Does it count if you drive to your destination in order to walk? I didn’t see the rulebook, so I’m gonna go with it.

On Sunday my daughter and I went to the Japanese Garden, one of my favorite places in walkable, hikeable, bikeable Washington Park. It was nearly 90 degrees, a bit overcast, and I couldn’t wait to get out. We’d been cooped up sick for a few days, and hadn’t even felt like walking to the library. My biggest walk was to the corner grocery store for eggs.

So we drove to the park, and were confronted with hundreds of cars and no parking spaces. We shoulda taken the bus. We found a distant parking spot in the neighboring residential area, and got out to walk to the shuttle to the Japanese Garden. Georgia complained the whole way on the street, but when we got to the shuttle stop I remembered you can hike to the entrance, so I coerced her a few more steps through the parking lot.

Once we got on the path, her complaints stopped. The short hike is a little nibble, a preview of the beauty waiting at the top — it’s cool and quiet, with bamboo and rhododendrons, carved stones and daylilies. Inside the gates Georgia had to sit on the lion dog to get her bearings, and then just started exploring. The traditional gardens are filled with gorgeous plants, huge trees, moss, koi ponds, and stepping stones, paths and surprises. It’s so easy to forget you’re getting exercise as you discover one lovely view after another. About ten minutes deep into the gardens I noticed my breathing, and my shoulders started to relax. I let Georgia choose the way, and more than once we looped back to the same place, only to start on a completely different adventure.

We walked up and down stairs and paths for over two hours, stopping for bugs and flowers, koi and a deer chaser (that’s not like sushi and a sake!). The gardens are truly magnificent and inspiring, a remarkable place to have in our own town. Georgia didn’t want to leave, but we had a party to go to. As soon as we hiked down the path and hit the parking lot, she wanted on my shoulders. It was a lot of walking for her little legs, but I’m sure it’s also that the environment didn’t inspire her to put her mind somewhere else. In the beauty of the gardens you don’t notice your steps, on the asphalt you feel like you’re trudging along.

Belinda Miller

Portland, OR

Photo Credit: Cedric Wiens, Portland Japanese Garden