Friday, June 15, 2012

A DAY TO THE "ROSE CITY"…PORTLAND, OREGON

Thursday, June 14 – We visited Portland, Oregon, today. What a lovely city. Clean, interesting architecture, police frequently walking along the sidewalk, and of course there's the people watching. 
 
Courthouse
courthouse

We stopped at the Portland Visitor's Center to get a map and some information on what to see and where.

visitors center

Then we headed to THE RIVER. Portland is dominated by the Willamette River
. With all the bridges, a river walk, a boat cruise, parks, bike path, and trees it is a wonderful addition to this city.

Portland is known as the "Rose City". They just had their festival this past weekend. The roses were beautiful.
bridge and roses



roses

Of course, Marsha had to see all the monuments and take pictures of all the interesting buildings. At least it's pretty level here.....not like our walking tour of San Francisco. It's actually a pretty easy city to get around. We parked the car in one of the city lots and walked all over the downtown area. 

 
The architecture is lovely.building

building 2


building 3



We stopped at Powell City of Books. It covers an entire city block, four-stories high and is HUGE. If you can't find a book in there, it hasn't been published! 
 
Powell Bookstore


They have color-coded rooms to help visitors find that special book.
color chart


This is the first bookstore that offered a color-coded map. They have 100 sub-divisions of books.
We stopped at the historic Portland Library. An architectural pleasing building with gorgeous stone work and unique stair cases. 
 
We had a delicious and inexpensive lunch at Henry's Tavern. We HIGHLY recommend this place. It is right by Powell's. There are 100's of places to eat including an area packed with food wagons. 
 
Henry's Tavern

Portland is famous for their “Bubblers.” There are 52 four-bowl Bubblers and 74 one-bowl bubblers. Simon Benson donated the money for the original 20 bronze drinking fountains in 1912, and they then became know as Benson Bubblers. We did not sample the water though. 

 
bubblers

While we were walking in the artsy district, we notice a ton of people in the park. Marsha walked over to one of the guides who was stopping walking traffic and asked him what was going on. They tape the show Leverage in Portland. It is on the TNT channel. We know NOTIHING about the show. We watched this one guy do the same walk a dozen times. No wonder it takes so long to make a show.

show

Ever see a sidewalk wine tasting kiosk? Portland has them, and the people were lined up for free tastes. Need to do this when we get back downtown.



wine tasting

We were told that Portland is a very liberal city. By doing a bit of people watching, we got a taste of the liberal side.
 green hair

gal with sign


Our signs for the day come from Portland, OR, in front of the park area.
Portland signs


Portland signs 2

Just a quick update. The noise from I-205 is much better at night (Remember we are camped at the Elks bordering I-205.). There is still traffic but not quiet as much. YEA!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

WE'VE LEFT THE RUGGED OREGON COAST!

Wednesday, June 13 – We had an easy and uneventful drive from Nehalem, Oregon, to Vancouver, Washington.

Marsha did not like what she saw ahead. She hates crossing bridges and the one from I-30 to Kelso, WA, was a long and high one. PLUS…there was construction on the bridge. Oh dear!

It was raining off and on and rather foggy in places.bridge to WA

We are “camping” at the Vancouver Elks Lodge.

Site 8
Site 8

Site 8

Looking right. The building at the end is the Lodge.
elks lodge

Looking left.
looking left

What a difference from the quiet and serene Nehalem Bay State Park. Instead of wildlife, we have highway noise from the nearby I-205.

This is our backyard…a VERY busy I-205.backyard

The campground at the Vancouver Elks is at the edge of the parking lot. There are 15 sites with 30 amp electric and water. There is no dump station here. One is available a couple exits north on I-205. The lodge is very nice, and the people are friendly.

The BIG negative, so far, is the traffic noise from I-205. Hopefully, the traffic will lessen tonight and the noise won't keep us awake.

We have great sights to see here in the Portland area. Things like Mount Hood, the Columbia Gorge, the Columbia River, Multnomah Falls, and the city of Portland. We are also meeting good friends, Jeri & Terry Williams, Just Wanderin', who we haven't seen for almost three years. They are going to be our guides around Portland for a couple days. So nice to have personal tour guides, and the prices is excellent!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!