Portland Part One

Mags and I woke up at the break of…well actually at the break of nothing. We woke up at 4:30am. We BARTed it to the airport and I promptly slept through the entire flight to Portland.

The first pleasant surprise in Portland was that the light rail picks you up right outside of baggage claim. We made it to our wonderful host’s house that he shares with three roommates and then went out to a wonderful pho lunch.

Mags and I then headed to City Bikes Cooperative to rent a couple of bikes. Nice folks there. I think I have been in four co-ops in Portland now. It is a welcome sight.

We took our bikes along the east and west banks of the Willamette River on the Esplanade, which is a walk- and bike-friendly area mostly consisting of separated pathways. Some of the views were really beautiful. A few places that we stopped:
Umpqua Ice Cream: had some delicious spumoni ice cream
The Aerial Tram: Super-futuristic looking gondola thing that takes you quickly up a hill to some university hospital. Beautiful views. If only we had thought to take our bikes up there so we could ride them back down…
Shareit Square: Some residents completely redid an intersection, painting the roadway and setting up little tables and benches on each of the four corners, including a free tea station and a free book exchange station, both unattended.

It is nice biking in Portland. Throughout the whole of yesterday and so far today, I haven’t been honked at ONCE.

Last night, our wonderful host cooked for us. Mags went to bed, and then our host and I went our bar hopping along Alberta Street. Fun times.

Today, Mags is in her Physical Therapy class so I am on my own. I started by getting some hippie-dippie breakfast which was delicious. I then went to an Army Navy surplus store where I got four shirts for $22. Already feeling hungry again, I went to Hot Lips Pizza for some good pizza and some great blackberry soda that they make themselves. Now I am at the Red and Black Cafe, a worker-owned and -managed cafe in the Southeast. Today is my southeast day.

Other stops today were a nice co-op grocery store and a computer place that refurbishes/repurposes used computers and puts them to good use. It is volunteer run.

Tonight Mags and I are heading to our next host’s place. This guy stayed with me in San Francisco for a week so it’ll be good to see him again.

Adios, loyal readers!