2012 Portland Rose Festival

Ya...a rather delayed post on 2012 Portland Rose Festival held on early June.  Though the event was two months old now, still felt like to share the photos taken during the Grand Floral Parade.  ;P

It was a last minutes decision to attend the Grand Floral Parade and we arrived just on time to see the beginning of the Parade.  There were many people and if it was not our friend who were there early, we might not get a spot on the route to enjoy a nice scene of spring.

I was impressed by the grandest of the parade which lives up to its name: marching bands, flowers, and floats appear in full force! 

'Going-Fur-st Class' from Alaska Airline, what a creative slogan

FreyMeyer, one of our regular visited store

Besides these, there were also many other interesting groups participated and contributed to a unique and rich parade.

The famous Oregon Duck

The lovely clowns

From the Air Museum

The Union Pacific

From Portland Fire Bureau

The Beauties & The Horses

Lady & Llama..

Cute Little Pony

I didn't expect to see so many international team participated in the Parade as well, e.g from Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand etc, which was really something different from all the other Parade that i have seen before.

From the Sister Cities

Our home country flag was there too!

The Vietnam Team

Korea Team...

Thailand Team....

Mexico...?

Immediately after the end of the Parade, the cleaning activities started - an impressively efficient action.  No wonder the city was uphold clean always.

We also swing by the Waterfront to let the girls witness the Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race. 

The girls ended up played a little guessing game with us by having each of us to predict the winner by choosing a coloured flag.  Round after round, and they were so excited when the coloured flag they chosen was the first to be taken by the respective dragon boat....little girls with their simple game, which kept them pretty entertained for an afternoon.  ;D 

Lavender Festival @ Willakenzie Lavendar Farm

Can't help to associate Lavender with romance, probably due to it's purple colour and aromatic smell. 

Visited Willakenzie Lavender Farm during Lavender Festival in mid of July, i was totally immersed in the overwhelming beauty and the aroma of the Lavendar field that the farm has to offer. 

A sign that lead the way..

  

Lavender festival at the Willakenzie farm



Beautiful rest area facing the Lavender field

Lavender in their peak bloom in the farm

BTW, it was new to me that there were many bees found in the farm, should have expected since it was so aromatic, the bees must have been attracted by the fragrance of the Lavender.  :P

It was a nice weather when we visited the farm, not too hot nor cool, just right for us to have a joyful afternoon picking our Lavender.  I have to tell the girls that if they were nice, the bees will be nice to them as well, only then they dare to go near and go in the farm.  :)

'This? This? This?...which one shd i pick?' 

Sisters working on their pick

We brought home a bundle of Lavender in mixture colours of purple, white and pink which make a nice deco in the house with pleasant scent.  :)

Berries in Season

The only fruit season that i know in the past was durian (king of fruit in M'sia), only now i learnt the different fruit season here in State, e.g. strawberry in season in June; blueberry, raspberry in July; apple in August; pumpkin in Oct etc.  With berries in season in July, we bought the girls to Ducky's Peachy Pick Farm for berry pick experience on 1st weekend of July.

It was a sunny day with 30 degree celsius.  The girls were still had fun under a pretty warm weather, sweating picking their berries.

1) "La...La...La, am going to the strawberry farm to pick my berry...'

2) "Searching...searching, where is my berry...' 





3) "I found it!..." 




4) "My pick....a big one."

5) "It's sweet & juicy!  Thumbs up!'

6) "See, who have more?"

7) "Time to rest & play."

We brought home 'bout 3 pound of berries...

Besides strawberry, there're also blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry at home.  Other than eating them raw, i've turned it into a series of berries cupcake, batch after batch.  Can't remember how many batches i bake, felt like a small scale cupcake 'marathon' for me...haha.

Of course, we can't finish all the cupcakes by ourselves but shared those with friends.  My girls were happily helping to pack it and 'gift it'.  :)