Well, I’m back to the grind again. It was a pretty packed weekend, but I think we got most of the ‘must see’ portland things in. Alright, it’s big city, you can’t get ALL of the must-see things in, but I will say that we ticked a lot of big ones off the list.

First off, thanks to Steph and Issac and Jenn and Noah for letting us crash at your places and acting as tour guides while we were up there. It made for a very enjoyable weekend.

So what did we do?

• Drank a lot of beer – We went to the Deschutes and Laurelwood brewery taprooms, besides just the normal sampling of local beers at most of the places we ate at. When somebody tells you that portland has a lot of microbreweries, it’s an understatement.
• Ate at Voodoo Donut, which was one of the most commonly recommended places. It was pretty delicious, although we went to the original location, and it was about a 30-45 minute wait to get a donut. Was the donut worth it? Probably not, but we weren’t doing anything else.
• Walked around the rose gardens, which was absolutely amazing. They had hundreds of different kinds of roses there with more colors than you thought were possible in a flower. It was really amazing, and it’s a nice place to get a view of the city as well.
• Saw a lot of sweet bikes. Tons of people on really nice city bikes including an Ahearne locked up downtown. I’ve never actually seen one of those anywhere but online or at the handmade bike show. It’s a work of art, and as functional as it is, I’m just not sure I could lock it up outside a building…..
• Went bouldering at a local gym with Jen and Noah on saturday morning. I haven’t been climbing in several months, and it was probably a year before that when I went. It was a good time, even though I got through about 3 problems before I couldn’t close my hands anymore.
• Sunday we did a hike in the Columbia River gorge to Angel’s Rest. It’s a pretty sweet rock outcropping that gives you a great view of the river in both directions. Pretty damn cool that you can do something like that in less than an hour drive from the city.

All in all, Portland was a lot of fun. I really liked the feel of the city, it felt more ‘small town’ than I was expecting. I think I came to the conclusion that it feels like that because it seems a little more compartmentalized into cool little neighborhoods than a lot of big cities I’ve been to. Every little nighborhood you went to was easy to walk around and see all the cool little shops and restaurants and such. I definitely enjoyed it. The bike-friendly atmosphere there was also pretty cool, although I’m sure that goes without saying considering how highly regarded portland is in that respect.

I wish I had more time there, but alas, back to the real world for a bit.

In an effort to make this post easier to read, here’s the gallery, just click the first one and use the arrow keys to see all the pics. Enjoy.

Portland Trip

The sign at Tin Shed, a super-tasty breakfast joint. Dogs are allowed in one part of the patio, but not where the rocks are, lest they are tempted to ‘relieve’ themselves.	Tin Shed, delicious breakfast.	Ahearne Bike, seen locked up downtown. Beautiful.	The awesome wood carvings at the Deschutes brewery.	The line for voodoo doughnut.	Yes, there were transients outside.
Donuts!	Roses and a bee.	Some of the names of the rose varieties were downright ridiculous.			Tons of people sailing on the river on saturday.
The hike to angels rest.	I told Jen to ‘look like a marmot’, this was her marmot face.	Angel’s Rest.	Columbia River.	Wildlife, of the fearless variety.	Bitchin waterfall on the way back from angel’s rest. The red stuff is a bunch of new shoots from a plant that hung down the full length of the falls.
Another waterfall, note Jen over to the left for scale.