We woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning in Portland.  We had an appointment to take our car in to have the windshield replaced at 10am so I had to get up early.   A couple weeks ago it got hit by a rock which started a crack that made it about half way across the the windshield.  We decided to get it replaced before we got home and Portland seemed like a good place to do it.  Now the clock starts to see how long the new one will last before the next chip or crack.

By the time we finished with the windshield, it was sunny outside and time for lunch.  We went downtown and ate at the Portland City Grill which is on the 30th floor of one of the tallest buildings  in town.  We had a delicious lunch and got some pictures of the downtown skyline while we were there.

Bill had this panorama from yesterday showing the skyline from one of the bridges.  You can click on the picture to see it better.  It’s pretty cool.

After lunch we went to The Grotto, a statue garden owned by the Catholic Church .  It’s a combination of gardens, sculptures and shrines in a park setting.  There was a replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta carved into the base of a cliff.

Most of the sights were on top of the 110 foot cliff.   We took an elevator up to check it out.

There were lots of statues and shrines in the gardens.  This shrine was from Poland.

There was also a labyrinth in the gardens that I walked through.

It was a beautiful place.

After the Grotto, we went to check out the International Rose Test Garden.  It was pretty cold outside so we just took a quick look around and headed for home.

Believe it or not there were still some roses blooming, but I’m sure it’s a much more magnificent site in the summer months.

After a pleasant afternoon rest, we went over the bridge to Vancouver, Washington for dinner at a Greek restaurant.  I tried to find a Greek place when we were in Astoria but it turned out that all the Greek restaurants Google found were in a section of New York City called Astoria and not in Astoria, Oregon.  Bill found a local Greek place and our dinner was really good.  Now we’re having a quiet evening at the hotel and I’m getting caught up on this blog.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to Toledo, Washington to visit a friend. We’ll be back to visiting with friends for the rest of our trip and I’m really looking forward to it.  Being with friends and family has been the best part of this trip!