Japanese Gardens

Greetings!

"Two posts in one day?" you ask. Yes. We have to make up for time lost since our last post. And besides, these are hot off the press from our visit to the Japanese Gardens today. The Sandy Public Library has "cultural passes" to several places like the Japanese Gardens, Chinese Gardens, Children's Museum, etc. Since we'd never been, we thought it was time to take advantage of this free public service. Enjoy the photos!

Here's Dean and Beka just inside the gate. He's happy to have a fresh pair of clothes on after he tried to drink his bottle while riding in his stroller up the bumpy hill to the gardens... he was a tad wet. His new coat from Grandma Connie came in handy. (Thanks grandma!)

Dean likes to spend time with his "DaDa" (which isn't a "consonant sound" at all, but a "word" I taught him to say). This picture was taken in front of the pavilion where special events are held. You probably can't tell from the photo, but it's a very cool traditional Japanese building, complete with sliding doors. It also has a great view of Mt. Hood and downtown Portland.

Here's me trying to look casual for a photo. This little spot was off the beaten path (it was a rock path instead) and was right next to a large pond with Koi. In fact, you might recognize the stone structure in the left hand side of the photo from another one further down the page...

This was a "moon bridge" (I think that's what it was called, though I'm not sure why). Great photo op of a beautiful woman with a handsome child... and some killer "perspective" photography.

Here's Beka getting ready to check out the koi. I'm glad this picture came out on the first try since she was in and out of there pretty quickly. I was taking the photo from across the pond and couldn't tell she was getting dizzy from looking down into the water. She left in a hurry because she didn't want to fall in! (Where have I seen that statue before...)

Some final thoughts:
1. If you have any infant children, do yourself a favor and don't bring a stroller to the Japanese Gardens. It was a real pain trying to roll that thing around on narrow, uneven stone paths with lots of stairs, making sure to dodge people who wanted to get by. Aside from that, it's a great place to visit!

2. One of the reasons I wanted to go was to get ideas for our yard. While it was inspiring to see how cool our yard could look someday, don't plan on seeing any major changes in the near future. We're waiting for Dean to get old enough so we can make him do the yard work for us :) Beka had a good idea while we were there; we may turn our entire backyard into a large pond with some stone embankments and trees around the outside edge. Very little weeding. Neighbors might get upset, however, when it rains a lot (as it does in Oregon) and the pond overflows into their yards. Oh well, it was a good idea.

Cheers!