Portland Trip Report

[forestofglory]

So last Thursday R and got into the car and headed north. We were heading for Portland, OR, by way of Ashland.

We stopped for lunch in little town, that looked like an old railroad town. I had a fairly decent meal of pasta with pesto. Rural California is better than rural Iowa for vegetarians.

In Ashland we stayed with my family friends and my parents who were also visiting. We went out to dinner, and to see a play. We saw Two Gentlemen of Verona, with an all woman cast. I'm not sure if it was just because I was tried but the play seemed kind of hard to follow and fragmented.

The next day we walked around in Ashland in the morning. I had not been to Ashland in a while, but it is really quite a lovely city. We bought supermarket sandwiches for lunch, and drove the rest of the way to Portland.

We stayed in a town on the outskirts of the city, that was not very interesting. The main thing seemed to be a big mall. We were pretty close to the light rail, but far enough that we needed to drive to get to the station. The 1st evening we met up with my friend and had thai food for dinner.

The next day we took the light rail into town. First we went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which had lots of great hands on exhibits. I particularly liked their ecology stuff which had games about restoration.

Then we walked over the river and had some lunch. It was fun walking in the downtown because there are so many small parks. After lunch we went to Powell's Books which didn't live up to my hopes. It was really loud in there! I ended up going into sensory overload mode and not enjoying browsing very much. I've never been in such a loud bookstore. After that to calm down we had some ice cream.

Next we visited the Japanese Gardens, which are really pretty and calming. For dinner we found a handmade pasta place downtown that was really good, and probably my favorite meal of the the trip.

The next day we decided to drive up and look at Bonneville Dam. The drive along the Columbia gorge was beautiful, with many waterfalls to see as we went by. I didn't realize before hand that there is a hatchery as well as a dam. So we ended up looking at the hatchery 1st. It was really interesting. They raise a lot different types of fish. We got to see some huge Sturgeon, seriously they are bigger than I am. We also got to see some of the salmon returning. At the dam we saw the the fish ladder, and read about the history of the dam.

After that it was bit time for lunch. We stopped at the nearest town, were lunch was both really slow and not very tasty.

After lunch we went on short walk. It had on of those flyers pointing out things to see, except the things where not there. Instead it was like "once their was building right here." This was not much fun to look at.

Then we drove back to town and stopped at the mall, were my friend bought an emergency belt and we had some tea. After that we had quite a nice supper, featuring a really nice cheese plate.

The next morning we got up early to have breakfast with my my friend before she had to be at work. Then we drove all the way back in one day.

Comments

[sorrillia]

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.

[forestofglory]

My overall impression of Portland is that it wasn't as nice as other people say it is. I study urban planning, and lot planners really like Portland, but it is really not a new urbanisit paradise.

And I can see how Powells would be disappointing if one were looking for academic humanities books.

[sorrillia]

*nods* I'm a very interested amateur when it comes to urbanism, and the blogs I've read seem to have pretty split opinions on the city. I certainly didn't really get why so many people are excited by it, and am a bit suspicious that it is related to how white the city is.