Portland Peregrination

When I talked to my friend Tai several weeks ago about her desire  to make  a life change, I quickly did the math.   I had lots of free time, a holiday weekend was coming for her, and we were both wanting to be in Northern Oregon.   She’s considering Portland for her next home, so I leapt at the chance to show her around the city.

We’re both on budgets, and we needed help learning about the city from  various perspectives.   We turned to Servas, a wonderful organization with a mission that sounds a bit fluffy, but really works quite  well.   Officially they are into “international peacekeeping.”   They connect interviewed and approved hosts and travelers in various places.   Servas  reasons that misunderstanding based in fear is the foundation of unrest.   So, they promote cultural exchange and hopefully understanding.   I am a U.S. host with access to inter-country reciprocity.   I arranged two places for us to stay, and we were off!

Bonnie and Pete are, as far as we could tell, a really wonderful couple.   Both doctors, involved in community, and well traveled.   So much so, that they were traveling during our planned stay.   Sweet, trusting folks that they are, they did what had been done for them in Italy once.   The key to their gorgeous home was under the mat when we arrived on Friday!    We ate dinner to NPR, chatted with their neighbor who came by to check on us, and got lots of rest!

Saturday the city was filled  with the pulse of the annual Rose Festival.   In the A.M. we ventured on free public transit across the river to  the downtown Saturday Markets.   Vendors had countless treasures on display  – jewelry, handmade soaps, tulip  lamps,  dog treats, BBQ sauce, and more!   The Farmer’s Market  even hosted a few  of the notorious food carts we’d been admonished to try.   An amazing crepe made the cut for Tai!

We declined the offer to spend Saturday night  at an event our hosts were obligatorily  attending.     Instead, we set out for Ethiopian, but couldn’t resist the food cart treat of grilled cheese (gluten free bread!!!) in a school-bus-cum-dining-facility.

After a Bubble Tea dessert, we started dialing folks I knew  who might want to play (and tell Tai about their version of Portland).   We scored an evening with the beloved Ben Carver walking about Hawthorne & Burnside, dining at East Burn, drinking cherry porter, and attempting to break into the  Chopsticks karaoke scene  before Tai and I headed back a’la  our self imposed curfew.

Sunday, after a NoPo (north Portland) Farmer’s Market tour, we joined the Memorial Day masses in “the Gorge.”

This scenic stretch east up the Columbia River is home to dozens of beautiful waterfalls, and scores of amazing hikes.   We drove past the famous and hopelessly packed Multnomah  Falls (tallest in Oregon) and squeezed into a parking spot at Eagle Creek.   The highly recommended trail loomed over a beautiful canyon and creek below.  Often we held onto steel cables as we traversed a narrow path cut out of the edge of a muddy, slippery cliff!

We were rewarded with two waterfall views before we headed back to town to shop on 23rd.

Tai found some hot items in a few boutiques and happened upon some soap I’ve had on my wishlist  for months.   It’s shampoo with the water removed and purported to be  the traveler’s perfect toiletry.   So far I love it, but it will be put to the real test when Pat and I run the wedding gauntlet in August.

Sunday night we managed a quadruple culture shot.   We finally made it to Ethiopian. We had to-die-for-dessert at the Montage where flaming drinks abound and leftovers come wrapped in three-foot-tall aluminum-foil sculptures.

We got lost in Powell’s – a bookstore encompassing an entire city block with a maze of mezzanines and levels all identified by color.   We finished the night with our hosts at Voodoo Donuts, infamous for its creatively named and quirky donuts.   From the Old Dirty Bastard (regular donut topped with Oreo’s, peanut butter, and chocolate), to the Tex-ass Challenge (a supersized regular donut – eat it in under 80 seconds, get your money back), to the Maple Bacon and the Gay Bar (yes, maple frosting topped with bacon, and a cream filled bar with a rainbow of fruit loops, respectively), we had a blast!

Monday Tai headed back to Humboldt with a wealth of new Portland knowledge, and began work on my second Portland goal – see all my P-town friends!