It’s spring, baby! This weekend’s roundup of IRL events and activities revolves around the new season (see: the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, spring cocktails from spots like Bullard, whale watching) but also includes places to sample food you’ve seen on TikTok recently (like the Gimbap Supreme on deck at Toki), newly reopened museums and art spaces (like OMSI, which welcomes a new dinosaur exhibit this Saturday), and more. For even more options, read our guides to the best online events this week.
SPRING
Feast your eyes on new plant life. Just in time for the equinox on Saturday, winter’s bare branches and garden beds are already filling up with new flora and fauna for spring. To see for yourself, head to the Hoyt Arboretum—whose free shuttle service reopens this weekend—to see early-flowering shrubs (cornelian cherry! Almond-scented Indian plum! Red-flowering currant!) and more along the park’s 12 miles of trails. The arbo also has some trilliums—those ephemeral white-turned-purple flowers that stay snug on the forest floor (don’t step on ’em)—but trillium HQ is invariably at Portland’s only state park, Tryon Creek, where they’re just starting to bloom. If you’re starved for verdant ferns and conifers, the network of trails at Forest Park always comes through, but for a more curated layout of seasonal bounties, head to the Portland Japanese Garden, the Lan Su Chinese Garden, the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (they’re having their Tulip Festival this weekend), or, to accompany your Hoyt Arboretum visit, the Portland Rose Garden.
