Portland Japanese Garden and Rose Garden

We went to the Portland Japanese Garden with our Woodhaven friends, Ken & Betty on August 21, 2012. We took the tram up the steep hill to the entrance. What a beautiful place! A garden full of waterfalls, ponds, beautiful trees and quiet places to sit and reflect. The koi pond with the waterfall was one of my favorites. Watch the above video.

We also strolled around the International Rose Test Garden located across the street from the Japanese Garden. The purpose of the garden is to serve as a testing ground for new rose varieties. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed seeing a wide variety of beautiful roses from around the world!

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Butchart Gardens - Brentwood Bay

On August 14, 2012, we went with Dan and Linda to The Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, located near Victoria on Vancouver Island. The gardens were absolutely beautiful! I especially loved the Sunken Garden and The Ross Fountain (dancing fountain). If you love flowers, then this is the place to visit.  We were so impressed! Watch the above video.

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Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

Last Tuesday we went to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon. Fort Vancouver was a british fort used for the fur trade in the early 1800s. The buildings have been reconstructed and spreads out over several acres of land. It has a land bridge, historic homes, officers barracks and a beautiful garden. Great place to walk around and lots of fun history to see and explore. Click on the following link: National Park Service Website to learn more about the history of Fort Vancouver.

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We arrived there too late to explore inside the fort. However, one of the workers let us in to take a few pictures just before she closed the gate. We also took lots of photos of the beautiful garden just outside the fort.

Gardens of the World - Thousand Oaks, CA

While driving on Thousand Oaks Blvd. last week, we noticed a large fountain behind a gate near a restaurant we were going to. To our surprise we discovered it was a beautiful little garden that was hidden from a busy street. It was not there eight years ago when we lived in this neighborhood, so we were curious and took the time to look around and take pictures.


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We found out the Gardens of The World Community Park was inaugurated on December 2001. That was just around the time we moved away from Thousand Oaks.