Phew! AKA Portland part 1

I have inexcusably not posted since I left for Portland. Well, now I'm back to tell you guys everything I did.
On Sunday, I got up early and went to the Japanese garden, which was very beautiful. My favorite thing in that garden was a beautiful waterfall, with a pond at the bottom and so many varieties of colorful trees all around it. My least favorite part was that, unlike the San Francisco garden, the tea house was not open to the public! I walked around the entire garden three times and it was amazing, with twisting paths and so much GREEN! One thing about Portland: it is probably the greenest city I've ever seen.
Next up on Sunday's schedule was the Oregon zoo. There, I saw some amazing animals. There were so many that I can't even remember, let alone write about, so I'll just write about my favorites, in chronological order. First, there were juvenile lions with their mom, which was very cute and sweet, but they weren't very close to me, so it was hard to see them. Then there was the cheetahs with their coconut, and that was cool. Since I visited the zoo on Easter, all the animals got little presents for Easter, and the cheetahs had gotten an empty coconut shell to gnaw on. It was right near the window, so the cheetahs were very close, and as one walked by and I squatted down, in a breathless moment I was face to face with the very top of the African food chain. It was amazing, because I was literally three feet and a sheet of glass away from this amazing predator. After that, I saw the bats. I was amazed because there were hundreds of the little monkeys with wings and they were all flying around because it was their feeding times. Let me just say: I love bats. Other people are disgusted by them, but I feel gratitude and awe when I see one swooping around the night sky. If it weren't for that bat you saw last night, you would have a whole lot more of flies on your food and mosquito bites on your arms. And if you watch a bat's flight patterns, you would be amazed, too. So you can imagine that I was delighted to watch them in a feeding frenzy. But all of the things I said before - they were good, but not the best part of the zoo. The best part was watching the antics of a baby De Brazza's monkey, named Auggie. It was very interesting to watch this monkey interact with the humans behind the glass. You could tell that the monkey just wanted to play with everybody. He was literally bouncing off the walls to see people come over and watch his little performance. One time, when a man put his hands on the glass between the monkey and the people, the little monkey jumped over and put his hands on the glass, too, in the exact same spot. All that separated man and monkey was glass. Then the silly monkey got a cardboard box and tried to fit himself into it. It was hilarious. Finally, I had to leave because the zoo was closing, but not before I got to see a gigantic Polar Bear.
For dinner on Sunday, I went to a small café called Laughing Planet and got a bowl of veggies with free range beef. The beef was delicious. The veggies were OK, I've never been a big fan of Kale. I also had a very good smoothie there.
Finally, to wrap up Sunday, I went to an amazing ice cream parlor called Salt and Straw. If anyone reading this ever goes to Portland, GO THERE. On the menu were creative and exotic flavors such as Pear with Blue Cheese, Chimi Churro, and Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Black Pepper. Me? I had Woodblock Chocolate Sorbet as the base for a double scoop, with the top flavor being Honey Lavender. I have never had such creamy, flavorful, amzing ice cream. Plus, to top it all off, they try to make all their ingredients local. Once again, if you go to Portland, it is worth the line around the block to go to Salt and Straw.
On second thought, this post should be divided into parts. Part two and pictures will be coming soon.