This time I went to Portland with my wife, as part of a "let's walk around Portland for a couple of days then rent a car and drive down the coast" trip, a week long getaway from reality and the everyday stressors of life. We arrived in Portland on a Saturday evening, a little too late to actually see much...
The next morning, Sunday, May 11, we hit the streets, the only real plan being to make a stop at the Portland Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test Garden next door.
A few blocks from our hotel was the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The hall's sign is a Portland landmark, often photographed, and I had to stop and take a few photos (8:49 AM)...
We then headed west, trudging up hills until we got to the International Rose Test Garden. We walked the grounds for a few minutes, but unfortunately the majority of the rose bushes had yet to bloom, so we headed up to the Portland Japanese Garden. The Portland Japanese Garden is considered to be the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan. What I love about it is that it's an oasis of quiet and calm tucked away in a big city. This statue is one of the first things you encounter as you make the counter clockwise walk through the grounds (10:05 AM)...
We then walked back down the hills, and turned north towards the Pearl District, which has undergone a recent "renewal" of sorts. At one point I saw this street mural of Steve Prefontaine, a native Oregonian and track and field star in the 70's. I think, besides the size of the mural itself, it was the orange in the painting and the orange in the bricks to the right and how it all tied together that caught my eye (12:56 PM)...
We later ended up at Old Town Pizza, in the Old Town section of Portland. Old Town Pizza has awesome pizza (so good that we had one delivered to our hotel again the next night), good beer that they brew, is located in a funky old building that is supposedly haunted - and an great selection of music is always pumping through the speakers. We hung out there for quite a while, taking a break from all the walking we had done, and since it was a sleepy Sunday afternoon I was able to take a few photos without disturbing anyone (2:54 PM)...
On the walk back to the hotel we ran across Voodoo Doughnut, another local landmark, with the obligatory line of tourists going out the door and around the corner. We didn't stop in, but I had to grab a few shots of the sign (4:34 PM)...
All photos taken with a Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 16-85 DX VR lens
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