Pacific Northwest Trip: Portland Day 2 Japanese and Chinese Gardens

Day two in Portland started with brunch at Mother's. The place was PACKED. The food was delicious (I had chocolate chip pancakes) so I can see why there was a crowd! We picked up doughnuts for a later snack at Voodoo Doughnuts on our way to the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Peaceful, quiet, and beautiful spot in a busy city

Next we headed to Washington Park to the Rose Test and Japanese gardens.

The view from the rose garden

Our Voodoo doughnuts. I honestly prefer traditional doughnuts more I think. I liked the topping (I chose M&M's) but the actual doughnut part was too dry for my taste

Unfortunately we weren't there at the right time to see the roses blooming but still beautiful

The Japanese garden is proclaimed to be the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan

View of Mount Hood (yes, that white is a snow capped mountain not clouds!) from the park

We ended up staying at the gardens for awhile and unfortunately both of the lunch places we wanted to try were closed. But we ended up at the cutest place called Elephants. It is an Oregon chain of delicatessens and cafes. Some of the locations have a store attached and I wanted to buy everything! I ended buying three of their elephant reusable bags: one for H and two for me. We relaxed at our hotel and then walked over to The Picnic House for dinner.

We actually had another Elephants right across the street from our hotel so we stopped there for a quick breakfast the next morning before we headed to the airport. It was really hard to say goodbye to my sister but we had such a fun trip and I can't wait for our next adventure together!


Restaurants: Mother's, Voodoo Doughnuts, Elephants, The Picnic House
Sightseeing: Lan Su Chinese Garden, Washington Park (Japanese Garden and rose test garden)
Hotel: Paramount Hotel