Mark and I have summed up our trip to Portland with the holy trinity: coffee, beer and scenery. CBS. Maybe that’s why Mark had incredible energy for all those hikes -- he was pumped up on coffee the whole time. His favorites in town were World Cup at Powell’s Books and Stumptown Coffee Roasters. As for the brew pubs, we enjoyed sampling at BridgePort, Portland’s oldest, and at Alameda Brewhouse, located near the pretty neighborhood of Laurelhurst and Music Millenium. I had to drop in that great record store for Matthew. When I asked the guy there about the “Keep Portland Weird” t-shirts on display, he said they had gotten the idea from Austin, and not the other way around! Then there was the jazz at Jimmy Mak’s. Now we know what all the fuss is about. Of course, we visited the Portland Art Museum to share our impressions with Elizabeth -- the vintage bicycle exhibit was quirky and fun -- but we preferred the Oregon Historical Society exhibits on the state’s history and culture. We did take one morning to ride bikes along the waterfront. I would say the bicycles and food trailers and streetcars are the city sights that stay with us. But the Classical Chinese Garden and especially the Japanese Gardens were beautifully serene and reminders to us of Portland’s cultural diversity. The music attached is from The Shins, a band based in Portland.
