Dhammerica – Day Fourteen

Our chum wakes up promptly early in the morning and drops us off at the airport. On our way we see the melted down portion of the freeway, which had been news a few days before we arrived. He is a little amused by our anxiety for arriving early at airports.

We arrive at Portland and are picked up our genial host, get ready and are off again on another tour of Portland.

Today is the day that we finally visit the Powell’s City of Books – one of the major reasons to visit Portland. The place is really worth the expectation we had nursed for a few months and we do pick the biography of Twain, the fantasy work by Clarke and the book on Karnazes. We also pick up several fascinating bookmarks, which contain the entire list of Nobel Prize for Literature winners, Booker prize winners, etc.

After we get handed over from the care of one our hosts to the other, we head to town for lunch. We go to this fabulous Lebanese place and order a platter - 7 plates, one each of Hummus, Falafel, Grape Leaves, Baba Ghanoush, etc. When we finish, we can’t but thank our host for her choice of the place. Outstanding food. We also order Turkish coffee which is decoction with the powder. We need it.

Next stop is another small bookshop with yet another really pretty assistant. We realized that all the bookshops we visited in the US had several pretty women at work. As if, the books wouldn’t draw you to the place.

We pick up Buckley’s work from this one for $4. Still a good deal, we think.
We then head for the Rose Garden and the Japanese garden – both fascinating places if you are naturophile, especially so, if you have a green thumb.

The Rose Garden is home to a few hundred varieties of roses - most prize winners in an annual contest, including some, named for celebrities. None named for Nehru though. Nice place, even if it is not the flowering season, its honour partially salvaged by millions of rhodonderons which are making the most of the absence of their more glamorous neighbours.

Next the Japanese garden – which is actually a set of gardens. . This is a clearly well-planned place, like most things Japanese. Each themed garden has its own unique lantern and landscape. One of them is predictably named Natural Garden and it is just that – a normal garden! Further details in the pictures. However the rain tried its best to dampen our enthusiasm. But we were determined to make the most of the $8 entry fee to the Japanese garden and we did. Earlier, the guy who drives the free shuttle to the garden had tried to make small talk with us and we were quite amused by what a day in the life of a guy who drives a shuttle to a garden is like. Like he said, mostly uneventful.

And when we are done with the garden, yet another jam on the bridges on our route home. But then this is the home of the GPS - the same brand as our watch, Garmin. In fact, after 2.5 days in its company, we still wake up at night with a voice in our head, urging us to “Turn Right and Then Turn Right!”
Phew.

When we return home after yet another packed day, we are amused by the kiddo at our hosts.

She can dance really well for her age. And she does understand how to entertain the audience. While we are being amused thus, we are also made aware of a rather peppy number by Paul Simon ("Obvious Child" off the album "Rhythm of the Saints), the one our talented kiddo is dancing to.

Before we leave, we play hangman, teach her a few boxing moves and amuse her with some radio show voice over imitations.

Finally its time for us to take leave of our brilliant, magnanimous hosts and the kiddo reduces us to speechlessness by giving us a big tight hug before we leave.