There is no reason to take a car into Portland.  You can visit any part of the city by rapid train line or transit.
Today Ed and I took the MAX line to the Japanese Garden and the Portland Rose Garden, both located in Washington Park (also home of the Portland Zoo, Forestry Museum, Arboretum, Children's Museum, as well as many memorials).  There is a free bus taking visitors back into the city to connect with the MAX.
The Rose Garden is the oldest public garden of its kind in the US.  It has 10,000 plantings and 500 varieties. We made sure to take the time to stop and smell the roses.

The Japanese Garden is spread over 5.5 acres. There are many highlights in this garden.

This is a photo of The Poetry Stone located in the Portland Japanese Garden.  The stone is inscribed (which you can't see) with a haiku: "Here, miles from Japan, I stand as if warmed by the spring sunshine of home."
We could insert 'Victoria' for 'Japan'.

Needless to say, we worked up quite an appetite walking over several acres of gardens.  We visited one of Portland's many food trucks for lunch.

Here you see 'The Kindergartner' - Tillamook Cheddar on sourdough bread with fresh apple slices.  What a great idea - fresh apple slices tucked into a grilled cheese sandwich.

After lunch it was time to visit Powell's Bookstore.  Ed showed great restraint and bought just 2 books.  I bought a travel book - Europe by Eurorail - in preparation for our next holiday?  As well as a few other souvenirs.

We also visited another one of Portland's treasures - Voodoo Donuts.

There is usually a long line up around the block of folks waiting to get their sugar fix, but today it was only a short line up and it only took 15 minutes to get inside the door.  They have so many different donuts to choose from it was hard to make up our minds.  The Cyclist donut looked tempting, but we went with

the tradtional glazed raised donuts.  The taste took me back to my school days when we used to have 'hot dog day' and the glazed donuts that would accompany them.

Keeping with our international theme for dinner, Ed and I selected Swedish cuisine.  There is an Ikea about a 10 minute walk from our hotel and the catch of the day was salmon fillet.  Perhaps not one of Portland's culinary secrets, but when you're on a holiday, any place where someone else is doing the cooking is fine with me.

Tomorrow we say 'Good bye' to Portland and get back on the road to Whidbey Island, Washington.