Oregon 2008: Day 1: Portland
The backstory: having too many vacation days and having never been to Oregon or Washington, I figured I'd head up to Oregon to see Erik, then we'd do a quick stop in Portland, then spend the weekend in Seattle before heading back to Oregon. That means I wouldn't get to spend much time in Portland, but that was okay-- you can only do so much when your friends only have Fridays off (for a 3-day weekend).
What was unknown to me at the time is that Majed was going to be in Portland two weeks before my original planned visit. Two weeks before my original planned visit was UCLA vs. Oregon football in Eugene, Oregon. Throw in the fact that Erik really couldn't afford to spend two separate weekends entertaining his old childhood buddies, but I could move my trip up, so we'd have one big long weekend of even-more-fun... well I wouldn't get to see Seattle, but that's okay-- I can always go again later!
Hopped on a United flight, LAX-PDX non-stop. Toss in Premier Executive status and it actually wasn't bad on that little CRJ200. Met up with Majed, wrestled with the light rail ticket vending machine (ugh), then off to Portland. It was one long train ride, but as soon as you hit downtown it's a good way to explore-- plus it connects directly with the Portland Streetcar (PSC), which is a super-slow light rail system that services a big loop comprising most of central downtown. Very useful, although the PSC is so slow that Majed and I just walked from the light rail to Katie's office, and got there almost as fast...
Portland itself is interesting. Big enough to feel like a city, yet still pretty small when it comes down to it. Exit the downtown core and you very, very quickly enter low-density business (decay) and suburbia much closer to the city center than you'd expect. The transportation network works and it doesn't; fundamentally it's very 50s, 60s, 70s, even 80s era American thinking that has been overwhelmed by actual city growth and city sprawl. Downtown is still quiant enough to have lots of odd buildings, random dog water bowls everywhere, and city parks with little bits of art, some of it native-influenced, everywhere. Yet Portland's rapid growth has come at a cost-- it's got a psuedo-modern feel that really shows in the art and in a handful of the newer buildings; they're modern to the point of trying fake some other identity or they lack identity entirely, and that bugged me to no end.
The urban geographer in me aside, I can see how many find that Portland has its charm. It pulls off the big-city-small-town feel much more effectively than San Jose or Irvine because it has a (barely--yet significantly!) more cohesive downtown with fewer nearby distractions, and if you don't mind the lack of sun and silly alcohol sales rules, there is definitely some underlying appeal. Although the food snobbery needs to take a hike, seriously... from what I experienced, Portland's variety of cuisine doesn't actually try to be authentic, instead, it gives everything a distinct Portland feel. That appeases or appeals to many; unfortunately for me, I'm not one of them.
The areas of downtown up through to the Pearl district we walked through were decently nice, and while it wasn't warm, it wasn't all that cold either-- although gloves and a scarf are more than just decoration up here if you're outside for any length of time in the winter. Lunch was at Portland's version of a burrito, at Cha Cha Cha. Did some wandering, headed over to Ikea to buy Katie a dining set, talked smack about the light rail and PSC, some relaxing, went up to Washington Park to explore the Rose Test Garden (not so impressive in fall/winter), and got an immediate, first-hand experience in how rain in Portland can arrive in 1 minute, turn into a freakin' downpour in 4 more minutes, and generally just get wet and miserable quickly!
Erik finished classes and showed up in time for dinner at Deschutes Brewery. Pretty decent microbrews, entrees were pretty solid, but the appetizers were a complete rip-off. We did randomly run into some girls driving a Red Bull Mini Cooper on the way and hence got to stock up on Red Bull for free. *grin*
