Two weeks ago I went to the northwest to look at colleges with my daughter and husband. Our first stop was Portland to look at Reed and Lewis and Clark and then head up to Seattle to visit friends. With so little time to spend in Portland, we prioritized seeing the Japanese garden. Architect Kengo Kuma built a new building as part of the garden's renovation and it is not too be missed. This was to be a minor part of our trip but ended up a being a bounty of aesthetic gorging. No detail was overlooked including the woman using a bamboo rake and dustpan to remove leaves from the moss. Nature nurtured by humans to an almost flawless degree.
To get to Seattle we drove up through the Columbia River Gorge and went through the high desert of Oregon into Washington State. Wild, undesigned- just nature doing its thing was breathtaking. Multnomah Falls, a bucket list destination for me was spectacular. We could have easily taken a week to explore the Columbia River Gorge if we'd only had the time.
While we were in Seattle we also managed to make it to Beach 2 on the Pacific coast where I got my hunting and gathering fix collecting driftwood and stones. Coming back to Seattle on the ferry we caught Mt. Ranier at sunset. Does life get any better than this???
When I got home and looked at my photos I noticed this interesting juxtaposition of manicured nature at the Japanese garden and photos of just being out in nature. There was this interesting comparison between the designed and the wild. Here are some of my favorite images.