Portland is a lovely city, full of lovely old architecture that I didn’t bother to photograph (because one cute downtown looks much like another), along with a lot of empty downtown real estate and homelessness—two long-lasting effects of COVID.

That said, there are many pretty things to see in Portland, including the International Rose Test Garden. Portland first became known as the Rose City after 1888, when the city planted thousands of rose bushes—ultimately lining 200 miles of city streets—in preparation of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial. Portland started an annual rose festival in 1907, and then gardeners began planting European rose varieties during WWI to preserve the rose types.

The garden itself opened in 1917. It currently has more than 10,000 plantings of over 600 different rose varieties.

Next: Washington state.