forestofglory

I visited Portland for the first time this summer, too, although I didn't have as long and didn't see much of the surrounding area. The Columbia gorge and Bonneville Dam sound really neat, and I'm sorry I didn't get to see them. I didn't manage to see the Museum of Science and Industry, either. I did walk around downtown a bit, but my experience of it was a lot less positive than yours. Possibly this was because I was on the outskirts of it a bit, in Chinatown, which seemed to have a concerningly high ratio of strip shows to restaurants. Visiting Powell's was somewhat interesting for me, but it didn't live up to its reputation. I didn't have sensory overload issues, but I had a general feeling that it didn't actually have that good a selection of the topics I was interested in. Probably because I like books that are more academic humanities than most people in a general interest book store want.