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The City of Roses
Entry 4 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
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I spent three nights in Portland. I didn't have internet access while I was there, so I wasn't able to make an update. Here are the highlights from each day:
Tuesday, Jan 29: I took an early morning Amtrak from Bellingham, WA to Portland. The tracks started off along the Straight of Georgia, so the view was gorgeous. I arrived in Portland (PDX) around 3 PM and the first thing I did was visit Powell's Books. Afterwards, I checked into my Thriftlodge hotel and headed to a local brewery called Tugboat Brewing. I'm pretty sure the food they just heated up TV dinners and served them as meals, so dinner wasn't spectacular. I did, however, drink and enjoy a few of their brews. It happened to be songwriter's night, so there was an acoustic duo playing. While I was there, I met a jazz musician from New Orleans who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Wednesday, Jan 30: I ate breakfast at Grendel's Coffeeshop near my hotel. Then I headed across the river for a walk along Waterfront Park. The cool thing about Portland that differs from Peoria is that all the bridges have sidewalks and thus are legal to walk across. Therefore, I didn't get pulled over by any cops during my stay, which is better than my track record in Peoria. I spend most of the day walking around downtown. I saw Pioneer Square, Chinatown, the Steel Bridge, and the Chinese Garden.
At night, I checked out East Burn, a pub with ski ball. The Mercury, Portland's alternative newspaper, described it as Chuck-E-Cheese for adults. While eating dinner at the bar, I met a Portland transient named Diane who was eager to suggest sites I should see.
One local must-see she mentioned was Voodoo Donuts, which she ended up taking me to. We brought back two huge boxes of day-old donuts, including some that were suitable for a bachelorette party, to the bar to share with everyone. By the end of the night, she had written out an itenarary of what she'd do if she only had 24 hours left in the city.
Thursday, Jan 31: I woke up with a handy-dandy itenerary written out by a local, so I figured I should follow it. The first step was to take a bus up north, walk along Alberta and window-shop, then hit up the Kennedy School, which is an old grade school that was converted into a hotel. The draw to the Kennedy School is the soaking tub, an outdoor heated pool where the teacher's lounge used to be located. The weather was chilly and drizzly, like it had been the entire time I was there, so the tub was a treat! While I was there, I found out my Greyhound to San Fran had been cancelled due to snow. I had already checked out of my hotel, but, happily, the owner of the Kennedy School also owns a hotel/bar called the White Eagle. The rent there is fairly cheap because it was European-style with bathrooms down the hall. I booked a bunk bed at the White Eagle, grabbed my bags from the Thriftlodge, and headed over. At this point, the drizzle had turned to bona fide rain, so I was soaked and miserable by the time I made it to my new place. Once I got there, I took a long, warm shower (yes, this counts as a highlight) and went down to the bar for dinner, drinks, and live music. I had already decided I was in for the night because I was sick of the rain. This turned out to be a great decision because I met two guys that were fun to hang out with, there was a Grateful Dead cover band playing, and the food was awesome (the served tater tots!).
Friday, Feb 1: I walked to the Greyhound station and boarded a bus to San Francisco.
Where I stayed:
Thriftlodge and White Eagle
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