portland

we woke up this morning in portland excited to explore the saturday market. this occupied about three full blocks in the riverfront park and adjoining open plazas, filled with artisan vendors and food trailers. the picture to the left is of the market before it got busy--we got there a little after ten, when it started. needless to say, we easily spent three hours browsing, buying, listening, watching, and eating. this was really the first time that we got a good glimpse of what we would expect a northwest city to be like: unique. we saw everything from roasted nuts to artisan soap, carved food, paintings, leatherwork, and everything in between, including a fair amount if kitsch. we also saw a bunch of interesting performers, including this band, whose cd we bought. they're called 'all the apparatus,' and play a kind of new-age big band music. apparently they are also from hawaii, which i just found out from their website. we bought some great soap from one of the local stalls, and i also got this fun beaded bracelet. for lunch we had great ethnic food--i had a gyro from a greek stall, and mum had perogies from a different trailer. and what good food. we sat on the steps of one of the plazas, surrounded by hundreds of people, half of them wearing pants, sweaters, and turtlenecks. apparently half of portland does not believe in wearing summer clothes--but who am i to judge? anyway, it was a lot of fun. after walking around the market we headed to stumptown coffee, the authentic local portland coffeeshop.i got a fantastic coffee, and we headed up town a little to go to the portland test rose garden, which is world-famous. of course to get there we had to take a tram and then a bus, requiring us to get transportation tickets and figure out how to get there. but, compared to other cities, it wasn't too bad. and i really like the fact that portland has trams and not a subway system--it seems friendlier somehow. after only about 20 minutes, however, we were at the rose garden, which was gigantic, had quite a few people, and was fantastically beautiful. there were so, so, so many different varieties of roses, some of them with names like 'blue yonder' and 'barbara streisand.' big and small, heavily scented and not smelly at all, and colors from white to red to purple and yellow, and everything in between. curly petals, different ways of unfolding, some with buds a different colors, some on vines and some on bushes.we had a great time walking around, sniffing and admiring the roses, as well as watching the various wedding parties that were there. before we knew it, it was getting late, and we needed to head back towards the center of town to go to dinner.

we took the bus out of the park/museum/ nob hill part of town back to 18th street, and walked back to 12th. on the way, somewhere around 14th, we saw this statue on a street corner--some artist's homage to the bicycle culture of portland. we did see a lot of bikers, as well as people just walking around--it is very pedestrian friendly, as far as cities go. for food we went to go to what is universally considered to be the best seafood in town: jake's famous crawfish. now, jake's has been in portland since 1892. no joke. and while it wasn't exactly cheap, it was fantastic. we sat at a bar in the back to not have to wait on a table, and had a funny bartender serve us. i got a fantastic dish of oregon rockfish with washington crab on top, with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side. dessert was also great--mum got the 'famous' truffle cake, and i had the walnut apple upside down pie with ice cream. needless to say, we were quite full and ready to turn in for the night once we were done.