Second, I think as travelers it's easy to get stuck in the idea of international travel. While I am 100% in love with visiting other countries, I also want to make sure to appreciate the incredible variety that is available to us in our own country. The United States is unique in the sense that it spans so many different types of landscapes. From the Arctic to tropical islands to deserts to rainforest to mountains and everything in between, there are few countries in the world that can offer as much diversity. One of our goals in our travels is to take full advantage of this. So while the original purpose of our trip is for Tanya's class, the other reason we're here is to explore and enjoy Oregon.
We took a night flight out of Anchorage to Seattle where we rented a car and drove down to Portland. (The Columbia River is really pretty, but it's hard to get a good picture from the car.) Since we're going to be doing some driving around the state, we needed a car, and it was actually cheaper to rent one in Seattle than it would have been to fly to Portland and rent one from here. This move saved us a few hundred dollars (thank you, Tanya). Since we're down here, we also went ahead and made an appointment to get our TSA Pre-Check, which means that on all future flights we book (unfortunately it doesn't apply to flights we've already booked), we don't have to wait in those pesky lines and take off all our belts and shoes and empty our liquids and all that. It just makes everything faster. And since we are frequent flyers, we decided that the comfort (and not being late to our flight) made the $85 per person worth it. Especially for international flights, the check-in lines can get really long and really, really slow.
The next stop: Voodoo Doughnut. Yum. If you ever make your way to Portland, make sure to visit this delicious doughnut shop downtown. I think there are two locations. A couple of notes about this: one, make sure you have cash as they are a cash-only business (yes, really), and two, try to go when everyone else is at work because the line can get a little out of control.
We headed to our hotel early because we'd had an overnight flight, which means we didn't get a lot of sleep. So most of the day we rested.
On Thursday, the exploring began. Tanya went to class, which again is why we're here, and I headed out on the town. The first thing I wanted to do was go to the book lover's mecca: Powell's Books. Of course there are many wonderful book stores out there, including The Strand in New York City, Powell's is definitely high the list of awesome ones. They even give provide a map of their store so you can find what you're looking for. If that's not enough, however, information desks are scattered throughout, at least one in every room.
I had made a list of things I wanted to do and see today, so I didn't want to spend too long in the bookstore. My next stop was Forest Park. This is the largest park in the city of Portland with over 5,000 acres of trees and trails. Of course I wanted to go see it. So I plugged it into my phone, and my Google Maps said I could just walk there. It would take nearly an hour, but I could walk. So sure, I walked. Maps did not tell me that it was all uphill. So okay, that's fine. I walked to Forest Park. As I got closer, I quickly realized that I was walking through one of the wealthy parts of Portland. Huge, beautiful houses with flawless yards and shiny cars. But I made it. And yes, it was lovely.
I didn't actually go through the tunnel. I took a bike trail around it. The first trail after the tunnel I did grab on to since by this time I was just walking alongside the road. And this trail was all uphill. Which was super, since I'd spent the last hour walking uphill.
The only thing I did not like about Forest Park is that there are no maps on the trails. The trails are marked at intersections, but for people like me who have never been here, those trail names don't mean a whole lot. And the trails are not on Google Maps. So I was just sort of guessing. I did end up on the right trail, though, and it, too, went uphill. After about another hour of climbing, I reached the top, where there sat a lovely parking lot. The Pittock Mansion is really the top, but to get there, I would have had to walk on a road up and up again, and I'm pretty sure it's windy, and I'm pretty sure there's no sidewalks. So I hear it's got really nice views of the city, but it's not really accessible by foot. I just went to the other side and made my way down.
The other thing I didn't love about this trail was that it sometimes had to cross a road. And this wouldn't be so bad, except that where this trail requires you to cross the road, there is no pedestrian cross walk paint, no sign, no blinking yellow light, and it's a windy fast road. I mean, obviously people cross it safely all the time, but I feel like this is definitely something to consider.
Anyway, by the time I got to said road, I realized that I probably needed to eat something, and if I didn't grab a bus on this road, it would be a while before I found another. So I waited about a half an hour for the next bus to come by, and I headed back into City Center. Here, I found a lovely little restaurant called Cheryl's on 12th. Good food, good service, great spot to just sit and chat or sit and read or just sit. I'll probably go back.
After a bit of reading, I went ahead and made my way to where Tanya's class was to meet her. Here are few things I learned about Portland today:
1. Drivers are really conscious about pedestrians, and they're not even rude about it. They're super nice about letting people cross the street and do their pedestrian thing.
2. There are a lot of bikers. In fact, about 6% of Portland residents commute to work by bike.
3. There are like, no chain restaurants. On the one hand, it can be hard to find exactly what you're looking for (unless you're looking for Starbucks). On the other hand, though, there's more original and tasty food (including TONS of food carts).
4. It's a safe city to visit if you're gay. So gay travelers, you probably already knew this, but Portland is definitely one of USA's gay-friendly spots!
5. The public transportation here is great. I got a day pass for the bus for $5, and the MAX, which is a train that runs around the city (there are 4 lines), is free!
More exploring to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment