Portland

Right now I am sitting in Pioneer Square enjoying a frappacino thinking about how to sum up our trip in Portland so far. Yesterday Emma and I woke up and decided to go into Portland for breakfast. We successfully turned on the car and left Government Camp Oregon (zip code 97208) and were on our way to Portland. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our endeavor and wound up getting lost in the national forests of Mt. Hood. After exploring at least 70% of the forest and realizing that no place in Portland would still be serving breakfast at two in the afternoon we decided to pull over and enjoy the beautiful forest.

Emma and I went for a run and worked our self into a sweat and needed a shower- so we jumped into the freezing cold, crystal clear, blue mountain stream eddy. The thing we both learned from this experience is mountain spring water is freezing; I mean absolutely bone chilling, muscle tensing 50 degree cold.

We made it to Portland and swung by Maddie’s and parked Gus for the night. It was time to hit Alberta Street with Maddie as our guide to Portland’s nightlife. As we were on our way past another Sushi place we bumped into no other than Robbie Frankel. The four of us enjoyed a couple of beers at a local bar with an awesome Portlandian beer called Amnesia Porter.

I need to stop really fast and mention a few things before I run out of time:
-Portland is awesome
1) Great food
2) Everyone bikes
3) Lots of public transportation
4) People have this style that is hard to describe but very ‘chill’
5) Great water
6) Neat squares and public areas to enjoy
7) Did I mention great food and lots of it

Today we woke up in Gus on a quiet intersection of Going and 26th street. We got breakfast and hit the sights of Portland. Here there is a regionally famous bookstore that is called Powell Books. The store takes up an entire block and is three floors. Powell’s Books is the largest used and new bookstore in the world and has more than a million new and used books in stock. Once Emma and I got to the bookstore we realized we needed food. After getting food we went back to Powell’s and realized that we needed to find a bathroom (which is very difficult at Powell’s). After using the bathroom and eating (two very common activities on this trip) we realized that it was dumb for us to come to a bookstore, even if it was famous, because we both hate to read.

Completely stuffed and bored from our bookstore adventure we decided to explore more downtown Portland. There we saw the sights and the city center when we were again distracted by food and decided to get some more Portlandian street food. Here is a quick side note; street food in Portland is very cool. The street food in Portland is like its own culture, lots and lots of parking lots become food courts where old buses, trolleys, trains, etc. get converted into food carts and house an array of foods from ice cream to Indian food to fine French pastries.

We made it back to Gus the bus to find a package attached to our right mirror. Completely surprised and puzzled we found a tapestry from Robbie that he had gotten from Tanzania when he studied abroad there in 2006. Thank you Robbie!!! This curtain completed our collection and we now have every window covered with a scarf, each with its own story.

That’s about all I have time for now we have to get some rest for our adventures in Eugene Oregon tomorrow. Thanks for reading, I hope you are all well and we look forward to seeing you on the other coast.