Sat 12 Jan 2008
Posted by Meg under American Cities , Art , Food , Vacation
What do you call two days of rain in Oregon?
A weekend.
I got that one from a local in Portland who then assured me that it doesn’t always rain in Oregon. Sometimes it snows. Nevertheless, I still say it’s beautiful here and there are lots of things worth getting a bit wet for.
When you come to Oregon from far away, the only easy way to get here is through the Portland International Airport, which has a lot of tourist appeal itself. With art and unique architecture filling every part of the building, it’s certainly the most interesting airport I’ve ever seen.
Once you’ve landed, you won’t need a car to experience Portland. The city has a great public transit system that runs on biofuels. Take the light rail or a streetcar to the hotel of your choice, and then plan to take in the rest of your vacation on foot. The mostly flat geography and the numbered streets make the city very pedestrian friendly. Just be sure you have a good raincoat, and don’t bother blow drying your hair.
The first place I visited in Portland was Powell’s Books. All the locals told me I had to check it out, that I’d never seen anything like it. Well, I have seen something like it, but I admit you don’t come by a bookstore like this just any day. Powell’s is a three-story sprawling mammoth of a new & used bookstore, and they claim to have everything. They didn’t have the two titles I was looking for, so no, they don’t have everything, but if I had been in the market for something a little less Virginia-regional-history, I probably would have found it at Powell’s, so I won’t let that sour my impressions of the place. It’s great. Go there when you go to Portland.
Aside from the rain, I can’t think of a good reason why you would possibly want a car in Portland. As you walk the streets of the city, you’ll find some of the friendliest locals in America, a plethora of cafes and pubs at which to rest your walking legs, and best of all, the Horse Project.
The sidewalks of Portland date back to the nineteenth century, and hundreds of iron horse rings remain from days when folks used to park their horses instead of their cars. A local artist started the Horse Project as a way to get people to take notice of this piece of history by securing tiny plastic horses to the rings all over the city. They’re not so numerous that they’re obvious — you still have to look for them — but there are enough of them that pedestrians who keep their eyes peeled will surely spot a few of them.
As a big city, much larger even than Oregon’s capital city of Salem, Portland has plenty of things to see and do, from professional sports and museums to fancy restaurants and nightclubs, but it’s Portland’s beer that separates the city from other metropolitan centers.
You can’t walk two blocks in Portland without passing a pub, most of which are independent and many of which offer unique microbrews. The local king of beer is McMenamins, which also makes its own wines and distills its own liquors, but the locals I met directed me to Hedge House, a pub that is literally a house, right in the middle of a residential area, which serves New Old Lompoc brews and some of the tastiest pub fare I’ve ever had.
With everything to see and do (and eat and drink!) in Portland, it’s a great city to visit for a few days. But when you’ve had enough of the big city, it’s only a short trip to one of Oregon’s many natural wonders. Wherever you’re headed in Oregon, though, don’t just fly into the airport and skip town immediately. Portland is definitely worth some of your travel time.