Day 15
We had a lot of hype about Portland before we got there. Only a few of us, including Shirah, who was the ambassador for this city, had been to Portland before and those of us who had not been had fairly high expectations for it. We began our day with a visit to the funky little donut place of Travel Channel fame (Anthony Bourdain visited it on his show “No Reservations”) called Voodoo Donuts. Its fun, laidback atmosphere combined with reasonable prices and scandalously-named delicious donuts, the long wait in line was actually worth it. We headed to Portland’s market, which featured local food and craft vendors. I loved the atmosphere of this market- it called to mind the street fairs of my hometown, Franklin, where everything is busy and crowded, but there is a friendly and leisurely feeling to the event overall, and for the most part, people are there to enjoy the community rather than just get some shopping done, like at a mall. As someone in the group mentioned, one striking thing about Portland was that the homeless seemed to be a part of the community, compared to other cities we’ve been, like Salt Lake City where across from the nice Italian deli we ate at, there was a crowd of what appeared to be homeless people just alone in a park. Here in Portland, homeless people sat all around the edges of the market, some of them selling newspapers, some of them playing music for tips, but definitely more visible than in other communities.
After the market, we visited the International Rose Test Gardens, which had around 8,000 different kinds of roses. The gardens were beautiful, but I had great fun reading the different names for the roses – apparently they ran out of ways of describing the color or appearance of the rose in the naming process because as you move further down the paths, you start seeing roses named after a very random assortment of celebrities, including Maria Shriver and Barbara Streisand.
We had a lot of hype about Portland before we got there. Only a few of us, including Shirah, who was the ambassador for this city, had been to Portland before and those of us who had not been had fairly high expectations for it. We began our day with a visit to the funky little donut place of Travel Channel fame (Anthony Bourdain visited it on his show “No Reservations”) called Voodoo Donuts. Its fun, laidback atmosphere combined with reasonable prices and scandalously-named delicious donuts, the long wait in line was actually worth it. We headed to Portland’s market, which featured local food and craft vendors. I loved the atmosphere of this market- it called to mind the street fairs of my hometown, Franklin, where everything is busy and crowded, but there is a friendly and leisurely feeling to the event overall, and for the most part, people are there to enjoy the community rather than just get some shopping done, like at a mall. As someone in the group mentioned, one striking thing about Portland was that the homeless seemed to be a part of the community, compared to other cities we’ve been, like Salt Lake City where across from the nice Italian deli we ate at, there was a crowd of what appeared to be homeless people just alone in a park. Here in Portland, homeless people sat all around the edges of the market, some of them selling newspapers, some of them playing music for tips, but definitely more visible than in other communities.
After the market, we visited the International Rose Test Gardens, which had around 8,000 different kinds of roses. The gardens were beautiful, but I had great fun reading the different names for the roses – apparently they ran out of ways of describing the color or appearance of the rose in the naming process because as you move further down the paths, you start seeing roses named after a very random assortment of celebrities, including Maria Shriver and Barbara Streisand.
We were able to explore the city in small groups after that, which was really nice. I feel like I was able to really get a feel for at least the city, if not the people, of Portland by having some time to wander around.I liked the feel of Portland a lot. I felt like it was a relatively clean and pretty city, with the perks of a big city without it feeling busy or crowded at all. Most people we encountered seemed to be friendly and not in a rush or too preoccupied with their errands to take the time to smile at us. You definitely saw a diverse assortment of people, too, which I appreciate. Portland’s population, or what we saw of it, definitely did seem to fit my preconceived notions- relatively young, into the whole alternative music scene, indie-trendy fashions, and embracing the organic/green movement. One surprise of the day came when we stopped at “Nike Town,” the largest Nike store in the country I think, and saw their T-shirts and signs supporting the Portland gay pride movement. Not something that I would have necessarily expected from one of the largest athletic supply stores, but that was exciting and spoke even more of Portland’s progressive nature. We had dinner at a restaurant called Salvador Molly’s that served international food, while a couple of the group members met up with some friends. See Chris and Rashina’s (upcoming) blogs about their cool experience seeing some of the neighborhoods in Portland up close. I certainly was not disappointed by Portland and would love to visit again. Along with San Francisco, Portland was a city I felt I could spend a good deal of time in and look forward to visiting again.
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