We had a morning flight to Portland and opted to drive to Las Vegas the evening before. We had booked a cheap room at the Linq and before checking in we had dinner at Shang Artisan Noodle off strip. It was delicious! This is definitely going on the list for a repeat visit. We had enough time to walk around the strip a bit - we checked out the Wynn, saw The Sphere, and walked the Linq Promenade. In the morning we had enough time to eat at Hash Hash a Go Go at Linq - it was fine, although I think this place is more famous for the quantity of their food versus the quality. Everything went smoothly with our flight and when we landed we headed straight to Sa Bai Thai for a delicious meal before driving to Park Lane Suites and Inn. I chose Park Lane because it had free parking, was reasonably priced, and was in a good location in the Goose Hollow neighborhood (it was easy to walk or take public transportation to where we wanted to go). It was basic accommodations, but we weren’t in our room much and it was fine for our trip.

We had just enough time to check out Washington Park before sunset, so Norah and I set off to see some of the park’s attractions. Of which there are many - Washington Park covers 410 acres and offers a lot such as the Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, International Rose Test Garden, and the Portland Japanese Garden. We walked to the park from our hotel and visited the International Rose Test Garden. The garden was established during WWI as a safe haven for hybrid roses grown in Europe. Today the garden has 10,000 rose bushes representing over 610 different rose varieties. The blooms were beautiful!

With the help of the free shuttle we were able to squeeze in one more spot - we walked several trails in Hoyt Arboretum to the Redwood Deck to see the stand of redwood trees. We enjoyed being in a lush, green forest again and were happy we were able to see the big trees. We made it in time to catch the last shuttle back down the hill to the Northeast corner of the park so we could walk to NY 23rd Avenue in Nob Hill. We had ice cream at Salt & Straw to finish our day and walked back to our hotel, ready for an early start the next morning.