ROSE FESTIVAL DONE RIGHT IN PORTLAND? RAMBLE ON

Rose Festival week for Portland Oregon baby boomers when we were single?

It was good, real good.

We didn’t have cars back then and it didn’t matter since we lived so close to the parade route through Portland.

Yesterday was a throwback to those days of old in New Portland.

What’s the biggest difference between being in our twenties and being well into our sixties?

With the same girl?

Willamette week ran a story about approaching Rose Festival week:

I was on the No. 14 bus when the drugs began to take hold. I know that’s not quite as picturesque a location as Hunter S. Thompson’s “somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert,” but that’s how it happens.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure this actually happened, and it’s not like that time when I took acid on Amtrak and became convinced that everyone in North Dakota was deformed.

It took many years after first embracing Fear and Loathing for me to learn the hard lesson that taking a lot of drugs does not, in and of itself, make someone a great writer: You also have to drink a lot.

With that in mind we, wife and I, started our quest of finding the fountain of youth in the Washington Park Rose Gardens where plaques for every Rose Queen are in the ground for a solid connection to the Rose Festival.

There’s also the Washington Park Amphitheater.

Washington Park is the crown jewel of Portland. This 410-acre park is home to the Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, International Rose Test Garden, and the Portland Japanese Garden,. Washington Park brings in 3.5 million visitors annually.

All 3.5 million visitors were there yesterday and we still got a parking spot across from the tennis courts.

The Walk Up To Portland Rose Festival

Drop into the Rose Garden first and all of the problems Portland IS now known for are ‘Out There.’

In the garden it’s all about the scent of a rose.

The city trouble is out there, but not here. Why? Too far away? Too much uphill walking?

A guitar player laying down the ambient soundtrack for a Rose Bush Cruise.

“What Is Your Favorite Rose?“

That’s the trick question my wife asked me.

She doesn’t think I have a favorite rose. And she’s right, but not this time.

I started singing like Paul Anka:

Wrap up some red roses for a blue lady
Send them to the sweetest gal in town
And if they do the trick
I’ll hurry back to pick
Your best white orchid for her wedding gown

Wife: You just made that up.

Me: I like white orchids, too.

Get In Loser, We’re Gonna Crawl Portland

I parked the car in the North Park Blocks on NW 8th and Davis.

Not a choice neighborhood to show Portland’s best side.

Guys were milling around on one side of the street like they were waiting on something.

We walked a block to Broadway, then over to Burnside. I was thinking about the people I used to see around the same corner in the 80’s.

Crossed Burnside and took Oak down to the Willamette.

Saw the Navy ship. Even saw a one star Rear Admiral pass by.

2

Here’s the deal: downtown Portland isn’t your backyard or local park. It’s a city.

While it’s not Baltimore or Chicago, it comes with the same City Problems to watch out for.

By this time I was getting a little anxious, a little jumpy, and ready to go.

We saw the roses, the floats, Saturday Market. Instead of a shopping stop, I saw the trip as reinventing Portland.

Does Portland need reinventing? Ask Travel Portland and KOIN:

Of the 600 residents polled for the survey, 300 lived within the city of Portland and 300 lived directly outside of the city within areas of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington Counties.

Of these people, Travel Portland found that people living within the city limits, younger citizens and those who had recently visited the Downtown Portland area were more likely to recommend the area to prospective tourists.

“How recently people visited downtown had a direct correlation to whether or not they recommended the city,” Conway said.

My conclusion?

Some people avoid places they hear bad things about, and go places they hear good things about.

Too simplistic?

You tell me. I got down and back without getting hooked on meth, fentanyl, or heroin; I wasn’t attacked by zombie junkies, homeless desperation, or shot dead for daring to leave my house.

I took a chance? Yes. So did my wife. And we had an undercover masked dog for protection.

Did I mention that?

Do I recommend a Portland ramble? Yes I do.

Pick your spots and get out there.