Portland is proud of being weird
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A visitor pauses at the Moon Bridge, a landmark in the Japanese Garden of Portland. -
The new aerial tram was built to connect the reviving South Waterfront District with Marquam Hill, home of the Oregon Health & Science University campus. But travelers love the three-minute ride and one of the best views in Portland. -
The "Pillar of Books" sculpture beckons book lovers on the northwest entrance to Powell's City of Books. One patron loved the bookstore so much he had his cremains blended with the concrete for the sculpture. -
Sushi and a saketini go together at Masu, on the border of Portland's Pearl District. A "St. Helen's Volcano," made of whitefish, crab, scallops, shrimp and avocado flames with a volcano cream sauce, eel sauce and smoked bonito. It's paired with a cucumber-and-lime saketini made with wine from Portland's own SakeOne, the only American-owned sakery in the United States.
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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Like a glacial breeze off Oregon's Mount Hood, Portland blows away the cobwebs of same-old travel.
Instead of dutifully slogging through museums, how about pulling up a chair at a sidewalk cafe, sipping chai or a microbrew and asking your server where he'd go? Or renting a bike and seeing how many neighborhoods you could breeze through before happy hour?
And what's not to love about a city that embraces not one, but two, happy hours -- from about 5 to 7 each evening and then a second-wind version from about 10 p.m. to midnight?
Getting around:
It's easy to use light rail for the 38-mile trip from Portland International Airport into downtown. Just look for the MAX red line next to baggage claim. It's $2 or less per person.
In town, bus, train and streetcar trips are free within the Fareless Square; outside, the fare depends on how many zones you travel through. All-day tickets are available. All buses, MAX trains and streetcars are accessible for those with disabilities.
Looking for a pizza parlor or the nearest bus stop downtown? Just stop a Sidewalk Ambassador in the green-and-black jacket and ask. The "walking concierges," armed with PDAs connected to the Chamber of Commerce, will print out the answer on a slip of paper and point you in the right direction.
For more information:
Portland: Travel Portland; Phone: 1-877-678-5263; www.travelportland.com.
Oregon: Travel Oregon; 1-800-547-7842; www.traveloregon.com.
And why not? It's one of the key questions of the Portland mind-set, along with its twin, "What if?" Some Portlanders chant the city mantra "Think Different," while others echo "Keep Portland Weird." Weirdness is so institutionalized now that the Visitors Association hands out "Keep Portland Weird" bumper stickers. Codified weirdness -- can an entire city be an oxymoron?
Stand too close to a Portlander and you can almost hear the cogs clicking. What if we redesigned a city around people rather than cars? We'd need some buses, light rail, streetcars, an aerial tram and flex cars -- communal vehicles we could rent for a few hours or days. And oh, yeah, let's rip up the four-lane freeway along the Willamette (wil HAM et) River and make it a park.
For travelers, that means a fabulous Fareless Square -- a 330-block area where it's easy to hop on MAX light rail, shiny new streetcars, a trolley or a bus for a free ride to most of the city's shops, restaurants, museums and hotels. And don't miss the new aerial tram for a great view of the Willamette and the burgeoning South Waterfront District.
The former freeway is now the mile-long Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a jogging, skating, biking and walking path lined with cherry trees and grass. Portlanders are out on this tenacious little strip in all weather, determined to take back their river.
What if, they ask, we revived our old buildings so that the 1891 Historic Portland Armory became the new home to the Portland Center Stage -- the first building in America to combine status on the National Register of Historic Places with an LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating? It's now Victorian and virtuous.
What if the 1915 Kennedy Elementary School, set for a rendezvous with a bulldozer, instead became an entertainment complex? It just took a bit of whimsy to move brewery vats into the old "little girls'" room, a restaurant into the school cafeteria, bed-and-breakfast rooms into the old classrooms and tiny Honors and Detention Bars into the old janitor's closets.
Limited by strict Urban Growth Boundaries imposed on every Oregon city, Portland re-imagines its existing buildings. The 1888 cordage factory that made ships' ropes is now the exposed brick-and-beam home to Portland's oldest continuing craft brewery, Bridgeport -- one of 38 in the metro area. Need a designated driver after a spell at the bar? Just look up at the reader board and catch the next streetcar back to your hotel.
And there's always the playful side of nearly any Portland decision. What if we tethered toy horses to the old hitching rings in the sidewalk?
What if we sold Voodoo Doughnuts all night long through a speak-easy window?
What if I turned my old Elvis album covers into purses? Grandma's old tea towels into dresses? Hey, let's open a shop.
To savor the weirdness, it's best just to strike out into Portland's quirky neighborhoods, wandering in and out of shops, bakeries and bistros, and see what strikes you back.
Or bike it in one of the world's great cycling cities. Five thousand Portlanders pedal to work every day, so the bike lanes are sacrosanct -- as is the lane for skateboards and in-line skates.
Portland has spent decades and billions going green and invites travelers to see how it works. Visit Forest Park, the nation's largest urban wilderness, at 5,000 acres. But don't forget the world's smallest dedicated park, the beloved Mill Ends Park in a freeway median -- all 24 inches of it.
Yin/yang tension is palpable in this Pacific Rim city of 600,000, whose Asian populations give it such great Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants and shops. The Japanese and Chinese cultures have inspired two of the most authentic paradises outside their national borders, the Japanese Garden in Washington Park and the Classical Chinese Garden in the urban heart of Old Town/Chinatown.
The Japanese Garden is all serenity, raked gravel, stone lanterns and delicate bowed bridges. One little serendipity is a small stone statue of Jizo, protector of travelers, women and children. He appeared, anonymously and gift-wrapped, at the garden gates one morning and has guarded a pathway ever since.
The Chinese garden, set in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, is redolent of mock orange and lemony michelia, magnolia's cousin. The walled garden encompasses a city block, with pavilions for cultural events and contemplation. Open the wooden door to the Tower of Cosmic Reflections tearoom, serving Portland's own Tao of Tea, and the scent of jasmine envelops you.
The gardens were crafted by Japanese and Chinese experts, the rocks for the Chinese garden arriving in giant bags from Portland's sister city, Suzhou. When Portland's weirdness becomes too much, these are the city's great escapes.
Revived, it's back into the fray, district by district. Many travelers head first for the Pearl, an old, industrial area that now gleams with converted lofts, boutiques and nooks for drinking, dining and shopping.
Powell's City of Books, the world's largest independent bookseller, anchors the Pearl. With shelves stretching over a square block, Powell's is the place to roam for hours, dipping into the metaphysics room, maybe, then checking out the wall of Japanese manga books. Don't miss the Rare Book Room on the fourth floor, a sequestered spot with 14th-century folios and Al Gore first editions. Take the lift down -- it's the world's only three-door elevator.
On the edge of the Pearl, Masu rolls some of the town's most inventive sushi. It's often paired with saketinis made with rice wine from Portland's own SakeOne, the only American-owned sakery in the United States.
Portland's a drinking town, whether it's a Sunburnt Kiwi bubble tea at the TeaZone, a latte at the St. Honore Boulangerie, an Old Schoolhouse Pale at McMenamin's Kennedy School microbrewery or a glass of wine from any of the hundreds of Oregon wineries. In another fit of independence, Portlanders love to blend their own carafes at the Urban Wineworks, set in an old warehouse.
Like a chemistry class gone off the rails, the blending involves beakers and syringes, with guests tinkering with merlots and cabernets like mad scientists. The staff mixes a carafe to your specs, pastes on a label and sends you home with bragging rights as Portland's newest "nose."
There's so much to do in this city of dual happy hours that it's easy to stay up most of the night, fueled by hard-core Stumptown coffee and Voodoo Doughnuts' best seller, the Bacon Maple Bar. The circumstances are totally different, of course, but Elizabeth Wood, a pioneer on the Oregon Trail in 1851, summed up the whirlwind of a modern Portland trip.
"A lazy person," she wrote, "should never think of going to Oregon."
First Published October 28, 2007 12:00 am
