You just have to love a city with a motto like that. Don’t know if it’s the official one, but it wouldn’t surprise me. There is a fairly aggressive counter-culture vibe here, so seems like whatever they are doing is working.
Now, if you want prompt service and your bill to be accurate, you may just want to chill or move to say, Chicago. But if you only occasionally feel like paying your streetcar fare, and you need tattoos and piercings to emphasize your own unique personality, this is the place to be young, relaxed, and creative in some way, shape or form. And it’s all cool.
We started in the Pearl District this morning, travelling via streetcar. (We did pay our fares.) We walked around and saw the famous Powell’s Book City, stopped into the lovely First Congregational Church, and saw that Hugh Laurie was performing with his Copper Bottom Band tonight. We toyed briefly with going but it was mostly sold out, though it did get us into the Portland Symphony Hall – lovely. Sorry, Hugh. But we did take a walk through Nordstrom’s – always a treat.
Then it was off to the Art Museum. Small, with some lovely pieces.
We had to see the Native American section. Denver’s collection is still tops in that category, but this had wonderful things – and a totally different style of art and dress.
To eat lunch in Portland without visiting their legendary food trucks would be a shame. So we had to make some tough choices, based on the length of lines each of them incurred. For me, it was a fabulous Egyptian gyro; Don went for dumplings from the Dump Truck. Yummy on both counts.
Then it was off to Nob Hill, the center of which is NW 23rd Avenue, filled with goodies and shops, with wonderful old homes on the side streets. We had ice cream to die for, and a nice afternoon walk in a city that seems to have something for everyone – even two crotchety geezers like us.
