Monday, October 04, 2004

Portland in Oregon

Posted on October 4, 2004 15:39 PM EST

Wow! You are so lucky to be in Portland. And that too FOUR days. I wish our places were exchanged right now, despite what you say about being busy at this conference most of the time and having only evenings free. Here are things to see right in Portland:

Portland - Downtown and surrounding

Pioneer Square Area - this is the very heart of downtown. There is a cute little open square. People hang out here all day long. Starbucks in one corner. Hippies and goths closeby playing chess, ball, etc. Pigeons, fountains, etc.

Pioneer Place Mall - Mall right by Pioneer square. Typical downtown mall spread across several blocks, connected by underground and overhead path ways.

Downtown Library - beautiful place. Beautiful building. Saturdays and Sundays they have events going on. I think Saturday 3 pm is Jazz time every week. Free show. Very nice.

Downtown area has numerous restaurants and shops of all kinds. Just walk around and see. All of the above places are within five min walking distance of each other.

From downtown, you can walk/take bus to Pearl District. It's just 5-10 min away. This place has many nice arts shops. Kinda like the yuppie living quarters.

10-15 min away from Downtown is the NW 21st and 23rd Avenues. This is a busy hippy-yuppy area. It's fun to just walk up and down these streets, check out the various stores and restaurants. I really love places like these. Hawthorne is another similar street in SE Portland. It is 15-20 min away by bus from Downtown.

Right by downtown is the Willamette River front park. Nice place to walk, run, watch people. It's especially great to hang out here on warm weekend afternoons. During the warm season they have numerous events and festivals and gatherings happening here. May be something might be going on right when you are visiting.

Saturday Market - Closeby the waterfront park is Saturday market. It's a bunch of temporary stalls put by local artists and craftsmen. There's food and music and lots of interesting stores. IT's on every Saturday and Sunday, day time hours only. They close it down during the winter months, but it is definitely on now.

If you happen to go to Hawthorne Street in SE Portland (I suggest you do), there is a little treasure that almost no visitors and even most residents don't know about. Very close to intersection of Hawthorne and 12th or 15th street is a residential neighborhood where the streets kind of spiral around a very special rose garden. It's beautiful. Many different types of rose planted on a plot of land in the middle of the neighborhood. I once spent better part of an hour or more walking around this garden in moonlight, smelling the roses with a date. It is not easy to find this garden. Go to Hawthorne and 12th street and ask somebody at a store or a passing local. They might direct you to it.

And of course there are also the beautiful Portland bridges. Drive up and down all of them. Walk if possible. Each one is a different structure. Gives awesome views of the city and the Willamette river.

Max Train - Portland and neighboring towns are connected by the Max train. It's a two car train. Very convenient for locals. It's fun to ride this train up and down. From downtown the journey to the last stop on the East is about 1.5 hours and a similar duration for the last stop on the West. So, you could drive by car close to a park-and-ride stop towards either end of the train line (suggest the Gresham end) and then ride the train up and down. Nice timepass for 3 hours, watching all the different kinds of local landscape and local people. The train goes through suburbs and downtown and across river. Some beautiful views of the city and Mt Hood (if you are luckY) and the river. There was a time when I used to travel this train everyday. Every time I go by this train and it crosses the Steel Bridge over the Willamette, I get my favorite view of the bridges across the Willamette. I put all my thoughts aside and have a zen moment just taking in the beauty of the river, the bridges, the open sky, the city.

Zoo, Arboretum, Rose Garden & Japanese Garden
We of Portland is the zoo, arboretum (just a big park with many different kinds of trees), Rose Garden (diff from one described above) and Japanese Garden. You could spend an afternoon-evening checking these out. The arboretum is a nice place to go for a walk. This whole area is set on the Portland Westhills. There are some places from which you can see Mt Hood and other in the distance. The effect is such that you feel as if there is no sprawling city between there and the far off mountains. It's wonderful.

Outside Portland

Multnomah Falls - Almost anybody who visits the Portland areas goes on a pilgrimage to Multnomah falls. It is by I-84 East, around 2 hours out of Portland. This falls is in the Columbia River Gorge area. The whole Gorge is a paradise, especially for hikers. You probably don't have enough time to check it all out. If you visit Multnomah Falls with time on your hands, I suggest hiking upto the top of the falls. It is just a mile one-way, I think. You get a sample of the kind of hiking trails and views the gorge has to offer.

Canon Beach - About 2-3 west of Portland. Beautiful beach. Beautiful little beach town. A little to the North of Canon Beach is Seaside. Another nice beach and cute little beach town.

That's just a few suggestions. I have left out scores of other places. This hardly does justice to the place nor to the feelings and sentiments I have associated with each of them.

Must see pics: http://www.oregonscenics.com/

Next weblog: Best Eateries in Portland (Vegetarian Special)

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