In Portland, Oregon, you find an fusion of hipsters, outdoors-y types, yuppies, young drifters, families, and all-around cool people. Add a great indie music scene, pride in local food and microbrews, and a focus on sustainability and social issues.
The result?
A place that feels as comfortable as an old, plaid shirt and as smart and do-gooder as living on an academically-intense liberal college campus. (And like college students believing their school and students to be the best, so does the prideful Portland.)
These photos offer a glimpse into a day in the life of a visit to Portland:
1. Voodoo Doughnut: Let me count the wonders of thy ways. Voodoo doughnut is an institution in Portland, Oregon. Start your day with one (or three) of the wide varieties of cake or raised doughnuts. Notice the whole board dedicated to vegan doughnuts. You can end your day here too; they’re open 24/7.
2. Les Doughnuts. Vegan Portland cream & orginial glazed. Have mercy.
3. Keep Portland Weird: One might wonder if stating something like “Keep Portland Weird” means the weirdness is actually on the way out. Maybe. But, you’ll still find “weirdness” around Portland, even if that weirdness is just the city’s progressive stand on social/environmental/artistic issues.
4. Neighborhoods: Portland has distinct neighborhoods, all contained by the bigger neighborhoods of the pragmatically laid-out NorthEast (NE), SouthEast (SE), NorthWest (NW), SouthWest (SW). (The west and the east side are seperated by the Willamette.) Above is China Town.
5. Architectural contrast: Portland’s architecture is a study in contrasts. 19th to early 20th century architecture blends cohesivelly with modern and post-modern skyscrapers. What makes the city gel? Attention to urban policy and details. For example, the city has implemented policies like “Open Spaces”, where building signs can’t protrude from buildings or exceed a small size limit. The result is streamlined, clean-looking streets.
6. Postmodernist Icon: View the city’s “Eiffel Tower” (as so-called by Portland mayor Frank Ivancie) and check out the Portland Public Services Building, designed by Michael Graves. This building is the first postmodernist building ever built and has been universally panned as the worst building in Portland. Apparently, the building has been a repair nightmare and gloomy office spaces depress the office workers. Sweet!
7. Powell’s. This is the quintessential Portland experience. This independent bookstore , mixing new and used books, takes up an entire city block. Thankfully, they have a flat rate shipping fee to anywhere in the US which came in handy for sending lots of books back to NC.
8. Yummy (Vegan!) Food: Foodies will be in heaven in Portland. Vegan foodies will want to pack up their belongings and move to Portland immediately. There are few places, currently in the world, where vegans can be foodies. Portland is one of those places.
9. Vegan Food Deliciousness. Example 1: Spicy, jerk tempeh tacos with veggie, corn salsa, avocado sauce and cashew cream sauce at Blooming Lotus . Oh. My. Goodness.
10. Live Food: You can also find amazing live, or raw, food in Portland. Live food is like vegan food kicked up a notch in health consciousnes. Live food is all about conserving enzymes, which are destroyed after cooking food over 116 degrees F. Here’s an example of a live food entree from the Blooming Lotus : Live “pasta” (raw veggies in pesto), “pizza” on flax “bread” (nutty crisp), hummus, and salad. It ended up being reaaaally good.
11. “Live” Fudge: Also from the Blooming Lotus , this “live” fudge is vegan and not cooked. And it was surprisingly dark chocolate-y and rich. This didn’t last long in Mr. Gnome’s hand.
12. Walking. After gorging on vegan food, Portland makes a beautiful place to walk. Not only is it one of the “greenest” cities in the US ecologically; it’s one of the “greenest” in terms of parks and plant/tree life. And if you don’t feel like enjoying a walk in the city, you can always hop on the tram line, or TriMet , which is FREE in the city center. FREE. (I was blown away by this. We didn’t pay for transportation the whole time we were in the city.)
13. Saturday Market: If you’re in the area on Saturday, you have to check out the Saturday Market . These guys were playing badass rhythms on their buckets at the market. You can also find lots of food stands, the usual market assortment of goods, and even a Rogue Brewery beer stand.
14. Microbrews. Portland has more microbreweries than any other city in the world. It just surpassed Cologne, Germany in that stat. As fans of Rogue Ale back in NC, we were stoked to check out the original stomping grounds of the brewery. Two of my favorites from Rogue? The Hazelnut Brown & Mocha Porter.
15. Pubs: In addition to the breweries, Portland has amazing pubs. This one, Bailey’s Taproom , had twenty beers on draft that neither Mr. Gnome or I had tried before. Naturally, we couldn’t decide on which one to pick. Thankfully, they had samplers!
16. Living Room Theater: Living Room Theater, across from Powell’s Books, shows indie movies. We saw the hilarious In the Loop (go see it if you like cynical, laugh till you drop, political comedies). Did I mention they serve food, vegan (!) truffles, anything from their espresso bar, and alcoholic drinks to you while you sit in two-person couches in the theater? Heavenly.
17. See a band. I got to catch up with my Oregonian friend, Noreen. (We call each other dopplegangerin, since we met in Austria while each performing at a music festival. We discovered we had a kittencaboodle in common and we’ve been tight ever since.) After catching up, we hit up the music venue Doug Fir Lounge and saw the band Blitzen Trapper .
