more primeval Earth. The limestone was, in fact, formed from sediments laid down in a tropical sea more than 300 million years ago. It’s also not hard to imagine that you have traveled to another planet entirely.

The Burren is also the home of an ancient Celtic culture that dates back 6000 years. The Burren today is a place of tradition, music, the land, and great local food. Our tour hardly touched on all of that, but was still an enjoyable and worthwhile outing.

Our tour through the Burren stopped at only a few places other than the Cliffs of Moher, but was definitely worth doing. We first stopped (briefly) at Dunguaire Castle.

Our second stop was at Aillwee Cave. It’s not the most spectacular cave that I have toured, but the 45 minute guided tour was interesting. There’s also more going on there (officially the Aillwee Burren Experience), including a birds of prey and falconry exhibit and a farm shop specializing in local produced cheeses, neither of which we had time to experience.

After our visit to the top of the Cliffs of Moher, our group had lunch at a different pub in the Doolin area (O’Donohue’s), and made a stop along Galway Bay where the limestone bedrock is exposed, as it is in many places throughout the Burren.

Connemara and Kylemore Abbey

Connemara, the region northwest of Galway, is often described as the “authentic” Ireland. Whether that is an accurate description or not, tradition and history are clearly important in the region. Gaelic is spoken by many of the residents as their primary language. Road signs are in both Gaelic and English. And what we saw in Connemara is what I envisioned when I thought of the Irish countryside.

Our tour’s first stop was the crossroads community of Leeane (Leenaun). The town has a couple of restaurants, a pub, several hotels and inns, and the Connemara Sheep and Wool Center, which is actually worth checking out if you’re in the vicinity.

Leenane is located near the head of Killary Fjord, a 9½ mile long inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s scenic enough, but bears little resemblance to the fjords of Norway or Alaska.

From Killary Fjord, the tour took us to Kylemore Abbey. Originally called Kylemore Castle, it was built as a private residence by Mitchell Henry, a wealthy English businessman, after he and his wife Margaret honeymooned in Connemara.

The castle was completed in 1871, has 70 rooms, 33 bedrooms, four bathrooms, and 40,000 square feet of living space. Unfortunately, Margaret Henry died in 1874 while on a trip to Egypt. Mitchell Henry built a church and mausoleum on the estate grounds to honor his late wife, but didn’t spend much time at Kylemore after her death. Mitchell Henry died in 1910 and is buried along with his wife in the mausoleum. In 1920, the castle was purchased by the Irish Benedictine Nuns and became Kylemore Abbey. From 1923 to 2010, the nuns ran a girls boarding school and a day school for local girls. The nuns still own and live on the estate grounds.

Today, tourism supports the nuns, and the abbey is a bit of a tourist trap, although an impressive one. A walled Victorian garden is located on the estate, to the west of the abbey. It’s about a 15 minute walk or a five minute shuttle bus ride from the abbey. The gothic church built by Mitchell Henry is a seven or eight minute walk to the east of the abbey. It is also open to the public.

From Kylemore Abbey, our tour returned to Galway, with one stop to explore a peat bog, which was actually fairly interesting, and another along Galway Bay in the western suburbs of Galway.

Conclusion

The Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, the Burren, Connemara, and the city of Galway are all well worth visiting. All can be seen in a short four or five day visit like we did, but I don’t think you’d run out of worthwhile things to see and do in a ten day or even two week visit. There’s a lot in Galway and Western Ireland for the traveler, whether it’s the history, the food, the music, the land, or whatever else brings you there.

Posted May 28, 2026

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Spokane, Washington

by Alan K. Lee

Introduction

My wife and I had driven through Spokane once or twice on our way to Glacier National Park, but it had been decades since I had actually set foot in Spokane. My wife, though, had spent a few days there a couple of years ago and had enjoyed her time there. That got me to thinking about paying the town another visit, so we packed up our bags and spent a few days exploring the city this past summer.

History

The city gets its name from the Spokane (or Spokan) Tribe of Native Americans that lived in what is now eastern Washington for millennia prior to the arrival of European settlers. The first European presence in the Spokane area was a trading post of the North West Company that opened in 1810. The city of Spokane was incorporated (originally as Spokane Falls) in 1881, the same year that the Northern Pacific Railway line was completed, linking Spokane to both Seattle and the Midwest and East Coast of the United States.

Two years after the city was incorporated, gold was discovered near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, about 30 miles east of Spokane. That set off a boom in both Spokane’s economy and population. By 1890 Spokane’s population was almost 20,000. By 1910 it exceeded 100,000. The city was powered by electricity generated at Spokane Falls by the Washington Water Power Company. Many of the buildings constructed in that period are still standing, giving the visitor a visual link to the city’s early history.

With the decline of the mining industry in the early 20^th century and then the advent of the Great Depression, Spokane’s economy stagnated and its population plateaued. By the 1960s Spokane was in serious decline. To turn things around, the local business community began a planning process that eventually led to Spokane hosting the environmentally themed World’s Fair, Expo ’74, and the revitalization of the downtown area. Today, Spokane has a lively downtown, the site of Expo ’74 has become Riverfront Park, and you’ll find public artworks scattered throughout the city.

Getting There

We chose to drive from our home in the Portland area. It’s a long drive – 350 miles and 5½ hours (plus any stops along the way). It’s a little shorter trip from Seattle – 280 miles and 4¼ hours. Flying from Portland to Spokane takes just over an hour and tickets can be had for as little as $150 dollars. Cost and flight time from Seattle are similar. A brief search of Amtrak routes and ticket costs yielded a quickest trip from either Seattle or Portland of 7½ hours and basic coach fares of $50-70 (one way), but you might need to be flexible on your departure and return dates, and the cheapest tickets were for overnight trips.

Our Visit

I’m old enough to remember a trip my older brother and I took to see the World’s Fair in 1974. Although I didn’t remember much about the actual fair, one of the things that left a lasting impression on me was Spokane Falls. Not many cities have a major waterfall in the middle of the downtown area. The fair spread across both banks of the Spokane River and Havermale and Canada Islands in the river. Canada Island is literally in the middle of the two cascades of the upper falls.

Most of the Expo ’74 structures were dismantled after the fair closed, but the Spokane Pavilion and the bones of the United States Pavilion still stand. The U.S. Pavilion was an open air structure with a fabric roof. The roof is gone, but the supporting structure remains, the cables that supported the roof now strung with hundreds of lights that are lit every night. The ground below is now a grassy park, part of Riverfront Park, the jewel of Spokane’s downtown.

We spent three days exploring downtown Spokane. Riverfront Park and Spokane Falls kept drawing us back. It’s really quite a marvelous area. Spokane is still the second largest city in Washington (the metropolitan area has a population of over 600,000), but it’s also small enough to have retained something of a small town vibe, something Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, BC, definitely lack.

On our last day in town, we drove to Riverside State Park, a 9000 acre park along the banks of the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers, about five miles downstream of downtown Spokane. The Bowl and Pitcher area of the park features a picnic area, ranger station, and campground on the east bank of the Spokane River, and miles of hiking trails on the west bank.

The trail network is accessed by a pedestrian-only suspension bridge spanning the Spokane River. We crossed the bridge and did a short hike along the river, but we could easily have spent all day there.

Later that day we visited the Japanese garden and rose garden in Manito Park before returning to our hotel to get ready for the long drive back to Portland.

Spokane Hoopfest. Photo sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Tahota

Spokane Hoopfest. Photo sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Mike Tigas

We left Spokane the next morning, the day before the start of Hoopfest 2025. The Spokane Hoopfest is the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world. Every year more than 6000 teams and 25,000 players take part in the tournament that features 450 courts covering 45 city blocks and draws more than 250,000 spectators. It is a very, very big deal. One I had never heard of. And I’m sorry we missed it.

Other Area Attractions

There are a number of other areas near Spokane that are worth visiting. We took day trips to both Sandpoint, Idaho, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho during our weeklong visit. Look for future posts on both on this site in the coming months. Outdoor enthusiasts might want to take the 30 mile journey to Mount Spokane, northeast of the city. And if you drive to Spokane, or fly and rent a car, Grand Coulee Dam and Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area are about a 90 minute drive west of Spokane, making for an easy day trip or a worthwhile detour on a trip back to Seattle. We didn’t make that side trip, but we did make a detour to Palouse Falls, a spectacular 200 foot high falls on the Palouse River south of Ritzville, Washington, on our way back to Portland.

One of the many early 20th century buildings in downtown Spokane

Upper Falls Powerhouse, Washington Water Power Co.

Conclusion

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my time in Spokane. It’s a beautiful city with an interesting history and lively downtown. Visiting the site of Expo ’74 brought back memories that I had long forgotten, and our side trips to Sandpoint, Coeur d’Alene, and Palouse Falls added to the enjoyment of our trip. I think we’ll be back. (And if you go, make sure to stop by Rosie’s Restaurant and try their breakfast burrito. It’s one of the best I’ve ever had).

Posted September 10, 2025

All photos © Alan K. Lee, except as noted

Cape Arago

by Alan K. Lee

Introduction

Cape Arago, on the southern Oregon coast south of the mouth of Coos Bay, is not as impressive as some of the other headlands on the Oregon coast, but it has a diversity of attractions that no other place on the coast can match. It’s mostly known for the three state parks (Sunset Bay, Shore Acres, and Cape Arago) that line its shores. But there’s also a state natural site, a county park (Bastendorff Beach), a privately run RV park, the decommissioned Cape Arago Lighthouse, and a golf course, in addition to scenic offshore islands, sea stacks, rocky shorelines, a reef with an active sea lion rookery, five beaches, two campgrounds, a historic botanical garden, and miles of hiking trails. Tens of thousands of visitors make the trip to this remote section of the Pacific coast every year. And the surrounding area has an abundance of attractions as well.

Bastendorff Beach

The mile long Bastendorff Beach, located adjacent to the south jetty at the mouth of Coos Bay, is the largest of the five beaches on the Cape Arago shoreline. Bastendorff Beach County Park has a 99 site campground (74 RV sites with water and electric hookups and 25 tent sites with no hookups), an 18 unit group campground, two RV dump stations, a large day use area with two picnic shelters, a fire pit and barbecue, horseshoe and basketball courts, a children’s playground, and easy access to the beach. There is also a private RV campground (Sun Outdoors Coos Bay) at the southwest end of the beach.

Yoakam Point State Natural Site

Yoakam Point separates Bastendorff Beach from Lighthouse Beach. Hiking trails (mostly unmaintained but passable) give access to scenic views of the rocky cliffs of the point, Bastendorff Beach, and Cape Arago Lighthouse. The site has no rest rooms or other amenities – just scenic splendor. (You might be tempted to scramble down the cliff from Yoakam Point to Lighthouse Beach, but I would advise against it. The cliff lined beach, like all Oregon beaches, is public, but the bluff is lined with private homes with no public access point. Access from Yoakam Point is possible but dangerous. Best to leave this one to the residents. They think they own it anyway.)

Cape Arago Lighthouse

Cape Arago Lighthouse is located on Chiefs Island just off Gregory Point between Lighthouse Beach and Sunset Beach. The existing lighthouse structure is the third in a series of lighthouses on the island, dating back to 1866. The first was replaced by a taller structure with a better light in 1909. That was replaced by the current structure in 1934. In 1966 the light was automated and continued in service until 2006 when it was decommissioned.

The lighthouse keeper’s residence was on the mainland, connected to Chiefs Island by a wooden bridge. The bridge stood until it was destroyed by storms in the winter of 2012-13. The first two lighthouse towers, other structures on the island, and the keeper’s house have all been demolished over the years. All that remains are the third tower and some of the piers that supported the bridge.

Sunset Bay State Park

A beautiful, crescent shaped beach at Sunset Bay State Park wraps around a shallow bay protected by a reef and flanked by rocky outcroppings. The inner bay makes for a safe swimming area and a boat ramp on the north end provides a good launching point for small boats, kayaks, and standup paddle boards.

My wife and I have kayaked out of Sunset Bay on numerous occasions over the years. On some of those days the calm waters of the bay belied rougher water offshore (large swells and/or significant wind chop) and we either stayed in the bay or close to it. But other times the ocean conditions were benign enough to allow us to safely get out into deep water and explore the surrounding coastline.

On one of those occasions, a sunny, windless day with a flat, glassy ocean, we spent most of a day paddling south to Simpson Reef to watch the sea lions, and then back north, where we circumnavigated Chiefs Island where the Cape Arago Lighthouse sits. And a lot of the time we just drifted on the amazingly flat ocean and soaked up the sunshine and the views of the shoreline. Quite a day.

Sunset Bay State Park offers not only one of the finest beaches on the Oregon coast, but also 65 campsites (30 RV sites with full hookups and 35 tent sites with electricity and water), eight yurts (three are pet friendly) and a group tent camp that will accommodate up to 25 people. Three of the campsites and three of the yurts are accessible to campers with disabilities. We have camped there many times and have always enjoyed our stay.

Shore Acres State Park

The park is named for Shore Acres (originally spelled Shoreacres), the estate of Louis Simpson, son of the 19^th century shipping magnate, Asa Meade Simpson, who made a fortune shipping logs and lumber, first to California, and later to as far as Australia and Africa.

Louis Simpson’s first mansion at Shore Acres was completed in 1908, but burned down in 1921. It was replaced by an even larger mansion in 1927. But Simpson’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when demand for timber all but disappeared during the Great Depression. He went bankrupt in 1940 and his creditors sold the estate to the State of Oregon.

Original Gardener’s Cottage at Shore Acres Gardens

In 1942 Oregon loaned the estate to the U.S. Army for use as a radar installation. The Simpson mansion was used as a barracks and officer’s club. The mansion suffered from the harsh climate and lack of maintenance and was torn down in 1949. The only original structure remaining at Shore Acres is what was once the gardener’s cottage.

The estate’s formal gardens fell into disarray, but were restored in the 1970s. Covering five acres, the gardens now draw thousands of visitors each year. In December the gardens are lit up each evening with a spectacular Christmas lighting display using thousands of lights.

From the gardens, a short trail leads to Simpson Beach, once the Simpson’s private beach, similar to but smaller and less used than the one at Sunset Bay.

The shoreline at Shore Acres consists of eroded sandstone cliffs and ledges. Storm watchers come from all over to view the huge waves crashing into the rocks during winter storms. Even in summer, the shoreline is fascinating and people clammer over the rocks to sightsee and birdwatch. In December and again in late spring Shore Acres is a prime spot for whale watching.

Cape Arago State Park

Like Shore Acres, what is now Cape Arago State Park was once part of Louis Simpson’s estate. He donated the land to the State of Oregon in 1932. Located at the end of the Cape Arago Highway, the park has a covered picnic shelter, picnic tables, and restrooms, although the restrooms are currently (as of the summer of 2025) closed. There are also trails to South Cove, where there is a sandy beach, and to North Cove with its rocky shoreline.

Other local attractions

The town of Charleston is located on Coos Bay about a mile east of Bastendorff Beach. It’s home to a large commercial fishing fleet and has a number of sport fishing charter operations. It’s also the gateway to South Slough, one of the best kayaking and canoeing spots on the Oregon coast. And it’s a good place to stop for a bite to eat or get a cold beer after your Cape Arago adventures. Try Miller’s at the Cove Sports Bar and Grill for surprisingly good food and a good selection of cold beers on tap.

The Cape Arago area is remote enough that it’s not really a day trip destination from any population center, so it’s best to make a weekend of it or stay longer. Fortunately, the Coos Bay-North Bend area is large enough to have many hotels, motels, BNBs, and restaurants. Take a day (or more) to explore Cape Arago, but leave some time to also explore the two cities. There’s a casino if you enjoy gambling. There’s also a good art gallery or two, interesting antique shops, nice parks and museums, and a trail along the bayfront. I’ll cover Coos Bay and North Bend in more detail in a future post.

About twenty-five miles east of Coos Bay, Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area (not to be confused with Silver Falls State Park near Salem) boasts two large and scenic waterfalls, both more than 200 feet high, and three hiking trails that take you to the base of each falls and to the top of Golden Falls.

The town of Bandon, about 15 miles south of Coos Bay, is located at the mouth of the Coquille River. The Old Town section offers a variety of interesting shops, an art gallery well worth visiting (Second Street Gallery), several popular seafood spots (try Tony’s Crab Shack), and numerous restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, and a good bakery (Bandon Baking Company and Deli). A little east of Old Town on Hwy 101, Face Rock Creamery offers a wide variety of cheeses and has an extensive (and free) tasting area where you can sample most of them.

Across the bay from Old Town, the historic Coquille River Lighthouse in Bullards Beach State Park is open to the public and worth a visit.

South of Old Town you’ll find one of the most scenic shorelines anywhere on the Pacific Coast, with many offshore islands and sea stacks, and miles of sandy beach.

And Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, just north of the town of Bandon, offers five world class eighteen hole courses, a 13-hole par three course, a large driving range and practice facility, and lodging and restaurants. This is truly one of the greatest golf destinations in the world. And there are other golf courses in the area. Bandon Crossings, south of Bandon, is a scenic and challenging eighteen hole layout that is significantly less expensive than Bandon Dunes. And Sunset Bay Golf Course, located next to Sunset Bay State Park, is an interesting 12 hole, par 47 course.

Beyond Bandon, the southern Oregon coast, from Bandon to the California border, is spectacularly beautiful and ranks, along with the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, the northern California coast, and Big Sur, as one of the must see sections of the entire Pacific coast.

Conclusion

Cape Arago and the surrounding area has so much to offer visitors that almost everyone will find something there that will make them want to come back. My wife and I visit the area often. Almost every year we spend at least a weekend revisiting our favorite spots. And I’m sure we will continue to do so in the future.

Posted August 2, 2025

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Cordoba, Spain

by Alan K. Lee

Introduction

When I was planning for the trip to Spain and Portugal that my wife and I took last spring (2024), Seville got a lot of my attention, as did Granada, Ronda, and Malaga, all for different reasons. Seville is the largest city in Andalusia, with a myriad of reasons to visit. Granada has the magnificent Alhambra. Ronda first got my attention more than a decade ago when I saw a TV travel program about the city. And Malaga is on the Mediterranean coast and has an international airport with many flights to the U.S. But Córdoba wasn’t much on my radar.

I included Córdoba in our itinerary mostly because it’s centrally located, and I couldn’t see a reason to completely bypass it. And I’m glad we didn’t, because Córdoba has a couple of gems that no one visiting Andalusia should miss, the city’s wonderful cathedral (the Mezquita) and the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Palace of the Christian Kings).

A Brief History of Córdoba

Córdoba has a long and diverse history. It was first established as a Carthaginian settlement, before being conquered by the Romans in 206 BC. Roman rule of the area lasted more than 600 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Córdoba became part of the Byzantine Empire, then was conquered first by the Visigoths and later, early in the 8^th century, by the Moors. Córdoba thrived under Muslim rule, becoming the second largest city in Europe by the 10^th century. In 1236, Ferdinand III drove the Moors out in the Reconquista that brought all of the Iberian Peninsula under Christian rule. Today, little of the Roman city of Corduba remains, but Córdoba retains much of the architectural heritage of the Moors, most notably the Mezquita (meth-KEY-ta) and the Alcazar.

Climate

The climate of Córdoba is notable for its hot and dry summers. It is the hottest city in Europe, with the average high temperature in July and August a scorching 99⁰F (37⁰C). Spring and fall are more moderate and are the best times to visit. Winters are mild with mid-winter highs around 60⁰F (15-16⁰C) and lows around 40⁰F (4-5⁰C). Annual rainfall averages about 22 inches, with 2-4” per month from October to April. We were there in early May and the weather was nearly perfect.

Our Visit

We traveled from Seville to Córdoba by train, only a 45-minute ride on Renfe’s high speed AVE trains. From the train station, we strapped on our backpacks and walked the mile or so to our hotel. I had some concerns about the hotel (La Despensa de la Corredera Hostal), which my wife had booked, but it turned out to be nothing like I associate with a hostel. It was modern, clean, comfortable, and had a private, ensuite bathroom. And it was located at the historic Plaza de la Corredera.

We spent our first afternoon and evening in Córdoba just wandering around, exploring the city, with no set agenda, something we often do when visiting a city for the first time. We walked along the riverfront, stopped at a sidewalk café for a beer, and walked around the exterior of the Mezquita and its Courtyard of the Oranges, which dates to the Moorish occupation, before returning to the Plaza de la Corredera, where we had dinner at one of the many restaurants there. The Plaza caters to tourists, and the food you get in restaurants in such areas is often expensive and mediocre at best, but our dinners were both good and reasonably priced.

The Mezquita

The Mezquita was constructed in 756 as the Great Mosque, possibly on the site of a Catholic Basilica built by the Visigoths. The mosque was expanded several times over the next two centuries, including construction of the minaret in 958. After the Reconquista, the Mezquita was converted to a Christian cathedral, but the name was retained. (Mezquita is Spanish for mosque, and today’s cathedral is also called the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba, or Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba).

The Mezquita was modified a number of times after the Reconquista, most notably in the 16^th and early 17^th centuries when the central nave and transept of the Capilla Mayor, which rises in the center of the structure, were built. The minaret was also rebuilt into a Renaissance-style bell tower.

The Mezquita is an attractive structure, but the exterior does not make a grand statement. It’s neither tall nor particularly interesting from an architectural perspective. But the expansive interior, with hundreds of the original mosque’s two-tiered arches supporting the roof, the 13^th century Royal Chapel, the 15^th century Gothic-style nave of the Villaviciosa Chapel, and the Capilla Mayor are all stunning and make for a truly unique structure that blends many architectural styles into a magnificent whole.

General admission tickets to the Mezquita cost 13€, discounts are available to seniors, children, students, large groups, and the disabled, and children under 10 get in free. Tickets are available online from the Mezquita-Catedral Córdoba website or can be purchased at vending machines in the Courtyard of the Oranges on the north side of the cathedral. Entry is free from 8:30 to 9:30 in the morning, Monday through Saturday. Night tours are available for 20€ and entrance to the bell tower is 3€.

The Mezquita was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984, and that designation was expanded to the entire historic city center in 1994.

The Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos

The site of the Alcazar was the Governor’s Residence during Roman rule and later a Visigoth fortress before Córdoba was conquered by the Moors. The original Alcazar was built by the Moors as the official residence and seat of power of Al-Andalus. After the Reconquista, King Alfonso XI of Castile began construction of the present-day Alcazar, which appears Moorish in style but in fact incorporates little of the original structure. There are four towers, one at each corner of the palace, and several large, enclosed courtyards, as well as two main halls, the Hall of Mosaics, and the Reception Hall. Like the Mezquita, the Alcazar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

We did not initially plan to tour the Alcazar (largely because Rick Steves panned it), but we did want to see the surrounding gardens. We found that entry to the gardens is only through the Alcazar, though, so we stood in line (in the sun) for 15 or 20 minutes to get tickets, then in another line for half an hour to get into the palace. Then we had to wait another 30 minutes to get into the towers. But the Alcazar is interesting enough (though no match for the Real Alcazar in Seville) that it was worth the long waits to see it all.

General admission is 4.91€ (as of October 2024), with a 2.25€ discount for family groups (the official website says “large family members”) and students. Admission is free for Córdoba residents, children under 14, seniors (65+), and the disabled.

You enter the Alcazar through the Courtyard of the Women (Patio de las Mujeres), which gets its name from the fact that this was once the site of a women’s prison. The courtyard is an archaeological site with ruins of the original Alcazar and the remains of part of the Roman structure that predated it.

The four towers give views of the Mezquita to the northeast and the Alcazar Gardens (Jardines del Alcazar) adjacent to the southwest. The Courtyard of the Moriscos (Patio Morisco) is a tree filled rectangular courtyard with small ponds on each end and a central fountain.

While the palace was worth the wait, we spent more time in the gardens than in the palace itself. There have been gardens here since at least the 10^th century, but the present gardens are much more recent.

There are a number of ponds, fountains, and statues scattered throughout the 14-acre gardens. The gardens are dotted with palms and lemon, orange, and cypress trees. There are acres of shrubs and flowering plants. And there are plenty of shaded places to get out of the sun and sit for a while.

Other Attractions

One of the things Córdoba is noted for is its many private and public courtyards, called patios. Many of the residences in Córdoba are built around a central courtyard. Often there is a fountain in the center and the courtyards are often full of colorful flowering plants.

Each May, during the Córdoba Patios Festival, many of the patios are opened to the public for free viewing and competitions are held for traditional courtyard designs (1970s and earlier) and for more modern designs. Some of the patios are open year-round (except July and August) for a small entry fee. The Patios Festival has been designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage event by UNESCO.

There are also streets and alleys throughout the city that feature colorful flower displays, the Calleja de las Flores, near the Mezquita, being probably the best known.

Another feature of the city is the Guadalquivir River and the 2100-year-old Puente Romano (Roman Bridge). Just downstream of the bridge are the ruins of a number of ancient mills. Across the pedestrian only bridge, the Torre de la Calahorra, a medieval gate-tower, has a small museum, and there are walking paths on both sides of the river.

Conclusion

I have no doubt that there are many other sights worth seeing and things worth doing in Córdoba that my wife and I didn’t discover or just didn’t have time to experience during our stay. Seville and Granada may get the spotlight when it comes to tourist destinations in the Andalusia region of Spain, but visitors should not overlook Córdoba. It’s a beautiful, charming, and historic city. I am more than happy that we included it on our itinerary and if you’re planning a trip to Andalusia, you should definitely plan to spend a day or two in Córdoba. I don’t think you will regret it.

Posted October 15, 2024

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada

by Alan K. Lee

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia is a popular and much loved 1001-acre (405 hectare) urban oasis that occupies the northwestern end of the peninsula that is also home to downtown Vancouver.

My wife and I recently spent five days in Vancouver. We spent the majority of one of those days exploring Stanley Park. The park is bisected by a busy highway, but you would never know it. I never noticed any traffic noise and it’s easy to find quiet and serene places in the park. And there’s enough to do there and the park is large enough that you could easily spend several days in the park and still not see and do everything the park has to offer.

The park features rhododendron and rose gardens and a Japanese Garden War Memorial. Stanley Park is also home to the Vancouver Aquarium (Canada’s largest aquarium), a collection of totem poles, a lighthouse, a ridable miniature railway, a seaside saltwater swimming pool, playgrounds, a water spray park, tennis courts, sports fields, and an 18-hole pitch and putt golf course.

There are three restaurants in the park, Prospect Point Café at the northern end of the park near the Lion’s Gate Bridge, Stanley Park Brewpub in the southwest corner of the park, and Stanley’s Bar and Grill in Stanley Park Pavilion, a wedding and event venue that is the oldest building in the park. There are also several cafes in the Vancouver Aquarium.

Much of Stanley Park is forested, and part of the park’s appeal is the proximity of the forested natural area to the densely populated and heavily developed downtown area. The interior of the park contains 17 miles of hiking trails, and the immensely popular seawall path runs for 5½ miles along the shoreline. The park is similar in many ways to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington, one of my favorite Pacific Northwest destinations.

Stanley Park contains two freshwater lakes (10-acre Beaver Lake and 41-acre Lost Lagoon), a stream (Beaver Creek) that is a spawning ground for a run of salmon, and has several sandy beaches. It is also home to one of the largest Great Blue Heron rookeries in North America.

S.S. Empress of Japan Figurehead Replica

Stanley Park functions as the backyard for the urban residents of Vancouver’s many condo towers and can arguably be described as Vancouver’s heart and soul. Every visitor should spend at least some time in the park. You can’t fully understand the city without experiencing Stanley Park.

Besides our visit to Stanley Park, my wife and I visited Capilano Bridge Park, Lynn Canyon Park, and Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, Gastown, Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden, Granville Island and the False Creek area, and other parts of Vancouver. More posts on our visit to Vancouver will follow, so stay tuned.

Posted July 19, 2024

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Sintra, Portugal

by Alan K. Lee

Introduction

Sintra is a magical fairytale town that combines spectacular palaces and magnificent gardens with the area’s deep history, making it a truly unique destination. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a must-see side trip if you’re visiting nearby Lisbon. Visiting Sintra can be done as a daytrip from Lisbon, which is what my wife and I did on our recent visit to Portugal and Andalucia, but you can’t see everything Sintra has to offer in a single day. To take in all Sintra has to offer, you either need to make several daytrips from Lisbon or, better yet, plan to spend a night or two in one of the town’s many hotels.

Since we had time for only a single daytrip from Lisbon, we had to be strategic about what we saw and what we didn’t. The top four attractions in Sintra are the Pena Palace (Palacio Nacional da Pena), the Castle of the Moors (Castelo dos Mouros), Quinta da Regaleira, and the Sintra Palace (Palacio Nacional da Sintra). We could have seen all four, had dinner in Sintra, and still been able to catch a return train to Lisbon that evening, but we weren’t sure we’d have time for all of that when we were making our plans. In the end, we chose to skip the Sintra Palace. But even though you can tour all four major attractions in a day, you won’t be able to fully explore them, and there’s still much to see in and around Sintra to make a second day necessary to see it all.

Getting there and getting around

If you’re doing a day trip from Lisbon, the best way to get to Sintra is by train. Trains to Sintra run from both the Rossio Train Station in the center of Lisbon and the Oriente Station near the airport, departing about every 20 minutes throughout the day. Tickets are cheap, less than three Euros one-way per person. They can be purchased at ticket counters or vending machines at either station and come in the form of a plastic Viva Viagem card. Tickets cannot be purchased online. Each person needs to have their own card, and tickets are one-way, so each person needs to purchase two tickets for a round trip. The trains are free if you purchase a Lisboa Card, which also gives you discounts to the major attractions in Sintra, free admission to many attractions in Lisbon, and unlimited travel on Lisbon’s Metro subway, surface tramway system, and public buses. See the Sintra Tourism website for more detailed information, including train schedules.

Once in Sintra, it’s about a 10-minute walk from the train station to the center of the historic old town and the Sintra Palace, and another ten minutes to Quinta da Regaleira. The Pena Palace and the Castle of the Moors are located on hilltops high above the town and are best reached by local bus (#434), taxi, or tuk tuk. The road to both is closed to private vehicles. You can hike up to them, but it’s quite a climb and I doubt that many people get there on foot. The old town center and Quinta da Regaleira can also be reached by bus (#435), taxi, or tuk tuk. There are also many tour companies that offer a range of tours that will take you to any or all of the major attractions in Sintra.

The Pena Place, Sintra Palace, and Castle of the Moors are all operated by Parques de Sintra and require timed entry tickets. We purchased tickets for the Pena Palace online, but it took much longer to get from town to the entrance to the park by bus than we anticipated, it’s at least a ten-minute walk from the park entrance to the palace, and there was a long line to get into the palace. All those factors meant that we were late getting to the palace entrance, outside the 30-minute window are tickets were good for. They let us in, though, despite the website stating that late entry would be denied and the cost of the tickets would not be refunded. Perhaps that was because we were there on a national holiday (see my post on Lisbon for more information about Portugal’s Freedom Day), but they could have legitimately sent us packing, so be sure to leave plenty of time to get there. You can wander around the grounds of the park if you’re early. We did not purchase tickets to the Castle of the Moors in advance, but we were able to purchase tickets on site. Quinta da Regaleira does not require timed entry tickets and the tickets we purchased online were valid for four months from the date of purchase.

Quinta da Regaleira

Quinta da Regaleira was built by a man named António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, who purchased the property in the late 19^th century. From its completion in 1910 until 1997 the palace and grounds were a private estate. It was then purchased by the City of Sintra and opened to the public.

We did not tour the interior of the palace, but the park-like grounds surrounding the palace are a magical land of towers, ponds, pathways, tunnels, grottos, and a 100-foot-deep well with a spiral staircase around the perimeter known as the Initiation Well. The initiation to what is not clear, but Monteiro had ties to the Free Masons organization, which may have evolved out of the medieval Knights Templar, a somewhat secretive and mysterious military and religious order central to the Crusades, that once controlled Sintra.

The grounds are a bit confusing, and the intersecting paths are not well signed, so do your research and plan your visit well. Do not, as we did, simply show up and wander the grounds. We had a hard time finding the Initiation Well and were on the verge of giving up when we finally stumbled across it. Since it was the one feature that both my wife and I had independently hit on before we even began planning a trip to Portugal, not getting to experience it would have been a big loss.

There was a long line to get into the Initiation Well once we finally found out where it was, but it was well worth the twenty minutes or so that we had to wait. You enter through a small tunnel and then spiral your way down the perimeter staircase. It’s slow going because people are taking their time, trying to get photos that convey the experience (without much success in my case), or just taking in the weirdness and magnificence of it.

At the bottom you enter a long tunnel that takes you to the backside of a small waterfall and then out to one of the several ponds on the property. The gardens are a fever dream of fantasy and imagination, filled with caves, statues, enigmatic carvings, and structures that are completely unique and must be seen to be fully appreciated, all the creation of Monteiro and his architect, Luigi Manini.

Pena Palace

The Pena Palace dates to only the mid-19^th century, but the history of the site goes back to a 12^th century chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena and the 15^th century Monastery of St. Jerome. The monastery was left mostly in ruins by the earthquake of 1755 but what remained continued to be occupied until 1834 when it was finally abandoned.

The property was then purchased by Ferdinand II, King-consort and husband of Queen Maria II, who built the Pena Palace on the old monastery site. The palace was the summer residence of the Portuguese royal family until the monarchy was abolished in 1910, when it became a National Monument. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

The palace is surrounded by parkland that was developed by Ferdinand II during the same time period that the palace was built. Unfortunately, we did not have time to see more of the park than the portion of the grounds between the park entrance and the palace, another good reason to spend more time in Sintra than we allowed ourselves on our trip.

Castle of the Moors

After touring the Pena Palace, we walked the short distance back down the road to the Castelo dos Mouros. There is a ticket machine at the bus stop, which would not take my debit card, but there is another at the actual entrance to the castle, a short walk from the bus stop, where we were able to purchase tickets. Just inside the entrance, there is an interesting archeological site that was part of the Moorish village that once occupied the site. From there, it is an uphill climb to the parapet walls that snake across the slopes of the hill on which the castle is located.

The castle, a fortress high on a hill overlooking the Tagus River and the Lisbon area, was built between the 8^th and 10^th centuries by the Islamic rulers of the Iberian Peninsula to guard the surrounding agricultural areas. Inside the walls that stand today there was a Moorish village until 1147 when the area was retaken by Christian forces during the Reconquista.

Pena Palace, viewed from the Castle of the Moors

Little remains of the Moorish village or the subsequent Christian settlement that took its place, except for the ruins of the Chapel of São Pedro de Penaferrim and a few other structures, but the site is spectacularly beautiful.

There is a lot of climbing on the steeply sloped grounds if you want to see it all, especially up to the highest point. But the awesome views of the Pena Palace (as seen in the featured image at the top of this post) and down to the old town area of Sintra and the Sintra Palace, make the climb well worth the effort required.

Sintra Palace

The Sintra Palace dates to the same time period as the Castle of the Moors, but nothing of the original Moorish palace remains. The oldest part of the existing palace is the Royal Chapel, which may have been constructed in the early 14^th century. Most of the existing palace was built in the 15^th century. The palace was a summer residence of the Portuguese royal family for more than 500 years.

We did not tour the palace, but in retrospect we should have planned better and taken it in along with the other three attractions in Sintra that we did tour. Something left for our next visit, I guess.

Other Sintra Attractions

The Sintra Town Hall (Camara Municipal de Sintra), located near the railroad station, is one of the first buildings you’ll see in Sintra, and it is worth a look. But most people, like us, pass it by on their way to the historic center of Sintra and the other Sintra attractions mentioned above.

You’ll also pass by the entrance to the Parque da Liberadade if you walk from the train station to the old town center. Again, most people pass it by, which we did as well. But it looks like it is worth exploring, if you have the time (another reason to spend more than one day in Sintra). The historic town center is itself worth exploring, too.

Monserrate Palace. Photo by Jocelyn Erskine-Kelly, sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

About two miles west of the historic center, on the Rua Barbosa du Bocage (about 1.5 miles past Quinta da Regaleira), you’ll find the beautiful Park and Palace of Monserrate. The same bus that takes you to Quinta da Regaleira also takes you to Monserrate Palace. There are also numerous private tours that stop at Monserrate.

Cabo de Roca. Photo sourced from Wikimedia Commons and credited to “Mister No.”

Further west, Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point of Europe, is also a stop on many private tours, as are the nearby beaches. You can also ride the #435 bus all the way to the cape and beaches.

Conclusion

Whether you have only half a day or have two or more days to explore Sintra, you’ll come away impressed by the beauty, magnificence, and, in some cases, the weirdness of what you’ve seen. I can’t imagine anyone coming away from Sintra unhappy that they had come. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. But there were many other highlights, as well. Look for other posts from our trip that will be coming over the next month or so, including Faro and the Algarve, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Ronda, Spain.

Posted June 16, 2024

All photos © Alan K. Lee, except as noted

Lisbon, Portugal

By Alan K. Lee

My wife and I recently traveled to Portugal and the Andalusia region of Spain for the first time. We had been talking about going to Lisbon and the rest of Portugal someday for a long time and had started planning this trip in 2019. But the Covid-19 pandemic scuttled that plan, and all our travel plans. And when we did decide to travel again, in 2022 as the pandemic was winding down, we did a Danube River cruise instead of going to Portugal. But we didn’t write off Portugal, and we resurrected our old plan in 2023 and rescheduled it for this spring (2024).

Lisbon was our first stop. We’d have been excited to finally set foot in Portugal, but after enduring a nine hour overnight flight from Portland to London, a two hour layover at Heathrow, a two hour delay after boarding our connecting flight while the flight crew and British Airways mechanics repaired the plane’s radio, and a two hour flight from London to Lisbon, we were too jet-lagged and sleep deprived to be excited about anything.

That all changed the next morning when we set out to explore Lisbon. We typically set aside one day at any new destination to just wander around, walk the streets, and see what we bump into. And that’s what we did on our first day in Lisbon.

Our hotel was about a half mile from Rossio Square, and that was our first stop that morning. Officially, it is King Pedro IV Square (Praca Dom Pedro IV), but everyone calls it Rossio. The square is paved with a distinctive wave-patterned tile. There are two large Baroque fountains at either end of the square and a statue of King Pedro IV set on the top of a nearly ninety-foot-tall column in the center of the square. Rossio Square has been the predominant site of city gatherings in Lisbon for centuries.

We explored the area around Rossio Square, including the nearby Praca dos Restauradores, which memorializes the restoration of a Portuguese monarchy separate from the Spanish monarchy in 1668, after a war that lasted 28 years. We also found the Rossio Train Station, from which we would take a train to Sintra the following day. We then made our way to the Santa Justa Elevator, which takes visitors up to the Bairro Alto section of the city. The elevator is itself a tourist attraction, though, and there was a crowd waiting to ride the elevator. We decided not to wait.

Nearby, we found a department store with a set of escalators and a fourth-floor exit onto an upper street behind the building. From there it was only a short uphill walk to the Archaeological Museum of Carmo (Museu Arqueológico do Carmo) and the ruins of the Carmo Convent that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755.

View from the top of the Santa Justa Elevator

And from there we crossed a short bridge to the viewing platform at the top of the Santa Justa Elevator, which gives magnificent views across central Lisbon to the Sao Jorge Castle and to the Tagus River and beyond.

After taking in the views, we made our way down to the riverfront and the Praca do Comercio (Commerce Square) where crews were setting up for the Freedom Day celebrations (more on that below). From there we walked along the riverfront to the lower end of the Alfama district.

Statue of King Jose I in Commerce Square

The Alfama is a hillside neighborhood of narrow, winding cobblestone streets and alleys. In the past it was a poorer, rougher area home to dockworkers and sailors, and not an area tourists would want to visit. But today it is an upscale area home to artisans, many shops and restaurants, quaint and picturesque homes, several large churches, and the National Pantheon (pictured in the featured image at the top of this post). And it is definitely a must see for everyone visiting the city.

We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant that has a small outdoor courtyard seating area before wandering through the upper part of the Alfama and back to our hotel.

We had some trouble finding a place to eat that evening. The following day was Freedom Day and the partying was already well underway by then. Most of the restaurants near our hotel were already packed. We finally found an “artisanal” burger place with a few empty tables. The burgers weren’t that good, but we were just happy to get some food in our bellies after a long day on our feet. (We walked at least six miles that day, probably more).

Freedom Day in Portugal celebrates the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1974. It was a bloodless military coup and is called the “carnation revolution” because soldiers marching in the streets placed carnations in the barrels of their guns in celebration. April the 25^th is the equivalent of our 4^th of July, and it is a very, very big thing in Portugal, as we found out, both that evening and the following day.

Our second full day in Lisbon was mostly taken up with a day trip to Sintra (which I’ll cover in an upcoming post), but when we returned to Lisbon that evening, we exited the Rossio Train Station into a parade or march filling the street in front of the station from curb to curb with a mass of people heading to Rossio Square, some carrying homemade signs. We had to make our way across the street to get back to our hotel, so we joined the crowd for a ways and pretended we were Lisboners celebrating our freedom. Great fun and wonderful to see that mass of humanity on the streets in celebration.

On our third and final full day in Lisbon we stopped at the closest Metro station to our hotel after breakfast and bought 24-hour passes, which cover both the Metro subway system and the surface tramway system (and local buses, too, I believe), then walked to Martin Moniz Square where we caught a ride on the famed Tram 28 (after a fairly long wait in line even though we got there early).

Tram 28 takes you up through the Alfama, across the Baixa (the central business district), through the Chiado and Bairro Alta sections of the city, and all the way to Campo de Ourique in the west end of Lisbon.

The turnaround point is the oddly named Cemetery of Pleasures (Cemiteria dos Prazeres). I think maybe something got lost in translation there. Anyway, it’s a huge above ground cemetery with thousands of family tombs, some of them large and ornate. Everyone has to get off the tram there, so we took some time to explore the cemetery before catching a later tram back to the center of the city.

Castle of St. George (Castelo de Sao Jorge)

We got off the tram again in the Alfama. (With a 24-hour Metro pass, you can hop on and hop off the tram at will). After splitting a pizza for lunch at a little pizzeria, we walked up to Sao Jorge Castle, the high point of the Alfama. We spent a couple of hours touring the castle grounds and garden, the castle museum, and the chapel, then walked back down the hill to our hotel.

That evening, we had dinner and a couple of brews at Sputnik Brewing, two doors down from our hotel. We would have stopped in earlier, but the first two evenings the place was packed with Freedom Day celebrants, the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk both nights, and we almost literally couldn’t have gotten in.

The following morning, we checked out of the hotel and rode the Metro (which is quick, clean, and safe) to the bus station where we caught a bus to Faro in the Algarve on the south coast of Portugal (look for a future post on our time there).

We had a great time in Lisbon and I’m glad we finally got to visit after five years of planning and waiting. Would we have done things differently if we had known what we do now? Probably. I think we would have skipped the day of wandering around on foot, and done the Tram 28 tour first, taking time to explore the Alfama and the castle in the morning, and exploring more of Bairro Alta in the afternoon. With the extra day, I think we would have gone to Belem, just west of Lisbon, and maybe to the seaside town of Cascais farther to the west. Taking a day trip to Sintra, as we did, is a must, though. I think if we were to do it again, we would stay an additional day or two. There is much to see in Lisbon that we didn’t have time for. You could easily spend five or six days (or longer) there and not run out of things to do. But as it was, we had a lot on our agenda for this trip, and didn’t have the time to linger in Lisbon. I’ll cover the rest of the trip in later posts.

View of the Carmo Convent ruins from Rossio Square

Posted June 6, 2024

All photos © Alan K. Lee

New Orleans

New Orleans. NOLA. The Big Easy. No matter what you call it, and no matter where your interests lie, the city has something for you. Food, drink, music, art, history, architecture, parks, festivals, cemeteries, voodoo, river boats, streetcars, endless parties, you name it. New Orleans has it all. In abundance.

The city’s identity has been forged from many roots – French, American, African American, Native American, Haitian, and more. And those roots have produced many branches and have blossomed into something truly unique.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to New Orleans, but the ten days or so that my wife and I spent there left an indelible imprint on my psyche. The food, the music, the arts, the people. There is simply no place else like it in the U.S. Probably no place in the world.

We spent our first day in New Orleans just wandering around the French Quarter with no agenda. We almost always allow ourselves time in a new city just to explore at random. We’ve had many memorable experiences that we would never have had if we had stuck to the guide book recommendations. But don’t throw away the guide books, either. Their recommendations are there for a reason.

That first night, we wandered over to Bourbon Street to see what that is all about. We had a great time and we came back again another night. And, by all means, if you’re visiting New Orleans for the first time, venture into the French Quarter after dark and take in that giant street party. Get your Hurricane in a go cup and wander the street. Take in some of the live music, mingle with the other tourists, have another Hurricane, dance the night away. Get it all out of your system. But don’t think that’s the real New Orleans. Bourbon Street is the Disneyland version of the Big Easy.

So, how to experience the real New Orleans? Well, you probably have to spend a year or two there to really get to know the city. It’s a complex place. But if you don’t have that kind of time, my first recommendation would be to find a place to stay in the French Quarter. It’s the historic center of the city and the city’s cultural heart. Most of what you’ll probably want to see and do you’ll find either in French Quarter itself or close by.

My wife and I stayed at a boutique hotel (I’ve forgotten its name) near the river, across the street from the House of Blues, for the first part of our stay. As I recall, it was a very nice and quite affordable place. But after a few days there, the hotel had some sort of plumbing system problem, necessitating our move to the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street for the second part of our visit. The Monteleone turned out to be one of the better hotels we’ve stayed in, but there are plenty of other places to stay in the French Quarter. Check the French Quarter website for recommendations.

Since my wife and I are both art lovers, another thing that we always do in a new city is spend at least some time exploring the local arts scene. Sometimes that just entails visiting local museums and art galleries. But we also seek out local artists and art related events when we can. The New Orleans Museum of Art , located in City Park, and the adjacent Besthoff Sculpture Garden were two of our first stops, along with a number of galleries in the French Quarter. But we also took in an arts and crafts fair in Mickey Markey Park in the Bywater neighborhood, about a mile east of the French Quarter, where we met several local artists.

I won’t spend much time here trying to give you a guide to the French Quarter. There are plenty of guide books and online guides that will do a better job than I can. But there are tons of things to see and do in the Vieux Carre and you could spend your entire visit there and not get bored. Plan to spend at least a full day, and preferably a couple of days, exploring the French Quarter on your visit.

But if you really want to sample what New Orleans has to offer, and have the time, I recommend that you also go beyond the French Quarter. Visit City Park and Audubon Park. Take a walk through the Garden District. Take the ferry across the river to the Algiers neighborhood. Visit one of the city’s famous cemeteries. Take a cruise on the Mississippi in a paddle wheeler. Check out the Treme and Marigny neighborhoods. Even go beyond the city itself and take a swamp tour or a plantation tour.

We spent one afternoon exploring the Algiers neighborhood across the river from the French Quarter. Take the ferry from the terminal at the foot of Canal Street. It’s a short but scenic ride and Algiers is an interesting place. Check out the Jazz Walk of Fame next to the ferry terminal. Take a walk along the levy on the Mississippi River Trail. Stop in at one of Algiers many restaurants and bars, such as the Dry Dock Cafe, the Old Point Bar, Tout de Suite Cafe, or the Crown and Anchor English Pub. And just walk around the neighborhood. As I said, it’s an interesting place, full of beautiful old houses and impressive buildings.

Touring one of the city’s many cemeteries turned out to be one of the more interesting things we did on our visit. Because the land New Orleans is built on was originally a swamp, and much of it is below sea level, the dead are not buried in the ground, but are interred in above ground crypts or tombs.

When we were there, we were warned that some of the cemeteries were dangerous places to visit and should be avoided. That may have changed, but check before you venture into any of the city’s cemeteries. There are organized cemetery tours that you can take, but we preferred to go on our own. One of the cemeteries that was said to be safe, and the one we visited, was St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1, on Canal Street near the end of the streetcar line.

Many of the tombs there are large, elaborate, and impressive, holding the remains of many generations of the same family. The larger and more ornate ones are generally well kept up, but many of the others have not been maintained and are crumbling. Many are just ruins, empty and abandoned. One has to wonder what became of the bodies.

Visiting some of the city’s parks also turned out to be one of the more worthwhile ways we found to spend our time. There are a number of parks in the city that are worth a visit. Jackson Square in the French Quarter, and Louis Armstrong Park, on Rampart Street in the Treme neighborhood adjacent to the Quarter, should be on everyone’s agenda.

City Park , about two miles north of the French Quarter, and Audubon Park, a couple of miles west of the Quarter, both have attractions for the whole family. Besides being home to the New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park is also home to the Louisiana Children’s Museum, a short walk from NOMA, and the New Orleans Botanical Garden. And Audubon Park is home to both a zoo and an aquarium. Both parks also feature nature trails, beautiful ponds, magnificent live oaks draped in Spanish moss, and many other attractions. Both City Park and Audubon Park are easily reached from the French Quarter by the city’s streetcar lines.

Think of New Orleans and Mardi Gras is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Mardi Gras has been celebrated in Louisiana since at least 1699, before the founding of New Orleans. It is celebrated in many other communities, but the New Orleans festivities are the quintessential Mardi Gras celebrations. We were there a week or two after the end of Mardi Gras, so I can’t give you an eye witness account of what Mardi Gras is actually like. But it is a festival that I would like to experience some day.

The other New Orleans festival that I would dearly love to take in is the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, held each year in late April and early May. This may actually be a bigger tourist draw than Mardi Gras. As many as 650,000 people have attended in past years.

Music is an essential component of the spirit of the Big Easy. Whether it’s traditional Cajun fiddle tunes, blues, jazz, swamp rock, zydeco, country, or a fusion of some or all of those genres, music permeates the city. Street performers are a common sight in the French Quarter any time of the day or night. And there are probably hundreds of clubs throughout the city offering live performances late into the night, every night. Take in as much of the music as you can while you’re there because it’s such a vital component of the city’s spirit.

There’s plenty of music to be heard on Bourbon Street, but there are more authentic venues elsewhere. Preservation Hall, in the French Quarter, is probably the most famous. Tipitina’s, on Napolean Avenue about a mile and a half west of the French Quarter, might be the most highly regarded club. The Spotted Cat Music Club, the Blue Nile, and d.b.a., all on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, are three of the most highly regarded clubs. Le Bon Temps Roule, near Tipitina’s, and Chickie Wah Wah, on Canal Street in Mid-city, are a couple of other well regarded venues. In the French Quarter, check out One Eyed Jack’s.

Like music, the cuisine of New Orleans is one the city’s defining features. I fell in love with the food when we were there, and gumbo and jambalaya have become mainstays in my home kitchen. The Foodies Guide to New Orleans website will give you a good overview of the city’s culinary offerings. The people of New Orleans are passionate about their food and anyone you talk to will probably be happy to steer you to some great places to eat. Or you can book one of the many food tours that are available.

The food scene has probably changed a lot since we were there, but there are some iconic New Orleans eateries that you might want to check out. The Cafe du Monde in the French Market is one of those. It’s been a New Orleans institution since 1862. Go for the beignets and the coffee with chicory because that’s about all they serve. And go early. You’ll probably still have to wait in line to get in, but it’s an iconic New Orleans experience that shouldn’t be missed. And dinner at Antoine’s was a highlight of our stay. Antoine’s has been in existence even longer than the Cafe du Monde. They’ve been serving French Creole food in the same location since 1840. There’s no place in New Orleans more steeped in history than Antoine’s.

And then there’s voodoo. Personally, I have no interest in voodoo, but it’s another unique component of the culture and you can’t ignore it completely if you want to get the full New Orleans experience. You might just want to stop in at one of the many shops in the French Quarter selling voodoo related trinkets. Or maybe delve deeper into the history and practice of voodoo by visiting the Voodoo Museum or taking a voodoo tour.

New Orleans can’t be adequately described in words or pictures by any means. It really has to be experienced. It blends the Old South charm of places like Charleston and Savannah with the party atmosphere of places like Key West, and mixes in a whole lot more to boot. You should make the pilgrimage to the Big Easy at least once in your life. You won’t regret it.

Originally posted January 9, 2021 by Alan K. Lee. Updated and re-posted January 10, 2024.

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Key West and the Florida Keys

We all need to get away from home on occasion, sometimes far away, and the Florida Keys are about as far from the Pacific Northwest as you can get and still be in one of the fifty U.S. states – Honolulu is closer to Seattle than Key West is. And the Keys make for a great winter getaway. My wife and I had a great time in Key West on our only visit and I would love to return to someday.

The following was originally posted on this site a couple of years ago. I checked all of the links, but things can change, so check the Keys News website for current information if you’re contemplating a visit in the near future.

If you are thinking about a visit to Key West, the first thing you should do is track down a copy of Jon Breakfield’s book “Key West: Tequila, a Pinch of Salt and a Quirky Slice of America.” Breakfield and his wife were living in Scotland and took a winter vacation to Key West one year. Two days into their visit they decided not to go back to Scotland. Breakfield’s book is an absolutely hilarious account of their first year in Key West. It’s also a good introduction to the Key West culture and works as a weird sort of travel guide. After reading the book, you’ll probably want to visit The Bull, a bar on Duval Street, and the Whistle Bar, which occupies the floor above. The Whistle Bar has a wrap around veranda that is one of the best people watching perches in Key West. Both figure prominently in the book. And if you’re really adventurous, you might even want to venture up one more flight to the clothing optional rooftop bar called The Garden of Eden.

Key West is a quirky place, and nothing exemplifies that better than the city’s tongue in check secession from the United States in 1982. After the Border Patrol set up a roadblock on the highway between Key Largo and Miami (to stem the flow of drugs into the country via the Keys), creating huge traffic backups and inhibiting island residents from commuting to jobs on the mainland, the mayor and city council of Key West decided that if the Border Patrol was going to treat them like they were a foreign country by setting up a de facto border crossing station, they would become one. Thus was born the Conch Republic. The move was pure political theater (the mayor “surrendered” to the commander of the naval air station at Key West the day after declaring the Conch Republic’s independence), but it resonated with the anti-establishment sentiment common among island residents, and the spirit of the Conch Republic persists to this day.

Duval Street is the main drag in Key West. It’s lined with bars and restaurants, galleries, gift shops, and much more. You can eat your way down one side of the street and drink your way back up the other, if you’re so inclined. You’ll probably meet fifty other tourists for every local, but everyone will be having a good time and you won’t care that it’s not the real Key West.

Besides Duval Street, another major tourist draw is Mallory Square and the daily Sunset Celebration. Key West is known for its sunsets and didn’t disappoint on our visit. And every evening about two hours before sunset dozens of artists, crafters, food vendors, and street performers of every stripe congregate at Mallory Square to hawk whatever it is they’re selling to the tourists gathered there to watch the sunset. It’s weird, wild, and enormously entertaining. And then there’s a beautiful sunset to cap it all off.

Key West has plenty of places of interest beyond Duval Street and Mallory Square, too. The Hemingway House is another major tourist draw. Get there early if you’re going or buy your tickets online. The line was around the block both times we thought about taking a look. The Audubon House, Key West Lighthouse Museum, Eco-Discovery Center , Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park , the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, and the Key West Aquarium are all worth a visit.

If you just want to hang out at the beach, Fort Zach Park has a nice swimming beach (with an adjacent bar). South Beach at the end of Duval Street also has a beach bar and grill. Higgs Beach is four or five blocks east and has a nice beach for sunbathing and swimming. And across the street, Astro City Playground is a fun place for kids to play. To the east of Higgs Beach are C.B. Harvey Memorial Rest Beach (no bar or other amenities) and Smathers Beach. Dog Beach, a couple of blocks east of South Beach, is literally for the dogs – a dog friendly, off leash park.

Key West has dozens of fine restaurants. All of the places we dined at were excellent. We had a couple of great breakfasts at a place called Camille’s Cafe, but it appears to be closed. Blue Heaven, Cafe Sole, and a Cuban restaurant called El Siboney all had excellent food. We also lunched at a couple of Duval Street eateries (whose names I’ve forgotten) that were very good. The Lobster Shack, The Flaming Bouy, Louie’s Backyard, Sarabeth’s Kitchen, Santiago’s Bodega (tapas), Cafe Marquesa, The Cafe (vegetarian), Ambrosia (Japanese), and B.O.’s Fish Wagon (fresh and very affordable seafood) are all highly rated, also.

Nature lovers will want to check out Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy, Indigenous Park, Key West Nature Preserve, and Key West Wildlife Center.

If you’re interested in fishing, Trip Advisor lists more than two dozen fishing charters and tours. If scuba diving is your thing, Finz Dive Center, Captain’s Corner Dive Center, and Lost Reef Adventures all offer diving tours and are highly rated.

Tourism drives Key West’s economy and there is no shortage of available accommodations , from luxury resorts to whole house rentals to budget motels and inexpensive Airbnb rentals. We went the Airbnb route and found a reasonably affordable room in Old Town. But the closer to the historic district and Duval Street, the more expensive the accommodations become, and the longer ahead that you will need to make reservations. It’s an advantage to stay within walking distance of Old Town, as parking is limited, but if you have a car and don’t mind spending some time looking for a place to park, staying in the New Town section or on Stock Island can save you some money. Key West is bicycle friendly, has a public transit system, and taxis are readily available (some with bicycle racks), so driving into Old Town is not strictly necessary, even if you are not staying close by. Uber and Lyft are also options.

The bottom line is there are as many reasons to visit Key West as there are tourists visiting. It’s a great party town and a great place to lounge on the beach and soak up the sunshine, but it’s much more than just that. Key West is soaked in history, has a great food scene, has great fishing and diving, and is located in an incredibly beautiful natural setting.

The other Florida Keys have their own attractions, too, and the drive from Miami to Key West is an attraction on its own.

Key Largo is the closest of the keys to the mainland and many of the residents commute to the mainland, but it has many attractions that draw travelers, too. It’s the self-proclaimed “dive capital of the world” and home to the world’s largest artificial reef, among other attractions. If fishing is your thing, Islamorada bills itself as the “sport-fishing capital of the world.”

There were a number of other interesting places in the Keys that we stopped at on our way to and from Key West. One of those was the National Key Deer Refuge on Sugarloaf Key. Key deer are tiny – not much bigger than a German shepherd. Another stop we made was Bahia Honda State Park, which has a nice swimming beach and clear waters in multiple hues of blue.

The Overseas Highway through the Keys is an engineering marvel and driving it is an amazing journey, even if you don’t stop at any of the Keys along the way. The Seven Mile Bridge itself is one of the main attractions in the Keys.

If you’re contemplating a visit, flying to Key West is an option, but I’d do as we did – fly to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, rent a car, and drive the Overseas Highway. Visit the other Keys and go diving, snorkeling, fishing, or just find an uncrowded beach and soak up the sunshine away from the crowds. And, of course, take in Key West and all it has to offer. You won’t regret it. And while you’re in Florida, the Everglades are only a short drive from Miami.

Originally posted by Alan K. Lee on August 10, 2018. Updated with Covid-19 info December 14, 2020. Updated and expanded September 15, 2023.

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Hoyt Arboretum Hike

Hoyt Arboretum

Where: Washington Park, Portland, Oregon

Distance: 2.4 miles

Type: Loop

Elevation gain: Approx. 600 feet

Difficulty: Easy

Map: Hoyt Arboretum Map

Overview:

Hoyt Arboretum was created in 1928 to help conserve endangered species and educate the public about the need to do so. Over its 95 years of existence, more than 6000 trees and plants representing more than 2000 species and varieties from around the world have been planted in the arboretum, many of them threatened or endangered. One of the things that makes the arboretum special, in my opinion, is that it has the look and feel of a natural forest, not a botanical garden, and even though many of the trees and plants are not native to the Pacific Northwest, they are incorporated into the forest and never seem out of place.

Hoyt Arboretum offers a multitude of possible hikes over its 189 acres and 12 miles of trails. The hike described here passes through many of the arboretum’s tree collections and is a good introduction to the arboretum for anyone that has not visited previously. It also incorporates several short sections of the iconic Wildwood Trail that meanders for 30 miles through Washington and Forest Parks. The trail junctions in the arboretum are well signed, so it would be hard to get lost, but the sheer number of intersecting trails can be confusing. I recommend carrying a map of the trail system whenever you’re hiking in the arboretum. Download and print the arboretum map linked above or pick up a free map and brochure at the visitor center. The brochure provides some interesting information and has a larger and more easily read map than the download.

Getting there:

The Visitor Center is located at 4000 Fairview Boulevard SW, Portland, Oregon 97221. It can be reached by car via West Burnside Street or US Hwy 26. Parking at the visitor center costs $2 per hour (free before 9:30 am) or $8 per day. There are other free parking areas (including along Fairview Blvd in front of the visitor center) that are shown on the map, but most are small and are often full. Public transit options include TriMet bus line #63 (with a stop at the Visitor Center) and the MAX light rail red and blue lines. The Washington Park Station on the light rail lines is 200 feet below ground with an elevator to the surface entrance located between the Oregon Zoo and the World Forestry Center. And there is a free shuttle bus that runs through Washington Park and makes stops at the zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, and the Japanese Garden.

Trailheads:

There are multiple trailheads that can be used to access the hike described here, but the Hoyt Arboretum Visitor Center is a logical starting point and the one used for this description. The Visitor Center includes a small gift shop and public restrooms.

The hike:

This hike starts at the opposite end of the parking lot from the Visitor Center. Look for the paved Overlook Trail to the left. Follow the paved path to the first trail junction and turn left onto the gravel Wildwood Trail. At the next trail junction turn left onto the Magnolia Trail, which switchbacks down to and across Upper Cascade Drive and through the arboretum’s Magnolia Collection.

Just before reaching Cascade Drive, turn right onto the Beech Trail and cross the road into the Winter Garden. Just beyond the Winter Garden, turn left onto another section of the Wildwood Trail and follow it as it climbs up to Fairview Blvd. Across the road the trail descends through the forest to the Redwood Deck, which provides a good view into the arboretum’s Redwood Collection.

Continue on the Wildwood Trail past the junction with the Redwood Trail, descending to Johnson Creek. Stay on the Wildwood Trail, passing the junction with the Creek Trail, as it climbs up the slope west of the creek. At the next junction, turn left onto the connector trail that takes you to Fisher Lane.

Cross Fisher Lane onto the White Pine Trail, which gradually climbs away from the road to a ridge, where it turns south and runs along the western edge of the arboretum for about three quarters of a mile, through the White Pine and Hemlock Collections, to Fairview Blvd where it ends.

Cross Fairview Blvd and take the connector trail to the right, which descends to a junction with another section of the Wildwood Trail. Turn left onto Wildwood and follow it, crossing Knights Blvd. Just before reaching a water reservoir, turn left onto a connector trail that takes you to the Holly Trail. Follow the Holly Trail down a set of stone steps to the parking lot where the hike started.

Other area attractions and activities:

Washington Park is home to the Oregon Zoo, the World Forestry Center, the Portland Japanese Garden, the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the International Rose Test Garden, in addition to Hoyt Arboretum.

Posted June 3, 2023 by Alan K. Lee

All photos © Alan K. Lee

Victoria, British Columbia

by Alan K. Lee

Victoria, British Columbia has long been my favorite Pacific Northwest city. It has always been the most British city in British Columbia, but it also has a distinctly Pacific Northwest/Canadian vibe. The city certainly reflects its British heritage, but it has also been influenced by the Native American/First Nations cultures that preceded the British and exhibits its own unique version of Pacific Northwestern cross-border culture. Think British charm without the stiff upper lip formality of Old England.

Victoria’s British charm may have been diluted a little over the years as it has grown and become a more cosmopolitan city, but it retains enough of that charm that so captivated me the first time I visited that I keep coming back. My wife and I have traveled to Victoria many times, most recently in September 2024.

The following is an updated and slightly edited version of a 2018 post on this site.

The Royal British Columbia Museum will probably always be my first choice of places to visit in Victoria. Too many museums are stodgy and boring, but the Royal BC has always been immersive and captivating. It’s expansive enough and interesting enough that you’ll probably spend at least a couple of hours there, and spending half a day there is not out of the question.

If you’re visiting Victoria, the Royal BC Museum should be near the top of your must see list. If you’re not as captivated by it as I am, and don’t want to spend a half a day, or more, there, there are half a dozen other places worth visiting in close proximity. The British Columbia Parliament buildings are next door. On the other side, Thunderbird Park has a collection of totem poles and several historic structures. The Empress Hotel (officially the Fairmont Empress) is a block away. And Beacon Hill Park is just a few blocks to the south. Then there is the Victoria Bug Zoo, just north of the Empress. I would probably enjoy seeing that, but I don’t think there’s any way I could drag my wife there.

The BC Parliament Buildings and grounds are open to the public. Free guided tours of the buildings lasting about 40 minutes are conducted daily, Mon-Fri. You can also take a self-guided tour, and tour books are available in a variety of languages. Self-guided tours are also available daily, Mon-Fri.. The grounds are free and open to the public at all times. For more information, click here.

Thunderbird Park, next door to the Royal BC Museum, is a nice place to relax in the harbor area. It has a nice collection of native totem poles, and three historic structures: the Mungo Martin House, built by native carver Chief Mungo Martin in 1953; the Helmcken House, built by Dr. John Helmcken in 1852; and St. Anne’s Schoolhouse, built in 1844.

Beacon Hill Park, stretching from a block south of Thunderbird Park to the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, is a beautiful 62-acre parcel of land dedicated as a city park in 1882. It is home to a totem pole carved by Chief Mungo Martin, David Martin, and Henry Hunt that was the world’s tallest (160 feet) when it was erected in 1956. It is still billed as the world’s tallest free standing totem pole. Park facilities include hiking trails, including a trail along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a petting zoo (officially the Beacon Hill Children’s Farm), a wading pool, water fountains, picnic areas, sports fields and playgrounds, and a band pavilion.

The harbor front has a number of restaurants and hotels, the most famous of which, by far, is the Empress Hotel. Built in 1908 by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Chateauesque style similar to other CPR hotels such as the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise, the Empress was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981.

Pickle Boats in front of the Empress Hotel

The Inner Harbor is a busy place, and if you like to people watch, the harbor front is the place go. You can also book whale watching trips, seaplane flights, and carriage rides at the harbor front. Small water taxis, called pickle boats, are also available to take you to various waterfront locations, including many of the waterfront hotels and restaurants. Harbor tours are also available. And if you’re there on a Sunday or Monday morning in the summer, you might catch a group of these little, very maneuverable boats putting on a water ballet, with the boats’ maneuvers choreographed to music broadcast from the shore. It’s fascinating and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Check the water taxi website for more information and schedules.

Craigdarroch Castle (sourced from Wikipedia Commons and edited by the author)

There is much more to Victoria than what can be found near the harbor front, of course. Tour Craigdarroch Castle, an ornate Victorian mansion located a mile east of the inner harbor area, and Government House, just a few blocks to the south. Take in a performance at the Royal Theatre, on Broughton St, a few blocks north and east of the Empress. Or relax in one of the area’s other parks, such as Saxe Point and McAulay Point in Esquimalt, Uplands Park in Oak Bay, or Gorge Park on the Gorge Waterway.

The Emily Carr House, pictured above, is another place worth visiting. Emily Carr (1871-1945) was a renowned artist, writer, and advocate for social justice.

Eating and drinking spots are abundant in downtown Victoria. Afternoon Tea at the Empress is one of Victoria’s most iconic experiences, and high on the list of Victoria’s premier attractions. If the cost of high tea at the Empress (currently 110 Canadian dollars, approx. 80 US dollars, per person) is too rich for your blood, other slightly less expensive (and sometimes more highly rated) tea services can be found at the Tea House at Abkhazi Garden, White Heather Tea Room, and Pendray Inn and Tea House (formerly known as the Gatsby Mansion).

If a pint is more to your liking than a cuppa, there are many quality pubs near the Inner Harbor. Try Spinnakers Gastro Pub, across the Johnson Street Bridge in the Outer Harbor area. On Government Street, a few blocks north of the Empress you’ll find Bard and Banker, The Churchill, Garrick’s Head Pub, and Irish Times Pub, all rated highly and all within a block and a half of each other.

For an upscale dinner in the Inner Harbor area, I can personally recommend Nourish Kitchen and Cafe, a “vegetable forward” (their description) farm fresh restaurant in a renovated Victorian house about six blocks west of the Parliament Buildings in the James Bay section of Victoria. Il Terazzo, Brasserie L’Ecole, and Il Covo Trattoria also get rave reviews. For breakfast, try John’s Place (eight different versions of Eggs Benedict), or Jam (popular and crowded, but well worth it).

Outside of Victoria, Butchart Gardens is one of the Northwest’s and Canada’s most visited sites. Victoria is, of course, the gateway to the rest of Vancouver Island and its myriad attractions. It is also one of the gateways to the Gulf Islands, one of my favorite places in the Northwest.

If you haven’t experienced Victoria yet, go! You won’t regret it.

Originally posted 11-15-18. Most recent update 11-21-24.

Kona and the Big Island

by Alan K. Lee

Kona, on the Big Island, was where I first set foot in Hawai’i, back in the year 2000. I will never forget stepping out of the plane and immediately being bathed in sunshine and enveloped in the warmth that is so ever present in Hawai’i. It wasn’t just that it was warm. The air felt different, not the suffocating humidity of summers in the much of the country or the oppressive furnace-like heat of the Southwest. Here it just felt welcoming. Two steps out of the plane I knew I was in paradise.

My first view of the Big Island was also memorable. Looking out the window of the plane at the Kohala Coast as we descended toward Kona, I expected to see lush green jungle, but instead I saw black lava fields and brown grassland. There wasn’t a tree in sight. The land looked more the high desert of eastern Oregon than what I envisioned Hawai’i should look like.

Saffron Finch, photographed in downtown Kailua-Kona

Kailua-Kona isn’t a desert by any means, but the average annual rainfall is a bit under 30 inches, less than Portland or Seattle. Parts of the Kohala Coast to the north of Kona get less than 10 inches of rain per year. In contrast, Hilo on the east side of the island averages more than 10 feet (127″) per year.

My wife and I have been back to the Big Island a couple of times since our first visit. Our most recent visit came in February 2019. After visiting my wife’s cousin and her husband at their home on Maui, the four of us took the short hop over to Kona to explore the Big Island. It had been 15 years since our last trip to Kona, so I was interested to see how much it had changed. The answer turned out to be not all that much. A little bigger, more traffic, maybe a little more touristy, but essentially the same as I remembered it.

After settling into our condo rental near downtown Kailua-Kona, we walked into town. It was hotter and a little more humid than I remembered it being on our previous visits, so our first stop was a local pub to get a cold brew. After slaking our thirst and having a bite to eat, we walked around the town and harbor-front for awhile.

Kailua-Kona still has a small town feel and the downtown area is compact and easily walkable. Many of the businesses that were there 15 years ago are still there. The shave-ice place that we discovered on our first visit is still there, although with a different name now. The town is worth a look, but it is often crowded with tourists, especially when there’s a cruise ship in port. When there is, it’s probably best to avoid the area. Fortunately, the attractions of the Big Island are numerous and varied, and regardless of what your idea of the perfect tropical vacation is, you can probably find it on the Big Island.

View across Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook Monument

We spent one morning at Kealakekua Bay, about 20 miles south of Kailua-Kona. On our last trip, my wife and I took a day cruise to Kealakekua to snorkel. That was one of the best snorkelling experiences I’ve ever had. This time we drove to Manini Beach, a pretty cool little park with a small sand beach, frequented more by locals than tourists. We would never have found it on our own, but the owners of the condo we rented put together an information book that had photos and directions to the park. Across the bay is a monument marking the spot where Captain James Cook was killed in 1779.

We spent two or three hours lounging and swimming at Manini Beach, then drove to the Place of Refuge (Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park), on Honaunau Bay, a few miles south of Kealakekua, where we spent another couple of hours exploring. Pu’uhonua o Honaunau played a significant role in the lives of Hawai’ian people prior to contact with Europeans. If you have any interest in Hawai’ian history, this is a place you definitely should visit. Next door to the Place of Refuge there is also a very good (and popular) snorkelling access point called Two Steps. You are certain to find lots of colorful fish and sea turtles in the bay there.

Fish ponds at Kalahuipua’a Historic Park, Mauna Lani Resort

More native history can be found along the Kohala Coast to the north of Kailua-Kona. The Mauna Lani Resort has preserved a couple of features of native Hawai’ian life on their property. Kalahuipua’a Historic Park contains archaeological sites and preserves two ancient fish ponds. The ponds were originally shallow embayments that the native Hawai’ians walled off to raise fish for food. Over time the ground here has subsided, making the ponds deeper and larger than they once were.

Puako Petroglyph Archaeological Park, also on the Mauna Lani property, preserves an area of relatively flat, smooth lava, several acres in size, that is literally covered with petroglyphs. It’s about a 3/4 mile hike, but a quite incredible site, and well worth the hike, even on a hot afternoon. I’ve never seen another place with anything close to the number of petroglyphs that can be found at Puako. The entire Puako Petroglyph Archaeological Preserve covers 223-acres and boasts more than 3,000 ancient petroglyphs, some dating to 1200 AD.

Farther north, in the North Kohala District, Lapakahi State Historical Park preserves the ruins of an ancient settlement. Several of the structures have been recreated to give an inkling of what life was like in the village. The park also protects 1.5 miles of shoreline and off shore coral reefs.

Steam vent near the rim of Kilauea Caldera

We came to the Big Island not long after the end of 2018’s epic eruption of Kilauea. The volcano was quiet when we were there, but most of the rim road and almost all of the trails in the summit area were still closed. That was a big disappointment. I would have liked to get a close up look at how much the crater had changed since our last visit. From what we could see, the Halema’uma’u Crater within the Kilauea Caldera is now many times larger than it was in 2004, but we couldn’t get near enough to see down into the crater. The trails down into the Kilauea Iki Crater were also closed, as was the Thompson Lava Tube Trail. The Chain Of Craters Road was open, so we stopped and explored a couple of interesting areas of much older eruptions that we probably would have skipped if more of the summit area had been accessible.

Lava field off the Chain Of Craters Road

After leaving Volcanoes National Park, we drove to Hilo, looking for Rainbow Falls. Our navigation system led us astray, however, leading us down a private road that went nowhere. We backtracked to Hilo to reconnoiter. While there, we had a wonderful dinner at the Cafe Pesto. Our friends had eaten there before and their recommendation was definitely on target. After dinner we consulted a map of Hilo and found our way to Rainbow Falls with no trouble. Our previous visit to Hilo (in 2004) came in the middle of a months long drought on the Big Island, and Rainbow Falls was barely a trickle then. But this time the Wailuku River was flowing strongly and twin streams of water were pouring over the edge of the cliff. As impressive as it was, I couldn’t help but wonder how much more so it would be after a heavy rainstorm.

We made our way back to Kona via the Saddle Road that crosses over the divide between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. In 2004 this was such a bad road that rental car companies specifically prohibited taking their cars on it. But much work has been done on it recently, and it is now one of the better highways on the Big Island, and by far the quickest route between Kailua-Kona and Hilo.

Four days wasn’t close to enough time to do anything but scratch the surface of what the Big Island has to offer. There are beaches, of course, and snorkeling, golf, hiking trails, you name it. But even if you only have a few days, the Big Island is a great choice of places to visit. If you are thinking about visiting, a good starting point for your planning is the Big Island Guide website. It has tons of information on accommodations, dining, activities, sightseeing, the history and culture of the island, and much more.

No matter what your interests, I think it would be hard to have a truly bad experience on the Big Island, or any of the other islands, for that matter. Whether you choose to visit Kaua’i, Oahu, Maui, Moloka’i, the Big Island or Lana’i doesn’t matter. All of the islands of Hawai’i really are paradise.

Originally posted August 6, 2019. Updated and re-posted November 19, 2022.

Powells Wood Garden

by Alan K. Lee

My wife and I recently paid a visit to Powells Wood Garden in Federal Way, Washington, just north of Tacoma. We had seen a set of photos taken at Powells Wood that were quite beautiful, so we decided to take a side trip on our recent weekend visit to Gig Harbor and check it out in person.

What we found was a beautiful three acre botanical garden containing eight “rooms” separated by manicured hedges, and an adjacent 35 acre natural area preserve. We spent several very pleasant hours exploring the botanical garden and the nature preserve. It was a nice way to unwind after the drive up from Portland.

The botanical garden is small, but it’s a nicely constructed set of gardens and a place that any flower lover will enjoy.

The adjacent natural area is a maturing second growth forest with many large conifers, a small stream, and the typical temperate rainforest understory of native shrubs and ferns. Several trails loop through the preserve. We hiked most of the trails that afternoon and saw only a few other people.

Powells Wood Garden is located at 430 S. Dash Point Road in Federal Way. The garden is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 3pm. Admission is $7 per person (children 12 and under are free). Tickets can be purchased online on the Garden’s website . Reservations are not required and tickets can also be purchased on site.

If you visit Powells Wood Garden, you might also want to stop in at Dash Point State Park, a few miles west of Powells Wood. The main attraction at Dash Point is the 3000 feet of Puget Sound shoreline. But there are also miles of hiking and mountain biking trails and a campground with 141 campsites.

While Powells Wood Garden is probably not worth a trip to Tacoma on its own, the Tacoma area has a lot of other attractions, not the least of which are the Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Art Museum, both part of the Tacoma Museum District.

And across the Tacoma Narrows from the city of Tacoma, the charming small town of Gig Harbor is well worth a visit, as well. Gig Harbor has a beautiful waterfront and the community has done a good job of preserving its history as it has grown from a small fishing village into a bedroom community of Tacoma. It’s one of our favorite towns in the Northwest and one we return to often.

If you find yourself in the Tacoma area and you’re interested in flowers, gardens, or natural areas, pay a visit to Powells Wood Garden. It’s definitely worth seeking out.

Posted June 12, 2022

Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens

by Alan K. Lee

Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens, in Woodland, Washington, draws thousands of visitors every year, especially in the spring during Lilac Days when the many varieties of lilacs are in bloom.

My wife and I first visited the Lilac Gardens in 2018 during a weekend trip to Mount St. Helens. We had done a long hike on the mountain the previous day (see my previous posts on our Harry’s Ridge and Lava Canyon hikes), and needed a day to recover, plus the weather had taken a turn for the worse. So, we looked for other things to do in the Kalama or Woodland areas. Visiting the Lilac Gardens seemed like it would be a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. And that it was, even though the lilacs had long since finished blooming.

The Lilac Gardens have a long and interesting history and many people come to the Gardens because of Hulda Klager’s influence on both the local area and on the development of both botanical gardens and plant propagation techniques.

Hulda Thiel was two years old when the Thiel family emigrated to the U.S. from Germany. After spending a decade in Wisconsin and Minnesota, her parents purchased a farm in Woodland in 1877, when Hulda was thirteen. The Lilac Gardens occupy four acres of that original farmland.

Hulda married Frank Klager in her teens. She was always interested in gardening and raising flowers, but it wasn’t until 1903, when she was nearly forty, that she became interested in plant propagation and hybridization. She first started working with lilacs in 1905, and by 1910 had created more than a dozen new varieties. Over the course of her long life, she developed about 250 different varieties.

In 1920 Hulda began opening her garden to the public during the spring bloom, and continued doing so until 1948, when a spring flood destroyed the original gardens. Despite being in her 80s, she spent the next two years tirelessly rebuilding her gardens, and was able to re-open them in 1950. She continued to open her gardens to the public until her death in 1960. Known as the Lilac Lady, Hulda’s life story was the basis for Jane Kirkpatrick’s novel Where Lilacs Still Bloom.

After Hulda’s death, her family put the farm up for sale. The local garden society succeeded in having Hulda’s gardens declared a state and national historic site to prevent them from being bulldozed for a proposed industrial site.

The Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens have been owned and operated by the non-profit Hulda Klager Lilac Society since 1976. Each spring when the lilacs are blooming the society sponsors Lilac Days, when the society sells lilacs, operates a gift shop in what was the farm’s barn, and opens the restored Klager farmhouse to the public.

In 2019 my wife and I re-visited the Gardens on Mother’s Day weekend at the tail end of the Lilac Days celebration. Despite being past the peak of the bloom, there were still may lilacs in bloom, and the Gardens have many varieties of other flowering plants, as well. Even the previous year, on our first visit at the end of summer, there were many flowers in bloom. We toured the family farmhouse, wandered around the Gardens for some time, and took literally hundreds of photos. It was another very pleasant day.

The Lilac Gardens are on the western edge of Woodland, Washington. Woodland is located on I-5 about twenty-five miles north of Portland, Oregon. Lilac Days run from mid-April through Mothers Day each year.

2025 Update: The gardens have been closed for the winter, but will reopen for Lilac Days, which run from April 19 to May 11 this year. The gardens will be open all days from 10:00-4:00. Adult admission cost is $10, payable at the gate. After Lilac Days, the gardens will remain open, but times and days may differ. Go to the garden website for more information.

Originally posted May 14, 2019. Most recently updated April 10, 2025.

The Oregon Garden

by Alan K. Lee

The Oregon Garden, located in Silverton, Oregon, consists of more than 20 specialty gardens covering 80 acres. While it was created about 25 years ago primarily to promote the Oregon nursery industry, the Garden has grown into one of the premier botanical gardens of the Northwest.

The Oregon Garden is spectacularly beautiful in the spring, but it has plenty to offer in other seasons. The photos shown here were taken in September, for example, and there were a lot of plants still in bloom, as you can see. Even in winter, the garden is worth a visit.

Flowers take center stage here, but there’s much more to the Oregon Garden than just flowers. Wetlands that are the final stage of Silverton’s wastewater treatment process and a formal water garden are also part of the larger Garden. As are a conifer garden, oak grove, and a 15 acre working demonstration forest. You can also find many agricultural products, such as berries, hops, and grapes, growing in the garden in artful settings.

Stained glass window by Judy Kunkle, Lake Oswego, Oregon

Copper and glass sculpture by Lauren Wingert, Albany, Oregon

Throughout the Garden you will find art works by local artists.

The Gordon House. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

The Gordon House, Oregon’s only surviving Frank Lloyd Wright designed house (and the only one in the Northwest open to the public) is located immediately adjacent to the Garden.

Oregon Garden Resort. Photo from the Oregon Garden Resort website.

The Oregon Garden Resort, featuring 103 guest rooms, restaurant, and spa, is also located adjacent to the Garden.

Start your tour of the gardens at the Visitor Center, where you purchase your tickets. Pick up a free map of the gardens and check out the gift shop. And there is a retail nursery located adjacent to the Visitor Center where you can purchase plants grown by the garden staff and volunteers.

The Oregon Garden is open daily, except for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. Hours are 9:00-6:00 Mon-Fri and 9:00-4:00 on weekends from April through October and 10:00-3:00 all days from November through March.

Adult admission prices are $10 Nov-Mar and $14 Apr-Oct. There are discounts for seniors (60+), students (12-17), children (5-11), veterans, and AAA members. Children under five are free. Go to the Garden website for a schedule of events and other information.

The Garden is ADA compliant and all mobility devices are allowed in the Garden. There is a 1.4 mile paved path that runs through most of the 20+ specialty gardens. There is also a tram that takes guests on a 20 minute narrated tour of the Garden. Check the Garden website for more information.

Take your time and enjoy the beauty of the Garden. There are plenty of benches in the gardens to sit and relax. There’s enough to see and do here that it wouldn’t be hard to make a full day of it. And you can bring your dog (on leash). There’s even a pet friendly garden.

If you are making a day of it, the Visitor Center has grab and go snacks, and the adjacent Oregon Garden Resort has a restaurant and lounge. Or you can bring a picnic lunch and enjoy it in one of the designated picnic areas. A variety of dining options are also available in downtown Silverton.

And if you’re visiting from outside the area, a trip to nearby Silver Falls State Park should also be on your itinerary. There aren’t many other places where you can see ten waterfalls on a single hike, and the trail will actually take you behind four of them. It’s one of Oregon’s premier attractions.

Originally posted October 6, 2019. Most recently updated June 5, 2025.

Hoyt Arboretum

by Alan K. Lee

Hoyt Arboretum, in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1928 to conserve endangered tree species and help educate the community about the value and wonder of trees and the natural environment.

Today, the arboretum features more than 100 collections of trees and plants, organized by taxonomy and geography, spread over 189 acres in Washington Park in Portland’s West Hills. There are more than 2300 species native to six continents represented in the arboretum collections.

The arboretum features a small visitor center, a covered picnic structure, and 12 miles of hiking trails, including a portion of the 30 mile long Wildwood Trail that connects Washington Park to the Pittock Mansion, the Portland Audubon Society sanctuary, and Forest Park, the nation’s largest forested city park. The arboretum also makes a number of outdoor areas available to rent for weddings or other private events.

The visitor center is a good place to begin your visit to the arboretum, especially if it is your first visit. It is open daily from 10:00 to 3:00. You can pick up a free map there, which I have found to be very useful. You can also download a map from the arboretum’s website. The arboretum’s trails are well signed, but there are many intersecting trails and an almost limitless number of possible loops to hike, so having a good map is definitely a plus. The visitor center staff are also friendly and can answer any questions that you may have. The center also includes restrooms and a small gift shop.

Many of the trees and plants throughout the arboretum are labeled and there are interpretive signs describing the featured collections. And, if you want information on specific trees and plants, you can access the arboretum’s online plant directory.

As an educational institution as well as a conservatory, arboretum staff regularly conduct public tours, sponsor educational events, and offer a variety of classes to the public.

Hoyt Arboretum is just one of a number of attractions in Washington Park, making it one of the true centerpieces of what makes Portland such an attractive place to live. Besides the arboretum, Washington Park is also home to the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Japanese Garden, the World Forestry Center, the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the International Rose Test Garden.

More information on the arboretum, directions, and parking and public transit information can be found on the arboretum’s website (linked above).

Hoyt Arboretum is one of my favorite places in the Portland area. Whether you want to learn more about the environment, are interested in the plants and trees in the arboretum’s collections, want to find a quiet and peaceful retreat, or just want to stretch your legs, Hoyt Arboretum is a great place to spend a few hours. Add in the other attractions in Washington Park and you can easily make a day of it.

Originally posted April 8, 2020. Updated July 15, 2020 and May 5, 2022.

Connie Hansen Garden

by Alan K. Lee

The Connie Hansen Garden in Lincoln City, Oregon is one of the smallest botanical gardens in the Northwest, at just 1¼ acres, but don’t let the size fool you, it’s also one of the best.

Connie Hansen grew up in Oregon, but moved to California to attend the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a degree in botany. She moved back to Oregon late in her life, after her husband’s death and her retirement from the faculty of UC Berkeley.

She began creating her garden in 1973 and she tended and continually expanded it for the next 20 years. After her death in 1993 a group of neighbors and local gardeners formed the Connie Hansen Garden Conservancy to preserve the magnificent garden that she had created. The Conservancy is a not for profit corporation run by a dedicated group of volunteers.

The garden is located at 1931 NW 33rd Street in Lincoln City. It is open daily from dawn to dusk. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. The Garden House, Hansen’s former home, now houses a small gift shop where you can find gardening supplies, books, and souvenirs. There is also a small art gallery. It is open from 10:00 to 2:00 Tuesday and Friday through Sunday from March to mid-December.

The Conservancy conducts spring, summer, and fall plant sales, and there are usually plants for sale at other times as well. Garden memberships are available through the conservancy website for those that want to support the garden.

The Connie Hansen Garden is one of the hidden gems of the Oregon Coast. It is both a beautiful and tranquil oasis and a lasting tribute to the woman who spent 20 years of her life creating it. Pay the garden a visit the next time you’re in the Lincoln City area. I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Originally posted June 17, 2021. Updated and re-posted April 27, 2022.

Leach Botanical Garden

by Alan K. Lee

Leach Botanical Garden in southeast Portland may not leap to mind when you think of Portland area gardens, but pay it a visit and you will find that it truly belongs in the top tier of Portland botanical gardens. The beautiful and serene set of gardens feature more than 2000 varieties of plants, including 125 species of ferns.

What is now Leach Botanical Garden was once the home of John and Lilla Leach. They purchased the property in the early 1930s and built a cottage on the south shore of Johnson Creek in 1932. Four years later they built a larger house on the north shore.

Both the Stone Cabin and the Manor House still stand. The Manor House now houses the garden’s gift shop and is a popular wedding venue and event space. (The part of the garden south of Johnson Creek, including the Stone Cabin, is currently closed to the public).

Lilla Leach was an amateur botanist and discovered five plants previously unknown to science. One, Kalmiopsis leachiana, is named after her, and the southwest Oregon wilderness where she discovered it is now known as the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Over the years she planted many native plant species, some of them rare, on the estate they called Sleepy Hollow.

John and Lilla lived in Sleepy Hollow until John’s death in 1972. The Leaches willed the property to the City of Portland, and the city created Leach Botanical Garden after Lilla’s death in 1980 to preserve her botanical garden.

Originally four acres in size, the botanical garden has been expanded, most recently in 2021, and now covers some 17 acres and includes an aerial tree walk (part of the 2021 expansion) that extends out over the slope leading down to Johnson Creek and the Manor House.

The garden is located at 6704 SE 122nd Avenue and is open to the public Tue-Fri 10am-5pm and Sat-Sun 10am-4pm. The garden is closed on Monday. Reservations are not required, but are recommended. Walk up tickets are available, but may be limited during busy periods. Reserved tickets can be obtained on the garden’s website.

There is currently no admission charge, but donations are encouraged and go to support operation of the garden and the garden’s educational programs. You can also register for a garden tour on the website, which is currently the only way to visit the Stone Cabin and the historic Outdoor Kitchen on the south side of Johnson Creek..

If you’re visiting Portland, consider paying Leach Botanical Garden a visit. Pair it with a visit to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in inner southeast Portland, and to the International Rose Test Garden, Hoyt Arboretum, and the Portland Japanese Garden, all in Washington Park in Portland’s West Hills, for an immersive experience in the Rose City’s garden culture. If you enjoy the peace and beauty of botanical gardens, you won’t regret it.

Posted April 25, 2022

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

by Alan K. Lee

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in southeast Portland, Oregon is an internationally recognized garden containing many rare rhododendrons, azaleas, and related species. It’s a beautiful and (sometimes) quiet island of serenity in the midst of the city, and it’s one of my favorite places in Portland..

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden is spectacularly beautiful in the spring blooming season, but its attractions are not limited to that season, and not just to rhododendrons and azaleas. The garden is beautiful the year round. And it’s nearly surrounded by Crystal Springs Lake, making it a haven for waterfowl and other birds. More than 90 species of birds can be found in the garden, including Bald Eagles, which can often be seen flying over the lake in search of fish or unwary waterfowl.

The garden covers 9.5 acres, divided into two areas, called The Island and The Peninsula. Originally owned by William S. Ladd (1826-1893), twice Mayor of Portland in the 1850s, and called Crystal Springs Farm, the City of Portland acquired the the Island portion of the Garden in the 1920s.

In the first half of the 20th Century, The Island was the site of Shakespearean plays produced by Reed College, which adjoins the garden. But by 1950 the site was largely abandoned and overgrown. In that year the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society established a display and test garden on The Island. The area now known as The Peninsula was donated to the garden in 1977 by Portland landscape architect Wallace K. Huntington. Volunteers from the Friends of Crystal Springs (the Portland Chapter of The American Rhododendron Society) and the Master Gardeners program now maintain the Garden.

The garden is open daily year round. Spring and summer hours are 10:00-5:30, except Wednesdays, when it opens at 1:00. Adult admission is $9.00, $8.00 for seniors, $6.00 for youth (6-18), and free for children under six.

In the past, the Friends of Crystal Springs have hosted rhododendron shows and plant sales at the garden. Check the garden website for current information and event schedules. The garden also hosts weddings and other private events, so a potion of the garden may be closed to the public on spring and summer weekends.

The garden is located at 5801 SE 28th Avenue. The small parking lot fills up early in spring and summer, and there is no on street parking on 28th or other nearby streets, so come early if you’re coming by car (and do not park in the Reed College lot across the street from the garden). Or take the bus (Tri-Met bus #19 Woodstock).

The garden is often crowded, especially on the spring and summer weekends. Visiting during the week will avoid the worst of the crowds. But even during peak visitation the garden is well worth visiting. The colorful foliage makes fall a good time to visit, also. And on a winter morning you might have the Garden all to yourself.

Whether you are a garden lover, birder, photographer, artist, or just looking for a beautiful place to spend some time in, Crystal Springs is a place you’ll love. For my money, only the Portland Japanese Garden tops Crystal Springs among Portland area gardens.

Originally posted July 16, 2019. Most recently updated April 10, 2025.

Lan Su Chinese Garden

by Alan K. Lee

The Lan Su Chinese Garden, an urban oasis in the middle of downtown Portland, Oregon, is regarded as one of the most authentic Chinese gardens outside of China itself. It is also one of the most beautiful places in the city, and one of my favorite places in the city.

The garden came about through Portland’s sister city relationship with Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province, China. Suzhuo is noted for its Ming Dynasty gardens, and Lan Su Garden was created by artisans from Suzhou following a 2000 year old tradition that melds art, architecture, and nature into a harmonious and serene whole.

Entering the garden, you come first to the Courtyard of Tranquility. The courtyard (and the whole garden, for that matter) is designed to be a peaceful and soothing place to escape the problems of everyday life, and it succeeds in that remarkably well. It’s surprisingly quiet, and once inside it’s easy to forget that you are in the middle of a busy city.

From the courtyard, you pass through the Hall of Brocade Clouds, traditionally the place where a family entertains guests, and then onto the Terrace. This is a great place to just sit and take in the view. Most of the garden can be seen from the Terrace. The various pavilions and the Tea House (the “Tower of Cosmic Reflections”) are beautifully reflected in the central pond known as Lake Zither.

From the Terrace, wander at will through the Painted Boat In Misty Rain pavilion, past the Rock Mountain and Waterfall, across the boardwalk to the Moon Locking Pavilion, Scholar’s Study and Scholar’s Courtyard, and the Knowing the Fish Pavilion. Take some time to visit the Tower of Cosmic Reflections teahouse where you can enjoy a cup of tea and learn a little about the Chinese social art and culture of tea.

Throughout the garden you will see Lake Tai Rocks. These large, fantastically shaped rocks were imported from China – 600 tons of them. The rocks were formed underwater through the erosive action of Lake Tai’s acidic waters, and are highly prized by landscape architects.

The garden exhibits more than 100 species of trees, shrubs, and plants native to China, including the Pacific Northwest’s largest collection of lotus. The plants found in the garden were not imported from China due to import restrictions, but were found in botanical gardens and nurseries in the United States and transplanted to the garden.

Part of the mission of the Lan Su Chinese Garden is to promote better understanding of Chinese art, history, tradition, and culture. Classes and demonstrations of Chinese calligraphy, brush painting, paper folding, poetry, music, horticulture, wood carving, and other arts such as kite making, are held throughout the year at the garden. And public tours of the garden led by trained docents are held several times a day.

The Lan Su Garden is small, taking up only one city block, but it is one of Portland’s premier gardens (along with the Portland Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Garden, and Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, among others). You can tour the garden in an hour, but the longer you linger, and the more times you visit, the more you come to appreciate the beauty, tranquility, and harmony of the garden, and understand the philosophy and outlook on life that led to its creation.

Lan Su Chinese Garden is open from 10:00 to 4:30 daily in the winter and 10:00 to 6:30 in the summer. The garden is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $16 for adults, $15 for seniors (62+), and $13 for children 6-18 and college students (2025 prices). Children five and under are free. Annual memberships are available for $60 (one individual plus one guest per visit). Senior and student memberships are $40 (one individual). Family memberships (two individuals plus two guests ) are $100. You can find more information about the garden at the Lan Su website.

Originally posted March 12, 2020. Most recently updated May 20, 2025.