Portland is known as the "City of Roses," and today we showed Madelyn why it's a very appropriate name. Just outside of downtown Portland on a hillside overlooking the city and Mt. Hood is a rose garden to beat all rose gardens. It's so sprawling and so spectacular that even though there are probably at least one hundred other commendable rose gardens in the Portland area, you can say "I visited the rose garden today" and everyone knows exactly which one you're talking about. I don't know exactly how many individual roses are planted in this garden but it must be in the thousands. On a warm summer evening such as today, the air is heavy with their sweet fragrance, and the myriad colors are dazzling. We packed a picnic dinner and sat with Maddie out on the lawn in the midst of these gorgeous flowers and felt like pinching ourselves. Some moments in life are just blissful, you know?
(This plate says "Queen Jan," and that is how Nana Jan got her name. Queen Jan was Queen of the Rose Parade the year before my mom was born, and my grandparents liked the name so much they named their first child after her!)
