Congratulations on passing your review. I always knew you could do it. You are seriously one of the smartest and most dedicated people I have ever met. We will have to celebrate with something chocolately delicious.

My last day in Portland was one of the best. After a day of swimming across a river and socializing with the natives at the beach, (e:james) and I headed out for some delicious sushi. I didn't have my phone with me for the whole first part because I was afraid it would get wet so the only pictures are from dinner. Afterwards I realized I never got any pics of me with Jim and James just all the food we ate ;(

I ate so much sushi that night that I fell asleep like an hour later.

The pictures really don't do it justice. The Portland rose garden was the most amazing rose garden I have ever seen. The roses were all giant and perfectly in bloom. It smelled amazing.

Its hard to tell from the pics just how large it really is.







































UPDATE: I couldn't talk about it back then but this was the day I purchased (e:terry)'s engadgement ring. I added a petal from a yellow rose in the garden (below) to the jewelry box. I sat around in the sun all day being excited about giving it to him when I got back. People must have thought I was on drugs because I kept taking something out of my backpack and acting all smiley and excited. (e:hodown) and (e:lilho) were on text with me all day helping me pick it out.

I really didn't take enough pictures of the buidings downtown. Nothing says, "I am a tourist." like taking photos of buildings. That being said I did take a few of some old bank buildings. There were quite a few of these and they all looked really neat.

They eat grass like deer and have the fur patterns of deer and they are way less furry than squirrels but other than that they act like squirrels.