Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Portland, how I love thee

I originally started this post back on a very sunny day in February... not sure why I never got around to finishing it.* But the other day I was wandering around Portland just thinking about how much I love it, so here is my ode to Stumptown.

What I love love love about Portland:

1. Metro free Wi-Fi which allows me to go online from anywhere downtown.

2. Pioneer courthouse square, where there's always something to see. Today is a Jazz concert..."admission $5" but the music falls on the ears of the just & unjust.

(edited to add pictures of "Sand in the City" another even that charged admission... but really anyone walking by can see the fun)



3. MAX for $2.05 you'll take me from the square to the convention center, to the airport, to Orenco station and beyond.


(here's a shot from the Punctuation Max stop, one of my favorite stops)


4. Saturday Market... from March through December displaying crafts and foods, music and magic. The creative heart of the city.


5. PSU farmer's market, crisp veggies, ripe fruit, smoked salmon, fresh baked bread. Families and friends, children and puppies, a plethora of knit hats & scarves in the fall.

6. Central library, Ramona would be thrilled. Free books for book group, events for all. Intellectual transients lounging at long tables.

7. Protesters loud and proud... dissent is patriotic.



8. Portland Art Museum, Tlingit masks, Haida carvings... such a quiet wing, many hidden treasures.



9. PDX - you welcome me home and give visitors their first taste of our city, Made in Oregon, Powells, Good Dog /Bad Dog... and the most rockin' awesome parking lot EVAR.



10. Powells - a city of books for our city of readers.



11. Moonstruck chocolate, why yes I will pay $5 for a piece of chocolate that good!


12. Hoyt Arboretum with trails of trees from near & far. The most beautiful, of course, our magestic Firs waving green arms against a sometimes blue sky.


13. Benson Bubblers - water water everywhere, and plenty to drink.

14. Free news! Portland Tribune tries hard to be a real paper. Willamette Week is the entertainment bible of the city.

15. Mt. Hood... how can anyone live in a city without a view of a snow capped mountain?

16. Mt. St. Helens... how can anyone live in a city without of a snow capped volcano?


17. Bagdad, Laurelhurst, Mission - beer, pizza and a $3 movie, life is good.


18. McMenamins - who else takes a church (or a school, or a poor farm) and turns it into a pub?


19. Speaking of which - BEER! With four brew fests a year there's a reason why they call us the microbrew capital of the U.S.

20. It's home... it just is.








* I remembered why I put off finishing this post - uploading all the pictures is a pain! Even with my new lightening fast cable internet connection.








5 comments:

Bezzie said...

Tlingit masks...but maybe you crazy Lower 48ers spell it different. ;-)

I love stuff like this--more like the compliation of all the stuff you know you'll miss when you're not there. We'd always make a list of "to-do/see one last time" before we'd move from a certain area.

Rebel said...

d'oh!

Yeah, I think I did a pretty good job of hitting all my favorite spots before I left. I didn't make it to the coast though - I wasn't sure my car would make it - and it probably wouldn't have.

gl. said...

but when you leave they shut the metrofi down and are going to raise the max prices! don't go! :) (btw, that's my favorite max stop, too. and boy, i wish good dog/bad dog was still in an accessible location...)

Rebel said...

too bad about the metro wifi, I'll bet you can still get access from the library though.

Michael5000 said...

Portland releases you, on the condition that you return.