| Volcanoes of Washington Bike TourSeptember 10 - September 23, 2003 |
When we were looking for a place to stay in Portland, I did what everyone else does, I typed "portland motels" into Google and reviewed the results. One of the best sources of information was a site used by the USDA for students taking classes in Portland. It contains a list of reasonably priced motels with their addresses, phone numbers, and links to their web sites. There are also a number of other useful Portland links on the site.
The list of motels is a little out of date. The Imperial Hotel has been sold and completely refurbished as the Hotel Lucia. Billed as the hip place to stay in Portland, it lived up to it's billing. The very tastefully designed rooms are not large (it's a “boutique” hotel which I've discovered means “we've got real small rooms”), but they are well furnished. The toiletries are the sinfully luxurious Aveda products. The hotel staff are courteous and knowledgeable and we had a great stay there.
Upon arrival, with the help of the executive-looking bellman, we schlepped our bags and bikes into the room. Since we were already grungey from our morning ride we decided to check out the area on our bikes. It was a short ride down to the Willamette River and the trail along the shore. The trail was crowded with Saturday afternoon strollers and cyclists. Portland has done a good job of making use of both sides of the river with a park and trail. There are also good connections across the river. After our ride we convinced the staff to let us store the bikes in nearby storeroom that we later used for packing them in their boxes.
After a short exploratory ride we got cleaned up and went next door to Typhoon!, a Thai restaurant affiliated with the Hotel Lucia. What a surprise to find a good hotel restaurant with reasonable prices, another reason for staying at the Lucia.
A visit to Portland wouldn't be complete without at least one visit to Powell's Books, billed as the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. The store takes up nearly the entire block. A map of the store is useful, if nothing else to figure out how to find an exit after wandering in the stacks for hours. We made a quick foray into the section on books about the Northwest to try to find Portland Metro's bicycle map, Bike There!.
It turned out that we didn't really need the map. I picked out a couple of possible trips for the following day, but after the week of riding we decided it would be fun just to explore the downtown area on foot. For exploring a new city, you can't beat a bike, but when you just want to wander around a small area and check out the various sights and shops, having a bike can be a bit of a bother.
Our first destination was the Classical Chinese Garden near the train station, located about 5 or 6 blocks away. We wanted to get an idea of how far away the station was located since we planned to return to Seattle by train the following day. It wasn't far, conveniently located near the heart of town, but it was too far to lug our bags and my bike.
The garden is a lush oasis in the middle of an area of mostly office buildings. Unfortunately, even though it was Sunday, the road adjacent to the gardens was being repaved and during much of our visit we could hear the heavy equipment beyond the garden walls. We joined a tour and learned about the construction of the grounds. Without the tour we would have missed learning about all the symbolism used in the various sections, from the design and texture of the tiles on the paths to the shape of the rooftops. Before leaving we stopped by the tea house to sample from the many tea varieties offered.
We learned that the Saturday market, located a few blocks from the gardens, is also a thriving market on Sundays. It is similar to the Pike Place Market in Seattle without the fish. Local produce is available along with wares from local artisans. Purveyors of every kind of knick-knack imaginable are also there. We had lunch from one of the vendors and continued our walk along the shoreline trail.
It was fun to sit beside the river and watch the parade of people passing by on the trail. We could have spent the afternoon there but decided to move on. We passed a peace demonstration that was just breaking up near Portlandia, the second largest hammered copper statue in America, the Statue of Liberty being the largest. Instead of continuing on the route that I had laid out, we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. On the way we stopped for a minute at Pioneer Courthouse Square, another great people watching spot, where I completed a few quick people sketches.
We had planned to eat at Higgins Restaurant and Bar about 8 or 9 blocks from the hotel. Syd had suggested it and said he was eating there the night before with his son. To our dismay, the Portland Symphony, which was located nearby, was opening that night and the restaurant was full. The Higgins matre'd suggested trying South Park Seafood Grill not far away and we had an excellent meal there.
After we returned to the Lucia and packed our bikes we decided to take a break from the sightseeing and catch a movie, Winged Migration. It's hard to image a film entirely about birds flying, but that's basically the content and it was fascinating (at least the part I saw when I wasn't dozing). It had been a long day and long week.