Got
up at 6:30 am even though I thought I was tired. Lay in bed for another hour
then got ready. Today will be a major walking day.
Started with the Voodoo
donuts….took the classic Portland Cream – it was awesome!! Walked to the
Chinese garden – turns out it opens at 10 am (how did I miss that?) but then entrance
is about $10 – it seemed like a small garden so I think I will skip this.
Walked back to Burnside and on to Powell bookstore. Amazing bookstore! Soooo
huge and such organization! There were lot of information desks and a coffee
shop etc … great store. Of course bought a book – my favorite author – PG
Wodehouse.
From there it was to Bryant
Square – near there are all the food trucks. Some were still in the process of
opening. It was only 10:30 am – will come back later for lunch here. Walked on
to Pioneer Courthouse. The fountain is nice there but other than that it is overrated.
It is good just to take a picture there and move on (unless there is an event
happening). Took the MAX (as I was getting tired!) to OSU. It was a pretty place near the bookstore. Then walked to the Keller fountain – really pretty.
Somehow
missed the road on which the Streetcar runs, so had to walk a mile back to the city
center. Finally got on the Streetcar and rode around a bit, just seeing the
sights. Portland downtown area is a nice area – so many places to eat and shop.
But the look is quite diverse. It is easy to walk from a very nice looking
block to the next one which is derelict.
The university district was clean and nice, but near the city center was
not so clean. Got off the streetcar once at Jameson square – it was a nice open
water area for kids to play. I am seeing toooooo many kids these days. Maybe
they were always there but I never used to see them before.
Got
back on the Streetcar to get back to the food trucks. Ate a bowl cup of tomato
soup – so so and then went on to the Thai one to try the curry veg fried rice.
Unfortunately it was way too spicy (hot!) and I did not quite enjoy it as much
as I could have. Walked to the Pioneer
courthouse to eat lunch and incidentally there was a live music program going
on. It was crowded – but in a good way. There was music, people and the sun was
out – great day for me to have lunch there. Took the Red line MAX to Skidmore
and back to Burnside to rent my car from Enterprise. That all went smooth.
Took
a little nap of 20 mins and drove out to Washington Park. It was on the other
side of downtown. Little confusing when you get in the general area. Saw the
Japanese garden ($10) and Rose Garden (free). The Japanese garden is supposed to be
very authentic – i.e. very peaceful. But it was not peaceful – kids were crying
everywhere and there was traffic noise. The gardens themselves took about 30
mins to walk around. I did not find them so fascinating. 
The Rose garden on the
other hand was free and far more beautiful – first of all – it smelled
heavenly! I could tell that I was about to enter the rose garden. It was huge!
All roses were in bloom. My only problem was that there was too much sun. So
because of too much exposure, it was hard to take some good pictures. But I
have taken enough rose pictures, so I did not miss that too much. I just
enjoying walking around the garden, taking in the heavenly aroma and colors of
the roses. Too good!
And
then I did the Portalandian thing to do – had coffee at Starbucks! Hehe. I was
hoping to beat the traffic – but no – I was right there at 5:30 pm and it took
me 30 mins to drive about 5 miles back to the hotel! Too much!! Just needed to
rest a bit and wait for traffic to over, so came back to the hotel.
Around
7 pm decided to go for the tram ride. This turned out to be one tough place to
find!! I got lost 4 times! Two times I just missed the right turns so I had to
a full round again! There was no way to come back – silly roads! Finally 1 hour
later (should have been a 10 mins drive) I was there. Parking payment again
just like in Washington Park. I paid for 1 hr when only 30 min was required.
The ticket was $4.50 for the round trip; the ride itself was about 5 mins one
way. It was short but sweet. I think there is a hospital on the top so its more
of a commuter tram than touristy, but it surely felt touristy. It was a nice
ride. The view was amazing. The sun made it hard to take clear pictures (too
much exposure), but otherwise really nice.
After that I just drove in the
general direction of downtown and finally got back to the hotel!
My
first reaction of Portland was: smelly! Skidmore station smelled like urine. And
later I realized that smell was all over the Rose Quarter part of downtown.
Homeless population was too much there (reminded me of Vancouver). Because of
homelessness, there was also a lot of trash everywhere. So many places
I saw a poster that said, “Let Portland remain weird.” Well, it would remain weird because no matter
where I went I ran into one (weird Portlandian!); whether he was drunk or she was waving her hand in
the air or he was just blabbering to himself etc…
Driving
around was not easy; first it was the high traffic and then the roads were not so
easy to follow – maybe because of the hilly nature of the place. But one thing
is sure – there were a lot of trees everywhere – very green city. And if the
sun is not too bright one can see Mt Helens and Mt. Jefferson. I do like the fact
that the public transportation here is so good.
Oh
and I set a new record on my phone app for walking – 8.9 miles!!
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