Portland day tripping in style...

Hey again everyone, one more thing we really needed to do while in Oregon was visit Portland.  Before last week's day trip jaunt our only exposure had been driving too and from the airport.  We saw tons of neat places and interesting people, but I have to admit that the bizarre street layout and one of the major bridges being under construction made much of the day frustrating.  Well, this is coming from the driver, Mandi seemed to be less stressed.

Here is a view of the city from a famous hill on the outskirts.  In the distance you can barely see Mt. Hood, one of the biggest mountains in the region and home of year-round skiing at the top.  The city is truly beautiful, especially from outside of the chaos.

The first neighborhood we visited is called the Hawthorne District. It is known as a hippie haven and boasts no chain stores and a multitude of local shops/restaurants that range from close to mainstream all the way to very uncomfortable for us good Southerners.  This is a famous restored theatre called the Bagdad with current movies and a full bar...

Our next stop was an area called Pioneer Courthouse Square and Downtown.  Above is the Courthouse which is still a functioning Federal Appeals Court and allows visitors to go up in the cupola to get a 360 degree view of the area.  It is one of the main historic buildings of the town and goes back into the 1800's.

The courtroom, standard pic and hip style with Mandi's phone.  Very impressive.

My honey holding open the very cool "original" elevator.

Next we headed to Chinatown to see some sights and get some lunch...

We got a great pic of Mandi with this guardian "animal" but had some real trouble with lunch.  We got there at about 2pm and things were either closed or impossible to find.  Just outside of the Chinatown area we ended up eating a pretty lousy meal at a pub!

This is an historic mansion that was built by the dude that owned the first newspaper in Portland.  Up on a high hill with spectacular views and tours that we weren't really up for as the day progressed.  Mandi loved the big back room with picture window and a giant harp for whatever reason!

Portland's Riverfront Park.  This took 30 minutes to get to when we started less than 2 miles away...crazy streets, crazy GPS, bridge under construction...frustrated me.  Mandi got out and walked a bit and took this picture but I had to cool down in the car and prepare for a calm ride back home.

We also saw a cool area of loft homes called the Pearl District that runs right up to the river and drove/climbed to the top of Mt. Tabor which is part of a state park just 2 or 3 miles from downtown.  More great views and large groups of young hippies playing guitar, tossing beanbags, and twirling bizarre flexible batons without a shirt on...delightful!  After that we hustled back to Corvallis (only about 1 1/2 hours away) and settled in for some rest before bed.  Another successful day trip.  Go team Salmon.

Talk to you all again soon,

Jason