Saturday, September 13, 2008

Images of Portland, Oregon

Portland was another city that was on our short-list of places we were thinking about moving to. Honestly, I loved it and if I knew a few people that lived there already I may well have voted to stay. It was gorgeous, had great public transportation, incredible nature surroundings, and the the best book stores ever (other than maybe Strand in NYC, of course). Everyone there was friendly and warm, the city is well planned out, and the restaurant/foodie/craft beer brewing scene there is fantastic, plus they've got wine flowing in from the Willamette Valley right next door.

We stayed at Ace Hotel, great. Ate at Le Pigeon and the McMenamin's Kennedy School, fantastic. Chilled at the Jupiter Hotel bar, fun. Drank at Portland City Grill on the top floor of the tallest building in town (and at a bunch of other places), excellent. Spent a bunch of time browsing in Powell's Book Store, which is awesome. I liked it, I liked it a lot.

Portland, OR

It's not a huge city, and certainly not very tall. Like I mentioned above, we did hang out at Portland City Grill, a piano bar at the top of the tallest buildings in town, which was great.

Portland, OR

Portland, OR

2,443 miles from Times Square, sigh.

Portland, OR

Mt. Hood looms on the horizon.

Portland, OR

Powell's Book Store. Note the Elvis impersonator singing out front.

Portland, OR

Turkey Vulture at the Audubon Sanctuary, where we hiked some trails and met various ravens, vultures, and other birds.

Portland, OR

A couple random shots...

Portland, OR

Portland, OR

Bye Portland, we loved you!

Portland, OR

2 comments:

Unknown said...

How far are the mountains from the city? Portland's a possibility for us within the year too, depending on where Aaron gets a job. Gets such rave reviews, but I'm wary of the no-sunshine thing!

Chris Cohen said...

Well I don't live there so I'm not sure how far out of town you need to go to ski or hike in the mountains, but I'd say maybe 30 minutes. A quick google search should turn up the info. (I just looked it up for curiosities sake -- Mt. Hood, the most massive mountain around, is 1 hour outside of Portland.)

I don't know what you're interested in, but general outdoors activities and hiking can be done immediately outside the city borders. Portland is surrounded by wild parkland.

For the record, when I was there this summer it was sunny and gorgeous.