Portland

When I last wrote about our little road trip, we visited Mount Saint Helens and were heading south toward Portland. It is not a long drive from Mount Saint Helens and there were many cars with Oregon license plates. We made good time and found our way into the city and to our hotel, The Paramount, in downtown. Our room was on the seventh floor, overlooking Director’s Park. Here is a photo of the view from the room and a photo of the hotel from the park:

 

It was close to dinner time, so went to the closes place that was recommended for families on TripAdvisor and Yelp, which happened to be catty-corner to the hotel. The service and food at Pastini’s were great and we enjoyed our meal, but not as much as we enjoyed running through the fountains in the park after.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The air was pleasantly warm and it stays light very late, so we lost track of time. Bedtime was delayed slightly, but not much. The next day we didn’t want to get in the car, so after I went for a run and we had breakfast, we walked around the city. John took Fiona to a park behind the hotel while I ran, and then we went to Powell’s Book Store, where we spent at least an hour browsing children’s books and I bought many to bring home, including books I used to read as a child, like The Little Red Caboose and a nature book John used to have. Fiona loves books, so she did not mind spending time surrounded by them:

 

 

Fiona making a friend:

Interesting murals everywhere:

Of course Fiona found a wall to walk on:

 

We went home for nap and after, got lunch at the food stalls and ate it in Pioneer Square. Here is the old courthouse:

Pioneer Square wasn’t the nicest place to eat, but we found some steps with shade and people watched. We looked at some interesting public art and met a woman who loves math as much as I do. I took her picture as proof to show my students when school starts. She works for the government, doing computer stuff.

She was on a treasure hunt with her math major boyfriend. They were looking for the name of a city on this sign that only uses one vowel:

I took pictures of signs and Fiona climbing on stuff too, and

 

 

 

I guessed it immediately, but they took awhile. We left after the figured it out.

Here is Fiona climbing on stuff:

She looks like a little Pioneer in her little bonnet.

This is a statue in the middle of a road:

We learned from the math loving woman that there was a statue of the the goddess Portlandia not far away and went in search of that. I thought Portlandia was a term people used to make fun of Portland because of the hipstery vibe of the city, but it turns out she’s really a statue, and a large one at that.

 

 

After lunch, we walked to the river, but did not walk along it because we stopped by another fountain:

  

 

 

 

We met a nice man and his family who emigrated from Morocco a long time ago and now live in Portland. We chatted for a while, then walked back to the hotel. We attempted to eat dinner in a nice-ish restaurant but Fiona wasn’t having it. It was past dinner time anyway, so we got our food to go and ate it in the hotel. While waiting, we met a couple from Kansas who had a daughter who was less than a year old. I think I scared the mom because I guessed that her daughter uses a pacifier based on how her bottom teeth were growing in. I told her not to worry about it, but John pointed out that it was not the best thing to say. Oops!

And that’s pretty much all we did in Portland. Walk around, eat, and play in fountains. We want to go back because it seems like a great city to visit, with lots more to do than play in a fountain, but we did not have time on this trip.

Here is Fiona on packing day, sitting in her “toy box” suitcase, reading a book:

Note the hat that Bitty Baby is wearing. Yup, it’s one of Ben’s mom’s hats. It permanently resides on her head now and provided endless entertainments for Fiona during the long drive that followed our Portland stop. But that will all be in my next post.