Lazy days in Portland

Portland has a reputation for alternative, organic, hippy, cycling lifestyle.  No wonder we chose to visit here.

Cycling round the city we have visited lots of the residential streets and they all seem to be lovely and wide and tree lined with lots of funky houses.  My favourite houses were these colorful ones

I am very happy to find a store where everything is either organic or locally produced and organic.  I have been quite worried about eating in the States, where chemical additatives and processed food are the norm, but Portland has been excellent.  I just hope everywhere else is this easy.

However, we are on holiday, so not every meal is as healthy as it should be.  We do indulge in the occasional lunch at the food carts.

Portland is well known for its food carts, there are hundreds of them, and not just run of the mill foods, there is exotic, gourmet and even a Scottish cart which serves deep fried haggis, and the menu notes that this is a Scottish speciality, but fails to elaborate any further!

I can't do justice to the extent of the food carts, and we have found that a video has already been made about them, so if you want to know more check out this link

https://vimeo.com/14785147

We also partake in a sample platter of beer!  Apparently, Portland has the highest number of breweries per capita, so it would have been rude not to try a few local brews.  Portland is also supposed to have the highest number of beards per capita, outside the Amish community, but I think we'll just take their word for that.  I do however notice that Stuart hasn't shaved for a couple of days, so it's as well that we are leaving on Saturday!

Most of our week in Portland is spent making the most of our shiny red bicycles and getting around town and exploring some bike routes.

I'm happy that we come across a street name that is almost my surname!

Stuart is happy to find a new friend.

We're very impressed with the number of bike paths there are around Portland, and we particularly like this path that has been built alongside the river.

One of our cycling trips we jump on the Max train and head to Washington park.  

This is at the top of a big hill, and I am so excited at a bike journey that is all downhill that I head to the bottom straight away.  Stuart then has to point out that if we had cycled the last few hundred yards to the very top we would have been able to go to the viewpoint.  It's such a gorgeous day that we jump right back on the train and go back to the top of the hill again.  The last few hundred yards cycling were indeed worth it for the views of the mountains nearby.

Another day takes us to the rhododendron gardens which were particularly colorful at this time of year.

Finally, we head out again on the Max train, this time out East towards the Columbia River Gorge.  The area is lovely and the weather is gorgeous.  We have been exceptionally lucky with unseasonably good weather in Portland this week.  We are however very surprised at the number of cars on the road. We were told this was a quiet route, but perhaps US versions of quiet roads are different to what we expect.  Stuart says that one of his Scottish pals refers to them as whizz ways, with cars whizzing past all the time.

So it's the end of our lovely lovely week in Portland.  We'll be sorry to say goodbye to the bicycles. 

One final thing at the end of our week in Portland, on Friday night we head to a Jazz bar, where we enjoy a really special evening of extraordinary music.  Definitely one to remember.