Let me just start by saying, what a cool little city! Really – a very cool little city.
Allie and I decided that we were going to do the “no chain challenge”, meaning that we were going to immerse ourselves in the local shops and eateries, no McDonalds or IHOPs – just unique-to-Portland places. Given that Portland really is a unique city, it was not hard to do. We stayed at the
Hotel 50 by the Willamette River – a nice little 3.5 star place.
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| Hotel 50 |
Our first day started late, as we had to drive up from Medford which took about 4 hours. After getting checked in, Allie and I were on the hunt for food. With Portland being a fairly small city, it was pretty easy for us to just leave the truck in the garage of the hotel for the duration of our stay and walk to our destination, wherever that may be. We decided to pop into a nice little Italian joint called
Pazzo Ristorante – a lovely restaurant located next to
Hotel Vintage Plaza.
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| Pazzo Ristorante is located on ground floor to the right of the photo. |
Afterward, we walked around a bit and headed back to our hotel, all the while looking at the beautiful buildings and parks peppered throughout our route.
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| Just one of the many older buildings that make up Portland. |
The next day, we started with breakfast at the
Rivers Edge Café for a fantastic morning meal. From there, it was off to see the sights of Portland, starting with Portlandia.
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| Portlandia. |
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| A plaque tells the story of Portlandia, but the rain makes it hard to read. Sorry! |
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This is a pretty cool sight to see, as it is something you would not expect to see in the middle of a block of office buildings. Portlandia is the second largest copper statue (with the Statue of Liberty being the first). The statue is based on the design of the city seal. It depicts a woman dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in the left hand and reaching down with the right hand to greet visitors to the building. The statue itself is 34 feet, 10 inches high, however, if she were standing, the woman would be about 50 feet tall.
Next, we were off to The Lovejoy Columns. However, before I get to those, we passed an awesome little park that focused on a unique modern style fountain in the center. In the entire plaza sloped in toward the fountain, which at its center, had a large granite ball dedicated to the teachers of Portland. Part of the park had a small coffee shop with outdoor seating that was covered by an amazing yet simple glass canopy. Speaking of glass canopies, we noticed that there were many throughout the city, and here is my theory: it rains constantly in Portland, so outdoor coverings are necessary. However, if all of the canopies were made of more conventional materials, like canvas or concrete, then Portland would be shrouded in shade on their rare sunny days. The glass allows light through will protecting the people from the wet weather – a great large scale architectural response to Portland’s unique climatic conditions.
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| An example of a clean, modern style of design. |
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| Massive glass canopies provide protection during Portland's never ending rain. |
However, there were not enough glass coverings to protect Allie and I as we made our way to the Lovejoy Columns. As we got close it began to pour, so we had to take refuge in a small shoe shop next to the columns. I tried to get some nice shots, but the weather made it rather difficult.
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| The Lovejoy Columns - the rain made it difficult to capture any really decent images. |
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| A closeup of the remaining artwork. |
A little history: The Lovejoy ramp was constructed in 1926 & 1927 to carry Lovejoy Street over the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway's Hoyt Street freight yard. Noted bridge engineer Gustav Lindenthal, who was involved in the design of a number of Portland bridges, designed part of the Lovejoy ramp.
Some of the concrete columns of the Lovejoy ramp were decorated with detailed artwork. Though technically graffiti, it was done with much more care then most taggers. The art was the work of Greek immigrant Tom E. Stefopoulos, who worked as a watchman for the SP&S railroad from 1948 to 1952, and painted on the columns during dull moments.
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| The columns in their original state. |
Next stop on the list: the Central Library. This was a stop for my wife, as I am not a big fan of libraries (after all, I am from NY, and after seeing the NYC Public Library, all other’s seem sort of “eh”). However, I was in for a surprise as this was not the usual municipal style building that most libraries are, and why would it be, we were in Portland! This was a beautiful building, the front had a very church like entrance; grand and with purpose. Once inside, the users are greeted with a small foyer that opened into an amazing central staircase that ascended 4 floors under a tremendous decorative frosted skylight. The first run of the staircase consisted of black granite treads with amazingly ornate carvings on each riser.
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| The front of the Central Library. |
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| Just one of the many phrased etched into the stairs - this one is Allie's favorite. |
Each room of the library had such a grand, monolithic feel; you
felt like you were in a library, a place of knowledge and learning. Each floor was just as beautiful as the one before it. After the first rise of stairs, the staircase split off into mirroring stairs made of white marble.
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| View up the stairs to the fourth floor lobby. |
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| The view down. |
Once at the top of the stairs, you had an unobstructed view of the frosted skylight, and you could see the final floor, which had a balcony looking back over the stairs. The ceiling of the fourth floor lobby had a grand glass dome supported by 4 columns, truly a breathtaking sight.
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| Frosted skylight at the top of the stairs. |
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| The dome in a ring of light |
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| Dome glass. |
We also took some time to visit the
International Rose Test Garden to view the various roses. However, all of the roses had just been pruned when we got there, but it wasn’t a total loss. We were there on a rare sunny and clear day, so the view from the vista point was fantastic!
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| The view from the Rose Garden. |
As I have mentioned many times before, I am from New York, and whenever I was in the city, I made it a point to visit street food vendors. It is in my humble opinion that with exception of late night diners, the best food in NY can be found in cart food. It is something that I have missed here in Phoenix, so when Allie told me that Portland had lots of cart food vendors, I told her that I would make it a point to eat as much of it as I possible could. In NY, street vendors have a tendency to spread out, everyone stakes out a territory – the hot dog has this corner while the soft pretzel guy had the next. In Portland, all of the vendors occupy a shared space, creating a park of cart food. When I die, I expect that this is what Heaven will look like:
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| Cart food heaven!! |
I had a tasty German bratwurst loaded with all the goodness one would expect to find on such a meal. It was hard to decide where to go, but in the end, I think I made a good choice.
That evening, my wife and I decided to take in a movie, Portland style. As per our no chain challenge, we decided that we were not going to sit at a Lowe’s or AMC – nope, it was off to the
Laurelhurst Theater in the Northeast section of Portland on the east side of the Willamette River.
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| The original Laurelhurst marquee all aglow in neon. |
This theater was unique in that you could have dinner and a beer with popcorn and other theater treats in the theater while watching the movie! I have never had this type of movie going experience before, so I was excited. We got to the showing of “True Grit” early, so we wound up having our dinner in the dining section of the lobby. But we purchased a big pitcher of a local brew, got our snacks and enjoyed our flick, definitely an enjoyable time.
The last place we stopped on our last day was a Portland must visit:
Voodoo Doughnuts. While the building is not architecturally significant, the doughnuts were pretty freakin’ fantastic, and as with many things in Portland, they were presented with flair:
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| Voodoo Doughnuts: The magic is in the hole! (Well, not for these guys) |
All in all, we had a great time visiting Portland, and I hope we have a chance to do it again soon. If you have an opportunity to go, do it – you won’t regret it!
PS: Remember these?
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| Bill and Tedd's time machine? |
There are still quite a few left on the streets of Portland.
Keep it weird!
