Back to Austin

July 19, 2010

Well, not really, but Porltand certainly felt like Austin! The two major differences were the weather (it's at least 20 degrees cooler in Portland), and the lack of smiling faces of friends to greet us. We know three folks who live in Portland, but they all happened to be out of town during our two-day visit. So, we stayed in Portland's Hawthorne hostel.

This old "green" house welcomed us warmly Sunday evening (July 18th). When we say "green", we mean it literally...the roof has plants growing on it (to moderate the temperature within and to aid in the collection of rainwater, which they use for the toilets within!).

During our short time in Portland, we spend several hours in the famous city block-sized bookstore: Powell's bookstore.

From their website, here are a few facts about the bookstore:

• 68,000 square feet packed with books.

• We buy 3,000 used books over the counter every day.

• Approximately 3,000 people walk in and buy something every day.

• Another 3,000 people just browse and drink coffee.

Crazy, eh??

After having lunch at the wide variety of street vendors in downtown Portland ($5 for a whole tub of mango coconut chicken curry!), we headed to the Rose Garden, which is home to an international test garden (testing site for new varieties of roses). Wandering through the garden, you will see all colors and smell varying scents. With the sun setting, and the city below as a backdrop, photographers take advantage of the perfect lighting while locals perused the various types of roses.

After a relaxing stroll, we headed to Laurelwood Public House for dinner, where Mark discovered one of his favorite brews: Space Stout. From the website: "Space Stout is dominated by rich coffee and chocolate malt flavors. Nearly opaque, his is a creamy full-bodied ale. Our stout finishes dry and roasty." It won a gold medal in the 2004 World Beer Cup, and was an excellent finish to our day.

The next morning, we headed to the Columbia River Gorge, just east of Portland. The 80-mile stretch forms the border between Oregon and Washington. History says that glacial floods carved the 1200-mile Columbian River. On either side, cliffs rise as high as 4000 feet. Along the way are breath-taking waterfalls, pouring into the river. Oregon's beauty gave us a nice farewell, as we headed north.