West - Things to do in Portland?

I am taking my wife to Portland for our anniversary and was wondering what kind of fun things there are to do in or around downtown?

The Oregon Brewfest will be going on while we're there so that is a definite on our list and we may rent a car for a day to head to Mt. Hood.

Anything else we should/must do? I am really looking forward to eating. ;)

Are there some good places near Mt. Hood to do some very light hiking and scenery viewing?

Thanks!

I am taking my wife to Portland for our anniversary and was wondering what kind of fun things there are to do in or around downtown?

The Oregon Brewfest will be going on while we're there so that is a definite on our list and we may rent a car for a day to head to Mt. Hood.

Anything else we should/must do? I am really looking forward to eating. ;)

Are there some good places near Mt. Hood to do some very light hiking and scenery viewing?

Thanks!

A few very general things .....

Hard to give directed advice not knowing what you are in to or how long you are going to be there. For us food / drink is a huge priority since we only get to town 3 or 4 time per year. Check out the restaurant (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/west/342859-consolidated-portland-oregon-restaurants-thread.html) thread here as a start. The Brewfest should be great.

When we aren't eating/drinking we are usually walking. There are some large parks in/near downtown (e.g. Forest Park) where you can go on some great walks -- these are easy to find on a good map. If you are fortunate enough to have good weather, these walks are really pleasant. Bring a picnic, as you can spend a day. You can also explore the Hawthorne and Alberta neighborhoods among others (outside of downtown, but you can take the bus) and find some funky stuff.

There is the usual shopping downtown (blah, blah) and in the Pearl District. Its a bit cliche, but we spend a good bit of time at Powell's Books -- that's about all the shopping we do.

If you are a baseball fan, the Portland Beavers AAA team plays just a quick light rail ride away. Dirt cheap and fun if they are in town.

You can also do an Internet search and see what shows (of various types) are going to be in town and/or museum events, etc. One place to look is here (http://www.travelportland.com/).

I am sure that folks that know the city much better can give you more detailed info plus info on Mt. Hood.

Enjoy the trip.

Highlights for me from my recent visit - Powell's (of course - several times); the Japanese Garden and the views over the city; Voodoo Doughnut (perhaps a bit of a cliche, but I enjoyed it); browsing shops in Hawthorne; finding the smallest park in the world (having found out it existed there!); drinking from Benson Bubblers; the cute statues of local wildlife around the Pioneer Courthouse; and just wandering around and stumbling on stuff!

The hike up Multnomah Falls is a good one. So is the hike into Eagle Creek. You might also consider a trip to Mt. St Helens.

Brewfest is a blast. I'm jealous :p

The Rose Garden ( the garden, not the arena) is always a great place to visit. Saturday market, if you're here for the weekend, has loads of food, fun and trinkets. Keep in mind that public transport (MAX trains and the city buses) are free in the majority of downtown and the "Fareless Square" extends across the river to the Lloyd Center area.

The current "thing to do" is hang out around city hall and see which politician implodes next.

The current "thing to do" is hang out around city hall and see which politician implodes next.

Yes, this is very good to do.

Saturday Market is great to check out and the Farmers Market by Portland State as it's also off the street car. Definitely review the restaurant thread since the eating is a great experience in PDX (having lived in SF and PDX). If you're a foodie, PM me and I can really get detailed on where to go.

Take a ride up the OHSU gondola for a view if it's nice. Catch a flick at Baghdad Theater for some pizza and beer in an old theater or chill out at Kennedy School for some local Portland chillness. (Beer is not that great but the ambiance is) Catch a show at Crystal Ball Room maybe.

If you take the long route to Hood (IE: 84 to Hood River, and then to the Mountain) then you have to to Vista House and Multnomah Falls.

+1 on Forrest Park. Wine country on both sides of the city within an hour drive.

The Brewers Festival will be packed and go on Friday since they run out of beer on the popular stuff on Saturday afternoon.

Check out www.oregonlive.com and alot of the other festivals are usually there to check out.

The Brewers Festival will be packed and go on Friday since they run out of beer on the popular stuff on Saturday afternoon.




It is packed on the weekend, which is why we usually try to go down on Friday. It actually starts on Thursday this year, not sure if that is new, but Thursday should be a great day to go.

sample some Oregon Pinot Noir

It is packed on the weekend, which is why we usually try to go down on Friday. It actually starts on Thursday this year, not sure if that is new, but Thursday should be a great day to go.

Ohh I didn't know Thursday. I knew Thursday nights were the Brewers Dinner, nice. I am in.

Wow! Count on FlyerTalkers for some great ideas!! Many thanks! ^ ^

We'll be flying in on 7/24 and leaving on 7/28. We're staying in downtown PDX near Pioneer Square.

Right now I do not have a car reserved just because I figured we could get everywhere in town on a bus or the light rail.

Food will be a big priority. We will definitely try Voodoo Donuts (cliche but my wife loves trying different donuts everywhere) and a restaurant called "Beast". I'll look in the restaurant thread for other places to chow down.

Is downtown a generally safe area to walk?

Right now I do not have a car reserved just because I figured we could get everywhere in town on a bus or the light rail.

Food will be a big priority. We will definitely try Voodoo Donuts (cliche but my wife loves trying different donuts everywhere) and a restaurant called "Beast". I'll look in the restaurant thread for other places to chow down.

Is downtown a generally safe area to walk?

You can easily get around downtown and the outskirts by the streetcar and the light rail. You can taxi to other areas like Sellwood (if you're into antiquing).

Beast is good and get the maple bacon doughnut at Voodoo ^.

And downtown is safe, some areas are a little sketchy at night, like around old town and china town, but if you mind yourself you'll be fine.

Good to know that other Flyertalkers are going to this as well.

2nd on PDX having a pretty safe downtown. Much like in DEN, violent gun crime is a very rare occurance in the downtown and I'm sure with the beer festival in town, the police presence will be higher than usual.

Definately wouldn't mess with the car unless you want to go to the coast. Even IKEA is near the lightrail in PDX.

I volunteer for GABF in DEN so I highly recommend going Thursday and Friday. Saturday/Sunday will be drunkfests more so than the earlier two days and the good beers will be gone. Is anyone thinking about doing the bike tour? Sounded interesting but you don't hit the tasting rooms at the breweries due to DUI laws.

Good to know that other Flyertalkers are going to this as well.


There use to always be FT Do at the Oregon Brewers Festival, at least one year, a bunch drunks (I mean FTers) flew to SEA, rented an RV and drove down.

I don't see anything on the Community Board for this year, maybe everyone has sobered up. ;)

I'm flying down for a quick afternoon visit in mid july and my plan is

Mothers (http://mothersbistro.com/)
VooDoo Doughnuts (http://voodoodoughnut.com/)
Clear Creek Distillery (http://clearcreekdistillery.com/tours-and-tastings.html)

Does anyone know if Tazo offers a factory tour or tasting room?

I saw this place (http://www.pinestatebiscuits.com/) on the Food Network, and its definitely on my list for a future visit.

The hike up Multnomah Falls is a good one. So is the hike into Eagle Creek. You might also consider a trip to Mt. St Helens.

Brewfest is a blast. I'm jealous :p

I totally agree about Multnomah Falls. It's great to just look at, and then there can be short or medium hikes thereafter. But you'll probably need a car.

Portland is a great city, with great restaurants, bookstores etc. But other cities have those. The outdoors attractions (ranging from the Portland Japanese Gardens to the Columbia River Gorge [with the Falls] to the Coast [Seaside/Cannon Beach, and/or Lincoln City/Newport] etc.) are the things that, particularly all being fairly close, make Portland such a wonderful place. So enjoy Portland, but get outta town if possible.

Missydarlin;
Pine State Biscuits is a good choice and the only place I've found in PDX that offers NC country ham. I came west from NC quite a few years ago and it reminds me of the food I get when I go home. My personal favorite is a ham, egg & cheese biscuit washed down with a Cheerwine. It's a very tiny place so be prepared to stand in line. Another favorite of mine is Por Que No on N Mississippi. IMHO the best tamales in town!

I'm flying down for a quick afternoon visit in mid july and my plan is

Mothers (http://mothersbistro.com/)
VooDoo Doughnuts (http://voodoodoughnut.com/)
Clear Creek Distillery (http://clearcreekdistillery.com/tours-and-tastings.html)

Does anyone know if Tazo offers a factory tour or tasting room?

I saw this place (http://www.pinestatebiscuits.com/) on the Food Network, and its definitely on my list for a future visit.

Missy good call on the clear creek distillery tour. I've done this one and hope you are ready for some serious tasting. The grappa's knocked me on the floor and they are making scotch that is pretty good. It sells out same day it's released. I'm jealous.

I don't know about Tazo, but have you done Widmer? It's a cool tour, you get some beers in the beginning and it's a cool brew pub, get a pint glass at the end.

Fun fact is that they make the all the Kona Brewing Company bottled beers for the country (including Hawaii) and that Kona in Hawaii only makes the draught beer.......learned it on the tour (shameless plug).

I was going to start a new thread with my related questions, but then I found this thread and have decided to tack on to it.

My wife and I have also booked an anniversary trip to the PDX area, for early October. Need some advisement on accommodations and travel/transit, given the following:

(1) Trip is basically for 3.5 days, given multi-flight travel time from GPT. Arrive PDX early-to-mid-afternoon Wed 10/7, giving us the rest of that day, and then all days Thu 10/8, Fri 10/9, Sat 10/10. Early AM flight home from PDX Sun 10/11.

(2) Plan at this point is one full day of Portland city itself, one full day north and west to Mt. St. Helens and Astoria/coast, one full day east to Hood River/Mt. Hood. So, we will be renting a car for the trip. Weather conditions each day will drive which things we do each day. And, we are prepared to sacrifice Hood River/Mt. Hood if we find that one day is not long enough for the north and west "day" (although we may be able to exploit the half-day on Wed 10/7 to make this work).

(3) Given the above, my current thinking is accommodations in the Vancouver, WA area. We don't wish to switch hotels during the trip...all agendae will be "day trips", even if long days.

(4) For the Portland city day, of course we intend to do the sampler of the Japanese Gardens, downtown, parks, Powell Books, etc etc. My initial research suggests that maybe we should ditch the car that day and use mass transit, specifically the #6 bus starting at Expo Center, and then on foot/bus/rail the rest of the day.

So, here are the questions:

- How long from Vancouver to Expo Center, either during a workday if Thu or Fri, or not if Sat?

- How's the parking at Expo Center? Does it fill up (esp. if Thu or Fri)?

- How's the bus service/ride?

- Should we make it a point to do Portland city on Sat if the Thu/Fri workday crowding situation will make it that much less pleasant?

- If we specifically target Sat, should we bother with mass transit at all, and just drive all the way in and park somewhere instead? If so, where?

- Any other thoughts/suggestions given the above. I know that my wonderful FT brethren could completely re-engineer our entire trip if given the opp'y (and it would be appreciated if that's what I wanted, seriously!), but the above is the template. Please only "completely re-engineer" my agenda if I've completely overlooked or misjudged something obvious.

Thanks!!

So, here are the questions:

- How long from Vancouver to Expo Center, either during a workday if Thu or Fri, or not if Sat?

- How's the parking at Expo Center? Does it fill up (esp. if Thu or Fri)?

- How's the bus service/ride?

- Should we make it a point to do Portland city on Sat if the Thu/Fri workday crowding situation will make it that much less pleasant?

- If we specifically target Sat, should we bother with mass transit at all, and just drive all the way in and park somewhere instead? If so, where?


Happy Anniversary!

Expo center from the Vancouver area requires a quick hop over the I-5 bridge and one of the first exits, so not long. But if you stay further out in Vancouver and it's commute hours, it's where the most traffic jams are. IMHO you can consider a PDX Airport hotel like Embassy Suites, W (Aloft), etc which are on Airport Way, across the street from the MAX station and easy freeway access. The red line takes you everywhere you mentioned in Portland and transfer stations all over Portland.

http://trimet.org/

If you decide Vancouver, then the parking is ample. You can consider heading a little further south to Interstate Ave where the Yellow Line Max starts (I forget the end line, but close enough) which, like the Red Line above gets you all over PDX.

The bus and max lines are clean, relatively safe and easy to navigate. I really don't think you'll find crowding on the work days for parking, and there is always street parking in neighborhoods in North Portland without any parking passes needed.

I think your agenda looks solid but for on Saturday we have the Saturday market and the Farmers market in PDX, I don't know if it's worth an agenda change but for what it's worth.

The Hood River/Mt Hood is totally doable in one day. You can't miss out on Double Mountain, the awesome micro brew across from Full Sail in Hood River.

Appreciate the great local insight, PDXOutbound. Good alternative info re PDX Airport accoms vs. Vancouver...I will def explore that. Same with the mass transit alternatives. Just the sort of additional ideas I'm seeking.

How realistic is my 1 day to sample (and only sample) Mt. St. Helens and also Astoria/coast areas on the same day? Too ambitious?

How realistic is my 1 day to sample (and only sample) Mt. St. Helens and also Astoria/coast areas on the same day? Too ambitious?

It'd be a lot of driving, and backtracking. Mt St. Helen's is pretty cool, definitely worth seeing, but you'd want to go to the visitor's center for the best views-and the exhibits are good as well. However, it's out and back, up I-5, up the park road,down the park road, down I-5 and out to the coast hwy,and then back to PDX. You'd spend most of the day just sitting in the car. It's about 300 miles RT.

If you want a nice day trip, with more stops, things to do, places to see and have lunch, maybe even romantic walks on beaches, I'd do an Astoria/Coast loop day instead. It's not a hard drive, the coast scenery is beautiful and there are several towns along the way to stop and wander about in, and lots of beach parks. Plus, there's a good maritime museum on the way to Astoria that talks about the history of the Columbia and some about the coast guard and crossing the bar-worth a visit if you're into that kind of thing. It wouldn't be unreasonable to drive south even as far as Newport (depending on how many stops you made), but you could still have a wonderful day if you made a smaller loop. The shortest loop turns in between Seaside and Cannon Beach-that's the short route from the city to the ocean but, of course, the most traffic,too. A slightly longer loop would turn inland at Tillamook-you can even stop for a tour of the cheese factory if you like. Or, go a little further (still north of Newport) and turn inland at hwy 18, smaller road, and come back into town through the Willamette Valley wine country (tons of vineyards) and even the aviation museum with the Spruce Goose in McMinnville. This would probably be just as long a day and drive, all told, but I think that it would make for a more memorable day and trip.

I really like and appreciate the good detail and time/mileage info on both my north and west options, Wanderbug. Definitely helps my planning and decisions on potential "sacrifices" given our time constraints. Thanks!

Thank you again FTers! Any other food recommendations?

I think our Saturday will be devoted to the brewfest and dinner at Beast but I'm still trying to plan out the rest of the trip.

Hartmann I would check out the Portland Rest Thread and if you don't see a type of food/fine dining, etc post a question from there. There are plenty of foodies in town and on this board that will get you alot of recomendations and several great places haven't made it onto the thread yet ;)

We are going to Portland for 4 nights in October, staying at The Nines.

Anniversary trip advice....
I would stay in downtown Portland, taking the light rail from the airport. It's sooo easy. A car is a major hassle and expense downtown and the lightrail and streetcar is free in the central area. I would perhaps rent a car for a day trip to Mulnomath Falls.

Downtown Portland is a very vibrant place with great food and bev. Take the streetcar to the Pearl district for martinis at Olive OR Twist. If you're not staying downtown, you miss out on a lot in the evening.

IMHO, much more anniversary ambiance downtown than Vancouver!

Just for your information, it seems that a one day trip would be too much. That said, why not stay in Longview/Kelso, cross the Columbia River on the Longview Bridge and take hwy 30 to Astoria. The alternative is to pick up the highway on the Washington side out of Kelso and follow the north bank of the Columbia, cross the Astoria-Megler Bridge into downtown Astoria rather than returning into Portland. This routing saves about 120 miles of driving of which only 1/2 is freeway.

AAA has good maps, Oregon publishes one through its tourist agency. I believe that Washington does as well.

I'll be driving from San Jose, CA to the Seattle area and stopping in Portland to sightsee. I plan to budget approx. an entire day.

I'm not into brewpubs, wine, drinking, hiking, or zoos. I'm not sure I'd take time out to see a science or art museum if there's nothing really unique about them. (I've been to the Exploratorium in SF, Pacific Science Center in Seattle, and The Tech Museum in San Jose.) Gardens are bleh for me. (Maybe it's because I'm a guy.) Farmers Markets are no biggie for me either since we have them in the Bay Area all the time and I don't go out of my way to visit those.

I don't think I have time to make a side trip to Crater Lake either. :( I've been to Mt. St. Helens before.

Any suggestions besides ones already mentioned in this thread? (If it matters, part of my Portland stay will be on 9/6 and part on 9/7, Labor Day.)

I'll be driving from San Jose, CA to the Seattle area and stopping in Portland to sightsee. I plan to budget approx. an entire day.

I'm not into brewpubs, wine, drinking, hiking, or zoos. I'm not sure I'd take time out to see a science or art museum if there's nothing really unique about them. (I've been to the Exploratorium in SF, Pacific Science Center in Seattle, and The Tech Museum in San Jose.) Gardens are bleh for me. (Maybe it's because I'm a guy.) Farmers Markets are no biggie for me either since we have them in the Bay Area all the time and I don't go out of my way to visit those.

I don't think I have time to make a side trip to Crater Lake either. :( I've been to Mt. St. Helens before.

Any suggestions besides ones already mentioned in this thread? (If it matters, part of my Portland stay will be on 9/6 and part on 9/7, Labor Day.)

My thoughts are to keep driving to Seattle since it's another three hours. ;)

Seriously, if you like good food then dine at some awesome restaurants (check out the thread) or walk around the Pearl/Hawthorne or Sellwood and other neighborhoods for some outside time. I don't know of any events this weekend, you could drive 84-East through the gorge to Hood River for a day. Maybe buy something expensive since there's no sales tax. Otherwise if you aren't into hiking (Multnomah Falls), beer (36 breweries and counting), wineries, museums, zoos gardens or outdoors stuff...I am at a loss.

It sounds as if you do not like much of anything. That said, I believe that "Art in The Pearl" is this coming weekend. It is a juried art show with excellent artists and food from some good vendors. You can people watch which normally is excellent, pet a dog or two or as a final alternative, drive to Hillsboro to 5200 Elam Young Parkway (just off Cornell Road) and look at the Intel campus. It should remind you of home.

LOL to PDXOutbound and opushomes!

I'm more of a car, computer, technology, investing, gadget, TiVo, indoorsy sci-fi type of guy. Heh, I don't like dogs either. :p I think you guys have stumbled across partly why I left the Seattle, WA area in the first place. Some folks are so into the outdoorsy, hiking thing up there despite the not so great weather compared to California. :confused:

The saving grace is that I have a friend and former coworker who live in Portland now who I plan on visiting. Unfortunately, one of them won't be in town.

(FWIW, I enjoyed my recent trips to Vegas (for CES), LA (for E3), China and Washington DC along w/my 3 trips to Japan over ~6 year period.)

Missydarlin;
Pine State Biscuits is a good choice and the only place I've found in PDX that offers NC country ham. I came west from NC quite a few years ago and it reminds me of the food I get when I go home. My personal favorite is a ham, egg & cheese biscuit washed down with a Cheerwine. It's a very tiny place so be prepared to stand in line. Another favorite of mine is Por Que No on N Mississippi. IMHO the best tamales in town!

<emphasis mine>

I heard there was Cheerwine in PDX... mmm.... another excuse to visit... now just need some dirt cheap airfare ;)

As for Chinatown... I was extremely disappointed with PDX's (Then again, I hit this on the heels of SFO IIRC ;))

<emphasis mine>

I heard there was Cheerwine in PDX... mmm.... another excuse to visit... now just need some dirt cheap airfare ;)

As for Chinatown... I was extremely disappointed with PDX's (Then again, I hit this on the heels of SFO IIRC ;))

What? PDX has Chinatown? ;)

+1

Hi friends...
Just thought I'd post a follow-up to my post of a few months ago (above in thread). My wife and I just completed our Portland-area anniversary trip this past week.

First of all, our decision to travel in early Oct, instead of late Oct when our anniversary actually occurs, proved prudent...not a drop of rain during our trip.

We arrived mid-afternoon Wed Oct 7 and decided to head downtown to explore and get a brief lay of the land. We decided we wanted Fong Chong (dim sum) for dinner, so we hit the nearby Classical Chinese Garden, where we were EXTREMELY disappointed for the $17.00 we paid for admission for the 2 of us. Nice place, but not worth those $$$. I was also accosted by a homeless person as I attempted to learn how the parking meter system worked. Fong Chong was tasty, though. We then drove around to explore further and ran straight into (a) Portland Skid Row near the Burnside bridge, and (b) rush hour gridlock as we explored downtown more. So our initial impression of downtown Portland was "Phooey on this". (We did get redemption later in the trip.)

Thu Oct 8 we drove out to the Coast, where we learned that all-day fog is typical this time of year. Still, we enjoyed the drive and the scenery (Seaside has a nice beach walk area), and we had a nice meal in Depoe Bay right on the water at Tidal Raves Seafood Grill. Tillamook Cheese Factory was a disappointment, however; they don't ship directly from the site, so no perishable gift opportunities for us to send to friends/family from there. Finally, based on what we learned the day before, we made sure to get back to Portland well after 7PM so that we wouldn't hit rush hour again on our way back out to our hotel adjacent to the Airport (the Airport Hampton Inn, a nice property where I used points for a free stay).

Fri Oct 9 was Gorge/Hood day...we drove out I-84 and got off at Exit 28 to use the Columbia Historic Highway to access Multnomah Falls instead of going there directly on the Interstate, which proved fortunate, because (a) we hit Wahkeena Falls on the way for a photo op, which we would have missed if we had stayed on the Interstate, and (b) parking is closer for Multnomah Falls off the Historic than if using the Interstate access, a plus for my somewhat-mobility-impaired spouse. You can also access Horsetail Falls on the way a mile or so further east from Multnomah on the Historic.

Next we got back on I-84 and exited at mile 44 for Bridge of the Gods, where we crossed over to WA and got some photos at Bonneville Dam on the WA side, and then back over to OR for some more nice photos at the mural painted at the foot of the Bridge on the OR side...worth this brief side diversion. We even happened to meet the original mural artist; he was on site for his first touch-up visit in over 3 years.

We proceeded back out onto I-84 to Hood River, where we got a tasty and inexpensive lunch at Pietro's Pizza, and then on to OR 35 and US 26 to get closer to Mount Hood. We got a scouting report from a gas station attendant to make a quick diversion to Trillium Lake for a nice photo op; which worked out nicely. It was a cloudy day in the area but we still did as well as we could with the photos.

Later that evening we returned to town and then dined at Tad's Chicken and Dumplins in Troutdale, a famous local eatery, where we called ahead for seating (a prudent move...do this - it's always packed), and had an enjoyable dinner.

Sat Oct 10 was originally intended to be our Downtown Portland day, but after seeing that Portland Skid Row is directly adjacent to the Saturday Market, we instead decided to head up to Mt. St. Helens, which we were originally planning to skip given our time constraints. Boy, we were glad we now had time for this; it was again cloudy in the area but clear enough for a nice drive and experience, and good enough photo ops. We were done there by mid-afternoon, so we decided to return to Portland and try our luck on the other side of downtown at Washington Park for a visit to the Rose Garden...this worked out GREAT...the weather and environs were delightful. We also discovered the Holocaust Memorial nearby in the park...well-executed, poignant, and moving - a must-see even if you're not of a Holocaust-affected ethnic persuasion.

We were ambivalent about dinner by this time and decided to try Elephant's Deli on NW 22nd Ave near the park, and what a perfect ending to our trip! Once we learned that you can "roll your own" food plate there, we built our sampler platters from all the wonderful foods available - I HIGHLY recommend this place for an "if you don't quite know what you're in the mood for" sort of meal...you'll find something you like here and it will be plentiful and of good quality.

Finally, we started our long 3-flight day home early on Sunday morning Oct 11. Flying on NW metal, there is still a Northwest ticket counter (re-tagged Delta) that is separate from the main Delta counter, and it doesn't open until 4:30AM, but we checked our bags without incident, and got REALLY lucky in that we used the Security entry for Concourses A-B-C instead of D-E (even though our gate was in D). The queue at A-B-C Security was 3 people deep, so we breezed right through, and then when we crossed over to the D-E side once inside Security, we observed looking outward that on the D-E side the Security queue was literally about 150 people deep...I'm not exaggerating. Lucky break for us, and worth noting here to my fellow FTers. PDXers, are the queues always like that in the early AM, or was our Sun Oct 11 experience an anomaly?

I'm sure follow-up comments will tell us about other things in the area that we might have missed, but all in all we feel we did pretty good justice to the region in the short time we had for our trip. I'll look forward to visiting the area again during another time of year for some Gorge-area hiking and other experiences. Thanks as always to my fellow FTers for your help in planning our agenda...I really appreciated it!

Nice summary and glad you made it out to the gorge and Hood River too.

The PDX Skid Row experience is a bit relative since I lived in San Francisco, but we're one week out from passing a new side walk ordinance that would clean up alot of that.

However, downtown has some great things to see!!! So next time we can recommend even more food and travel items.

Nice to hear about the Holocaust Memorial, need to go there.

I hear what you're saying re the Skid Row experience being "relative"...I'm originally from NYC myself. However, one of the biggest reasons I left NYC 20 years ago was the homeless problem at the time in the late '80s...sorry if I'm a heartless b*stard about this (esp since I was homeless briefly myself after Hurricane Katrina wiped us out here in Biloxi in '05), but I have no tolerance for being accosted by homeless people when I'm trying to go about my business. As far as I'm concerned, based on what I saw, the east side of downtown Portland near Burnside and the Saturday Market is "stay away territory" for just that reason. Maybe the locals don't think anything of it (I did see plenty of respectable-looking citizens in the area as well), but I'm a visitor and that's not what I want to experience. Sorry.

And what sucks about that is that we DID research downtown extensively before our trip and had a walking/eating tour of the area all set aside for Saturday, including McCall Park along the river; I'm sad that I had to miss this thanks to disgusting Skid Row nearby. However, as mentioned, luckily, the WEST side of downtown redeemed itself during our visit there before our trip was over...it was delightful over there.

I'm just being honest, folks...isn't that what we love about FT? And as my previous long post above indicated, I still intend to re-visit the region again (including the GOOD parts of downtown) one day for all the wonderful other things it DOES have to offer.

I'm writing this right now from the PDX Hampton Inn.

I arrived today with my Father off Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Los Angeles. We had only taken the train for the sake of taking the train but I suggested we alight in Portland instead of Seattle so we got to spend an evening somewhere.

We walked up Burnside and stopped at Voodoo Doughnuts then went to Powell's.

Dinner was at Huber's which neither of us had been to before but was a really enjoyable experience: http://www.hubers.com/