Courthouse
We stopped at the Portland Visitor's Center to get a map and some information on what to see and where.
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.
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.
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!
They have color-coded rooms to help visitors find that special book.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our signs for the day come from Portland, OR, in front of the park area.
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!
