First Impressions

We are officially in Portland, Oregon now and today we were total tourists. We went to the Portland Farmer's Market, held on the campus of Portland State University, right in the heart of downtown and saw an incredible array of gorgeous and succulent fruits and vegetables. We saw poblano peppers being roasted and saw fresh pastries displayed. We bought some local artisanal blue cheese, a loaf of mulit-grain bread made with a number of grains I'd not even heard of, some locally grown fruit, and half a pizza pie.

Cocoa managed very well in a crowded situation dodging people, carts, wheelchairs, and enjoyed all the wonderful smells. There were fish and beef and other good things for a doggie's nose. She really likes being a city dog.

We learned how to operate the Portland parking system as we made our way through town, stopping at various sites. We then had a snack at a bakery in the Pearl district, visited some fancy stores, and finished up with a cruise through Whole Foods, picking up some specialties for our kitchen.

Portland has nine bridges across the Willamette River and as of today, we have traversed five of them. The city is divided by this river into east and west Portland. We saw lots of cyclists today and almost everyone seems to have a dog. It is a "green" city in so many ways; cool and pleasant temperatures are the best of all. There are recycling bins everywhere, even in the fast food restaurants and bakeries. The city is amazingly clean and there are people with brooms sweeping the streets outside the stores, quite a surprise to see.

On an interesting note: in Whole Foods, there is an entire cold room dedicated to beer. This town has several microbreweries that produce specialty beers and Shirley is on a quest to sample as many as possible while in Portland.

So far, we have found the city to be wonderfully diverse with people who are friendly, open to differences, and accepting of every type of personality, politics, or persuasion. Freedom of expression is apparent just by observing the wildly varied attire
of folks strolling about or biking down the street on their way to and fro. Conformity is non-existent here and like the locals say, "Keep Portland Weird".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad