Portland - Day #2

I got a chance to check out a little bit of Portland today.  I have to say, this is a BEAUTIFUL city.  They've done a fantastic job of building a rather compact downtown while keeping the trees and foliage everywhere they possibly could.  It makes the city feel smaller and, combined with the excellent summer weather, makes you enjoy getting from point A to point B.  Another thing I love about Portland is the acceptance of dogs.  There are tons of dogs in the downtown area, and they seem to be welcome just about everywhere.  I've encountered them in the grocery store, on public transportation, and even in eating establishments.  It's great!  The people here seem to be quite friendly as well.  I've had conversations with strangers that I usually only seem to have in the south.

One thing that ruins the city a little bit is that it's infested with hippies - dirty, smelly hippies!  They're everywhere.  These leeches of society tend to pop up in areas with tolerant drug laws and a "granola" culture.  Portland must have both in droves!  You can't walk three blocks without being asked for a dollar.  They seem to be polite hippies at least.  As I was walking past one group sitting on the sidewalk, a girl said "sir, can I trouble you for....a smile?"  She actually made me smile:-)  Later in the day, A pack (what do you call a group of hippies?  Is it a gaggle?  a herd??) boarded an already crowded trolley we were riding and one of them had a really pretty dog.  When we reached our stop, the excited dog was blocking our exit and we were having trouble getting out.  Most hippies wouldn't give a damn and would just ignore you as you tried to step over the critter.  This guy, and his friends, were nice and genuinely apologetic and tried to help.

Branelle had to do some "conferencing" so I headed out to explore on my own early and met up with her later.  Here are some of the highlights:

• An early snack in the financial district - I headed out of the hotel and walked to the financial district.  I grabbed a bite at Anne's Cafe and took it outside to people watch and relax.  There weren't too many people, so I started noticing cars.  They were WEAK!  In about 30 minutes, the only interesting cars I saw were an older Boxster, a Range Rover Sport, and one of the new Jag XLs - that's a normal Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru line up back home.  I'm guessing the Pacific NW culture is more Prius based.  I did see a lot of smaller wagons (which is cool).

The breakfast of champions!

• Hair M - I needed a hair cut so I walked a few blocks to Hair M.  It was very cool.  Imagine a men's only salon set up like a club.  They offered me free beverages, including beer on tap and wine, and treated me very well.  The ambiance was great, and the cut and message was even better.  I wish we had this place back home.

• Lunch on the patio at "Veritable Quandary" - I picked up Nel at the hotel and we walked a few blocks to this eclectic little eatery.  It was good and the building had a lot of charm.

• Visiting the world's smallest park - Before Nel had to head back to the conference, we found Mills End Park - which at 452 square inches is the smallest in the world.  Apparently a phone pole was removed in the 1940s and a local journalist named Dick Fagan began planting flowers in the hole and writing about it.  The City of Portland adopted it as part of the park system in 1976.   

• Farmer's Market - I was sent on a mission to locate a laser pointer in the afternoon.  I accomplished this with a trip to Office Depot, but on the way back I stopped at the Farmer's Market and listened to a little music and bought some flowers for Nel. 

• Just Hanging Out - As I mentioned, Portland really is a beautiful place.  I took some time to just "sit around" and enjoy the weather and scenery - something I wouldn't normally do (my knee absolutely killing me and feeling like it was going to explode may have contributed to my relaxed schedule). I sat in this park for about 30 minutes:



This is Portland to me - nature in an urban setting.

• Powell's City of Books - After Nel was finished for the day, we headed out for some fun with public transportation and to do some exploring.  We stopped by Powell's, which is the largest independent book store in the world.  They have more than one million books and get about 6000 shoppers a day.  We wandered around for about an hour before heading to dinner at Bridgeport Brew Pub.  As the oldest brewery in a city that claims to be the world leader in micro-breweries, we were curious.  the place was interesting and the food was very good.

Powell's City of Books



• More parks - Portland certainly doesn't have a shortage of parks.  I checked out a lot of them today and even took Nel back to see a few of my favorites.

Ira Keller Memorial Fountain