Exploring Portland's Main Attractions

The almost 5 hour trip from Crater Lake to Portland was all we could manage after spending the morning on the lake, so we had a very low key evening on our first day in the city. After two nights of camping, I was ready to sleep on a real bed and we had decided to try the apartment/room rental website Airbnb.  If you have never heard of it, you should definitely check it out! We had such a great experience the first few nights staying at people's houses, that we ended up using the site to book almost all of the remainder of our nights on the trip.

The first night we stayed in an "urban farm" where we enjoyed fresh eggs in the morning, were able to air out and dry our tent, and did some laundry.  The house smelled a bit like a "farm," but the people who lived there were very nice and we had a pleasant stay.

Once we packed up our clean clothes and dry tent, we set out to explore Portland.  Our first stop was the highly recommended Portland Japanese Gardens in Washington Park, just west of downtown. We had heard that this 5.5-acre garden is the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan from several reviews (and it is listed on their website).  The $9.50 adult entry fee was a little steep, but we decided it was worth paying for the preservation of a park.  The gardens were really beautiful and mostly peaceful.  We occasionally found ourselves near a group and had to move away to continue enjoying the serenity the gardens offered.

The Strolling Pond Garden housed colorful fish

One of the many Japanese sculptures in the Garden

The waterfall was one of my favorite areas

We enjoyed walking on the narrow paths through the different areas

From the Japanese Garden, we walked across the street to the Washington Park International Rose Garden, a free garden that houses 9525 rose bushes.  The only disappointment we experienced was that there were no rose buds on the bushes that were supposed to be the "blackest" red.  

One of my favorites - a two-toned rose

An amphitheater right next to the rose garden

Walking around the gardens built up our appetite, so we made our way to Dick's Kitchen in the northwest area of Portland.  The restaurant was recommended to us by our airbnb hosts and we had a delicious meal.  We decided on meat entrees in this farm-to-fork restaurant - of which there are many in Portland!  Colin went with the sausage, and I couldn't decide on a burger.  Instead of one large burger, I did the 3 sliders - one beef, one buffalo, and the "guest burger" of the week which happened to be the "dork" (duck/pork).  They were all very good.  The dork was the driest, and my beef cheeseburger was the most satisfying.  

Sausage and beef, buffalo, and dork sliders

The other tip we received was that we could park in the Whole Foods parking lot downtown for up to 2 hours for free if we bought something there.  We've never had a problem finding something to nosh on at Whole Foods!  Leaving the car in the parking garage, we set out on foot to explore downtown Portland.

Walking around downtown Portland

We just happened to come upon a yelp.com recommended dessert shop called Saint Cupcake, and we just had decided to go in for a treat.  The cupcakes were good, but nowhere near as good as Magnolia's or Gigi's.  We actually had one cupcake that was not good. I know that seems impossible to have a cupcake not taste good, but they put salt on the frosting and it was not a pleasant sweet-salty taste.

Seven layer bar and an assortment of mini cupcakes

The other sights we visited on our 2 hour walking tour of downtown Portland included the Central Library, Ira Keller Fountain, Pioneer Courthouse Square, and the Portland Building.  Central Library's interior was impressive, with its etched-graphite staircase.  I had read that this library is the oldest on the west coast.  The  18-foot-high waterfalls that comprise Ira Keller Fountain were soothing, providing us with a wonderful place to rest.  We did not spend much time in Pioneer Courthouse Square, the area which had been compared to Union Square in NYC by several travel guides. The area is much smaller than Union Square in NYC, and an Italian festival took almost the entire square with it's food trucks and music.  Our final stop, the 15 story Portland Building, had an impressive statue of Portlandia - the Goddess of Commerce - on a second story balcony.  Looking up at the statue from the street I could believe it is the second-largest hammered-copper statue in the world (after the Statue of Liberty).  We were invited in the building to visit a gallery, but decided we had to get back to the car.

Central Library's etched-graphite staircase in the main lobby

We walked through quite a few parks all over downtown

Taking a break at the Ira Keller Fountain

Looking up in awe at Portlandia sitting on the Portland Building

Back at the car, we made our way up through the northwest district to the Farmers' Market, before heading to our airbnb accomodations for the evening.  The farmers' market was pretty good, with about 10 farmers offering a variety of late-summer produce.  We were fortunate to find a really great airbnb rental for this second night in Portland. The location was on a bus line to downtown, or we could walk the 2 miles if we wanted, the house was so clean, and the hostess went out of her way to make our experience wonderful. She had 3 different types of coffee makers for her renters and showed me how to use her cappuccino maker, and she gave us some change for the bus.

This farmers' market had some of the largest zucchini I've ever seen

After "checking in" and a quick meet-and-greet with the homeowner, we took the bus downtown to get some dinner.  Since we had such a big lunch, we opted for some Happy Hour appetizers on the outdoor patio at Pink Rose, in the upscale Pearl District. I immediately decided on the bacon-wrapped dates, thinking back to how amazing the bacon-wrapped figs were in Napa.  Colin ordered the chorizo-manchego stuffed mushrooms, and both proved to be delicious and thoroughly satisfying.
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Bacon-wrapped dates (L) and chorizo-manchego stuffed mushrooms (R)

We spent the rest of the evening walking the mile along the waterfront and making our way back through downtown. One thing that stood out to me as we walked along the water was the visibility of homeless youth.  They seemed to congregate along the main roads that we walked along and unlike NYC, homeless individuals seemed to hang out together.  Almost every group had a few dogs with them, and neither the people or the dogs seemed to be starving.  Under one of the bridges, there was a soup kitchen being served out of a truck. Obviously, this was the reason for the large gathering of people in this area, but we found groups in many areas where food was not being served.  When we spoke with some of the locals about our observations, we were told that many of the homeless youth chose that lifestyle as part of their anarchist beliefs and the groups moved north from California as the weather got warm and moved back south when it got cold in Portland and Seattle.  The explanation seemed logical as these individuals gathered in groups, unlike most homeless individuals we typically saw in NYC that were almost always alone.

Enjoying a nice 1 mile stroll along the water.

Before heading back to retire for the evening, we make a short stop into the massive Powell's City of Books to check out Mt. Rainier hiking books and decide on a hike for the next day.  Then, we completely exhausted ourselves with the almost two mile walk through Nob Hill and back to our room in the northwest section of the city.  Colin kept his GPS watch on for most of our travels and said we walked about 15,000 steps during our day in Portland!  With the amazing weather, we felt we had to be outside.  For the second night in a row, I was grateful for a warm shower and a clean and comfortable bed.

What has your experience been like with airbnb.com?

What is the most interesting combination of meat you've ever had in a hamburger?