Heirloom Roses

Last Sunday we visited the Heirloom Roses at St.Paul, about an hour southwest of Portland. Unfortunately it was closed on Sunday, but we managed to take some photos of the garden outside the shops. Apart from selling many varieties of roses, Heirloom Roses also sell lots of garden tools and decorative. I loved their themed garden in front of the shop too and it's free of charge to the public, how nice!

Heirloom rose shop

items for sales...

The Garden in front of the heirloom rose gift house

Heirloom Rose entrance

Another garden of Heirloom Roses

Lake Oswego - A fairytale city

The City of Lake Oswego is located just 20 minutes south of Portland. This city gives me the fairy tale feeling and I loved strolling around the Millenium Plaza Park. It has some European-style building and lots of nice sculptures everywhere. One can have an awesome view of the Lake Oswego from the Millenium Plaza Park and also from the Lake Shore Inn which is about 10 minutes walk from the park. But since it is a private lake, public are not allowed to have any activities on the lake. Too bad! I guess the lake-shore property along the lake must be extremely espensive. Anyway, we can always enjoyed the picturesque view of the Lake and took lot of photos :)
On every Sat, from mid-May to mid-Oct, there is a farmer markets held in the morning at the park. Lot of local fruit, vege, flowers and handmade jewelry can be found here. We had bought some peaches and corn last saturday from the markets.
It is really a great place for family weekend getaway. My daughter just loved sitting on the steps watching a flcok of ducks swimming happily and freeling in the river.

Millenium Plaza Park

Shopping street at Millenium Plaza Park

Lake Oswego from Millenium Plaza Park

Another beautiful view of Lake Oswego

Sculptures are everywhere in the downtown

A flock of ducks

The view of Lake Oswego from Lakeshore Inn with special effect

Another view of Lake Oswego from Lakeshore Inn

Hood River's Attraction

Hood River is famous for its wind and also the many farmland that you can find here. It is about 1.5hour drive east of Portland through the scenic Columbia Gorge Highway. Our purpose to Hood River last week was to visit a lavendar farm called Lavendar Valley. However we were dissapointed when we reached there. We don't see any purple lavendar in the farm. The senior ladies owner told us that the blossom period is on July and we are late. That's too bad! But she is kind enough to explain to us the process how they extra the lavendar oil  and we have bought ourself some lavendar bath and handsoup to bring back home.
Since we were here, we try to explore any other attraction around this area and found the Hood River Vineyard. This winery is pretty small and we are not allow to go in except to a tasting room where you can pay USD5 to taste all sort of wine that they have. But the good thing is, the owner show us the map of Hood River and recommended us to pay a visit to Rasmusen Farm which turn out to be a wonderful experince for us. They have a fabulous pumpkin Funland created by the Rasmussen stuff with their creativity and humor from pumpkins, vegetables, squash, gourds and other items found in the farm. We loved taking photo inside the Funland. Another highlight of Ramussen Farm is the corn maze. This fifteen feet high corn maze welcome its guest to explore and have fun. Before we said goodbye to the farm, we have bought some peaches and prune from their store. Not only fruits but they also have lots of vegetables too.

Lavendar Valley at Hood River

Blossom period is over :(

Hood River Vineyard

Awesome Pumpkin Funland

My girl was so excited seeing those cute little man made from pumpkins

U-pick Pumpkin farm

Corn maze

The Scenic Columbia River Gorge

No trip to Oregon is complete without visiting the beautiful and inspiring Columbia River Gorge. It is just 16miles east of Portland using the I-84, and the whole national scenic area of Columbia River Gorge is about 80miles long. The famous Multnomah fall, Bridal Veil Fall, Crown Point Vista House viewing point and Bonneville Dam are situated along this beautiful River Gorge, to name a few. In this article, i will be talking about the Crown Point Vista House and Bonneville Dam, but feel free to read my blog about Multnomal fall here.
If you are driving from Portland direction, you will first reach the Crown Point Vista House after about 30minutes drive. The road to the vista house is a bit winding and narrow, but it is really worth the drive. You can get a really nice spot for photo of the Columbia River Gorge by climbing up the narrow staircase of the Vista House. However there is not much space on the 2nd floor, and it may be so crowded that you have to wait for you turn to take a photo. For those of you who would like to buy a postcard or souvenir, there is also a small souvenir shop downstair. After less than an hour of time we spent enjoying the view and taking our photo, we headed to our next destination, the Bonneville Dam. It is about half an hour drive from the Crown Point Vista House. What's so special about this Dam is that it got windows which allowed visitors to watch the fishes swimming through the Dam to the upstream. Of course, there is also the guided tour to the power house, explaining how this megastructed was been built and how it's capable to supply the power that needed by whole Oregon State. But for me, i enjoyed watching the fishes more. They were so determined to swim across the dam towards the upstream, never rest or give up even been hit so badly by the big waves several times. Oh, by the way, you can't bring any weapon into the dam because there is a security check at the entrance :)

Crown Point Vista House viewing point

Refreshing view over the Columbia River Gorge from the Crown point vista house

Awesome view from Another angle

The Bonneville Dam

Fishes swimming hard to the upstream

Authentic korean restaurant - Woo Jung Oak

It was our second time visiting this authentic Korean BBQ restaurant near Washington Square, Beaverton. Woo Jung Oak restaurant is so far our best choice of Korean food in oregon. All the food that we had tried this far are good and the price is very affordable too. You can have a simple meal for about USD10/dish or you can order those big and special BBQ plate. The banchan is exceptionally good and you can request for a refill whenever you like. I loved the tofu soup with seafood. It was so appetizing with the taste of sour, sweet and spicy all well blended together. The BBQ beef and spicy pork are also very delicious. Me and my husband rate Woo Jung oak as no.1 korean restaurant that we have had so far, both in Malaysia and US :)

Woo Jung Oak Restaurant entrance - Look can be deceiving

The spicy pork - not so spicy, just nice

Tofu Soup, yummy

JabChae - noodle

For more info and menu : http://www.friendshousebbq.com/

Portland Regional Gem and Mineral Show

We attended the 30th Annual Portland Regional Gem and Mineral Show last weekend which held on September 23, 24 & 25 in Hillsboro Fair Complex. There are basically divided into 4 main sections, the exhibits area, the "hobists"area, kids games and autions area, and the dealers section. More than 100 exhibits was displayed, and over 40 dealers are there selling gem stone, craft supplies and beads. The admmission is USD5 per adult and free for children 12 and under. There is also door gift and lucky draw every hours. I think the highlight of all the exhibit is the Pineapple Opal, which looks like a human brain with a mixed of multiple colors, light purple, pink, brown and silver that makes it so unique. I also like the Ammolite gemstone a lot, that's why i got myself one of those, a gift from my hubby for my coming birthday! :)

My daughter has a lot of fun too. She got herself a cute little stuffed crocodile from spining the wheel. She picked this instead of a piece of rock as she was given a choice. But I was hoping she will choose the rock as it was very nice polished rock and will be much meaningful as well. Anyway, the choice is Hers! :)

This piece is highlight of the day, looks like a human brain

Ammolite

Rock and Gem stone Meal

Gift from hubby for my coming Birthday - The Ammolite Gemstone

Portland-the city of roses

Portland has been known as "The City of Roses" due to its many rose gardens with the most prominently International Rose Test Garden. Located in Washington Park, Portland, this 4.5 acres rose garden is home to 10,000 over rose plants with various varieties and colours. It was initially surved as the testing ground for new varieties of roses and now is open for public free, from 7.30am to 9pm every day, year-round. For those who love photography, you will enjoyed taking the roses photo of different colour - white, red, pink, purple, orange and so many more...And for those couples, it is a perfect place for you and your loved one to spend a romantic evening here.

There is also a stage in the garden where it hosts many concert and event all year round. Free public concerts are held over a two week period usually at the beginning of August. For more information, go to the Portland Parks and Recreation website.

For more info about International Rose Test Garden, visit : http://www.rosegardenstore.org/thegardens.cfm