Portland

Portland was the last stop on our Oregon adventure. We arrived on July 4th and saw the fireworks from the Burnside bridge over the Williamette River. Williamette, incidentally, is not pronounced "William - ett". It is actually pronounced "Will-am-it". That's much easier to say. The first set of fireworks consisted of red crackers above green crackers - symbolic of roses, as Portland is of course the City of Roses.

We spent about 3 days in Portland. We visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which is like your typical science museum. We also visited  the artsy Pearl District where we visited a few art galleries and partook in wine and cheese. There happens to be a lot of lavender in Oregon for some reason. In fact, there is a Lavender Farm on the way to Mt. Hood. We were hoping to visit Mt. Hood and the Lavender Farm but unfortunately didn't have time. Next time...


One day was also spent visiting the Nike campus in Beaverton. Oregon is not home to nearly as many Fortune 500 companies as Washington but Nike is one of them. The other one is Precision Cast Parts. The Nike campus is beautiful. There are many running trails and lakes. A high school football challenge (Nike Gridiron challenge) was taking place when we there. Each of Nike's buildings is named after a famous Nike-sponsored athlete - Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, Jerry Rice, etc. That athlete's apparel is featured in the building's lobby.

Nike was founded by Phil Knight (currently Chairman) and Bill Bowerman, a track coach from the University. Bill is pictured to the left. Nike has an amazing store in downtown where this picture was taken.

We were fortunate to eat at several cool restaurants in Portland. One was Prasad - a raw vegan type restaurant that you find in Santa Monica and San Francisco. Prasad often gives their food away free of charge to homeless people. They promise to never let a hungry person go hungry. Little Big Burger was another cool place. This place serves really tiny burgers that are really tasty. We got a couple of veggie burgers and milkshakes here. Lastly, Portland has some amazing food trucks. We ate at an Ethiopian food truck which was excellent. There were just so many interesting food trucks to choose from - ethnic food that you've probably never even heard of.

Last but not least, what visit to Portland is complete with drinking at a microbrewery? We visited Deschutes. This brewery is named after Deschutes,  a river in Oregon that goes through the city of Bend. I really want to visit Bend because I love the name "Bend". Bend is named after a bend in the Deschutes. In any case, their beer is awesome. To the left you can see one of their 6 cup tasters. I downed them quickly, drinking from light to dark. Not only is the beer tasty but the ambiance is fantastic. The details - the tables, woodwork, and fixtures - are all top class.

Well, this is it for my whirlwind tour of Oregon. There is just something about this state that fascinates me. It's not commercial, there are more trees than you knew existed on earth, and the coast makes you think you're in Ireland. I'll be back at some point. Next time, I'll do some rafting on the Klamath, will visit Mt. Hood, and will get more cheese from Tillamook. I'll also visit a few more food trucks and visit Bend. Fortunately I have another trip to the Pacific Northwest scheduled in late September for my Tough Mudder in Seattle.