We wake up at a reasonable time and head to the breakfast room at the Ace - it’s pretty good, with a small dining table and a help-yourself approach to the pastries, fruit and drinks on offer. I have a cheese scone, because I’m desperate for something other than a doughnut or sweet pastry and some tea, along with the first and only apple I’ve had so far on this trip - fresh fruit and veg are hard to come by outside of supermarkets, and it’s good to grab the opportunity for something that isn’t fried while I have the chance. Feeding time complete, we pack up and drop the bags in the car before setting out to explore Portland by day.
First of all we walk for around an hour to find an Arcteryx store - my companion needs some new hiking trousers and I will take any excuse to buy more outdoor gear - which ends up taking us to quite a nice part of town, with lots of nice shops and cafes. American cities are sometimes a bit unusual for people from Europe, as they tend to be laid out with the assumption that everybody has access to a car - in my experience at least - so you end up with these clumps of city life scattered through more work-a-day parts of town. When we arrive, we’re a bit early so we take the opportunity to sit in the sun and wait for the store to open. When it eventually does it takes my friend an inordinate amount of time to actually select his trousers - clearly the man is a very fussy shopper.
Following this successful bout of retail therapy, we walk on a little further into Washington Park - although the park is nice enough on its own, we actually want to specifically visit Portland’s Japanese Garden, which was designed to try and heal some of the American-Japanese cultural rifts created during the Second World War. Designed by a Japanese agricultural professor - Takuma Tono - in the 1960s, the garden brings together five distinct styles of traditional Japanese landscape design in one easily navigable place. It also features a new pair of pavilions designed by one of Japan’s most notable contemporary architects, Kengo Kuma, so we were almost obliged to visit. Although some parts of the garden were closed due to the effects of the winter, it’s a wonderfully serene place - screaming kids and shuffling feet aside - and it feels like the first truly cultural stop on the trip so far. I’d recommend the steep climb if you’re ever in Portland, it’s well worth a visit.
Leaving Washington Park, we head back to collect the car - stopping at Aesop for my ever-fussy compatriot - and set off out of Portland. We do make one stop on the way however, at Voodoo Donuts, which has gathered a big following in the city for their variety of pastries with clever names like Marshall Mathers (covered in M&Ms, ha!), Strawberry Go-Tart and the eponymous Voodoo Doll (complete with pretzel stick jabbed into his cakey form). We order a selection, including a truly monstrous apple fritter, and sling them in the back for the journey.
A brief stop for lunch, and we’re on our way - this is a long leg of the trip as we’re trying to get as close to Spokane today as we can, as this is our next waypoint on the way to Glacier National Park. The route takes us along the Columbia River Highway, which drags us (somewhat predictably) along the Columbia River until we spy a large dam stretching across the banks. We stop at the Bonneville Dam and take some photos, even managing to spot out first American eagles perched high on the dams exposed trusses.
As we move on, the sun starts to dip behind the hills and creates a beautiful red sky as we arrive into Walla Walla - tonight is a quieter night and we take the chance to catch up on the mundane things that we’ve neglected - emails, messages and (most importantly) laundry. The simple act of folding my companions now clean underwear make this a memorable way to end off such a busy day.