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.