Portland. Part two.

By the third day in the city I found myself feeling at home. Even so, I had heard so much about the great Portland walking tours that I thought it was only right to take a guided tour. The Best of Portland tour started at the Hilton, one of the city's green seal certified hotels, and the greenest of the Hilton corporation. It's as easy as turning off escalators in the evenings, having compact fluorescent lights in all guest rooms, recycling and composting. The Hilton is just one example of the environmental responsible nature of Portland businesses. Our tour guide, Jacob, even pointed out the garbage cans that compact waste and have an indicator alerting waste management when it's full as to not waste fuel sending trucks to half full waste baskets. I'm told that Chicago has a few of these, and I'll be keeping my eyes open for some here in Milwaukee. So, enough about garbage, more about the tour.

Portland has an ordinance requiring one percent of all construction costs to be allocated to public art. A great concept that has led to even greater art work adorning the walk ways leading up to office buildings and the buildings themselves. We also saw the original penny used in choosing the name (which is why my first Portland blog referenced Boston. The two founders were east coast natives and in choosing a name wanted to pay homage to their hometowns. Not all that original, but a nice gesture I guess.). We passed through a park originally dedicated for women only considering the dodgy characters (sailors and loggers) running around the town during its early days. Water fountains from the 1800s also remain on nearly every block, thanks to a teetotaler who foot the installation bill so non-alcohol-drinking patrons wouldn't have to buy a beer to get a glass of water. Our walk continued to a cast iron building, one that Jacob proved to be iron with an I heart PDX magnet. This particular building's windows we also home to my favorite artwork of the entire trip. The people from Tangible Worldwide created fun graphics depicted their favorite parts of Portland. This is my favorite, a bearded flannel-wearing lumberjack with clever, spot-on pins. We tour passed the World's Smallest Park and ended at the waterfront (with a clear view of Mt. Hood). Fun fact: Portland is the only city to remove a fully functioning freeway to provide better access to the waterfront for residents.

With a better understanding of Portland and it's history, it was now time for food. Probably the best choice of the entire trip was to sign up for the Epicurean Excursion. You know a tour is going to be phenomenal when it begins in a chocolate shop that is sampling what can only be described as liquid awesome. The drinking chocolate at Cacao set the bar high, and each shop on the route was up to the challenge. We tried carrot and ginger soup at the Flying Elephant and falafel from a popular street vendor (food pods, street carts with ethnic foods, are all over the city. It's like having a melting pot of grandma's cooking food just like their mothers did. Best. Idea. Ever.). The nice people at the People's sandwich made me caprese-ish sandwich while everyone else munched on a sandwich for carnivores, which I heard was amazing. There was Bacon Stout, oysters and of course, Voodoo doughnuts. Our tour guide, Brad, had us at hello when he sprinkled in some science about the theobromine found in chocolate. I could go on and on about Brad and all of the great Portland locales he shared with us, but, I have photos of all the food we tried and most of the places, so you should check them out for more Portland culinary treats.

Belly full, it was time to bike to meet up with new friends at Brian’s place with hopes of riding a tandem bicycle. Thanks to Grahmn, our hopes became reality. The tandem was a terrifyingly good time. Pedaling the back seat is all the fun of riding a bike without any of the responsibility or control. With time my worries began to ease, but my grip didn’t. I think it would take a few more rides for me to feel really comfortable on it. Brian’s roommates and friends, to no surprise, were friendly, welcoming and generous. It was an amazing potluck spread that included chocolate pudding made from goat’s milk from a goat that lived seven blocks away (a goat I think I fed on a walk the next day). I got back to the hotel smelling of campfire, one of my favorite smells, and sad that my time in Portland was running out.

In Portland when bikers go to the zoo, it’s the ride to the bottom that gets them to the top. Lucky for me, there is a train to get you to the top, so you can have all the fun of coasting to the bottom but not the intense workout that gets you there. The Rose and Japanese Gardens are also on the way down, giving new meaning to “stop and smell the roses,” which we did, over and over. Both gardens have vistas and aromas I’d be willing to pedal to the top for, and even though creepy koi filled the pond the water fall flowed into, it was a beautiful feature of the steam-line, traditional Japanese garden. After basking in the green haven, and taking in as much of the city in the few hours left we biked back to Steve’s to return the bikes. Our last hurrah in Portland was the Organic Beer Festival. It was my first festival of the summer, and a great way to start festival season. So, after sampling IPAs and a couple ciders, we hopped the train back to the airport to begin the red-eye journey back to the Midwest.