This is the fifth of a
series of posts dealing with my tenth and most recent trip to Seattle as adult,
this time also covering Portland. I’ve made minor corrections to these
reports. What few updates there are
indicated by NOW in brackets.
Minor editing to fix typos/incorrect
names.
A bit noisy in here
last night, including someone’s battery going beep-beep-beep everyone once in a
while (with longer gaps as the battery died). This time it rained a bit even as
I was leaving the hostel though not for too long. I walked downtown, checking
out the square by the courthouse, where at a MAX station I got a daypass. I
visited the 7-11 that I’d asked directions at upon arrival, grabbed a free
paper, and visited Mills End Park and Salmon Street Springs. It was still very
early so I decided to walk across a bridge to the east side, gradually making
my way to Stark’s Vacuum Museum (not very big but free; a corridor of vintage
vacuum cleaners).
[NOW: The hostel was
Northwest Portland Hostel. The square is in fact called Pioneer Courthouse
Square. The bridge was Morrison Bridge. The Vacuum Museum has been significantly reduced in size.]
I walked to Everyday
Music (E Portland version) but it was still before 9 so I wandered around a
bit, getting photos of a giant rotating milk carton (Sunshine Milk), then back
to Everyday Music where I got some DVDs. I wandered past Lloyd Center for a
Subway breakfast, then at Lloyd visited Barnes & Noble. The mall’s most
interesting feature proved to be that it has an ice rink. I bought a couple
seasons of Six Million Dollar Man at Suncoat Motion Picture Co, took one more
look at the ice rink, then headed out.
[NOW: Sunshine Milk is now closed.]
I got on an east side
Portland Streetcar but soon realized first that it turned the wrong way too
soon and that it doesn’t automatically stop at every stop. I finally made it to
the library book store Title Wave. Fun place to find esoteric stuff, though
despite dealing in sometimes heavy books, their larger bags are paper, not
plastic. I had to improvise because the bag started to tear about a block
later.
[NOW: The Portland Streetcar was probably the A Loop; City of Portland.]
I got on a 44
mistakenly thinking it was an express 4 (all non-Portland Streetcar
transportation this day TriMet). Luckily It went north, just not northwest so
was able to correct course to Mississippi SE. Black Rose Collective was gone
but I visited Bridge City Comics and CD Game Exchange next door (same franchise
as the Gresham one; bought more DVDs). The 4 bus I wanted went by and tried to
find another route west, fearing a delay between buses. Dodging construction
for the umpteenth time trying to find a place to get across, I had a bit of
Willamette River, got off at JELD-WEN Field MAX Station, dropped off stuff at the
hostel, and ate lunch at the McDonald’s near the hostel.
[NOW: Black Rose Collection and CD Game Exchange are now closed. JELD-WEN Field MAX Station is now Providence Park MAX Station.]
I went to Pioneer
Courthouse Square again, this time getting bus schedules at the Tourist Info
place there. Music equipment was being set up at the square. I did one final
trip to the east, getting Vanilla Coke at a SE Belmont stop and then getting
DVDs at Movie Madness, which I wasn’t as impressed by last trip as the 2008
one. This time I found it more to my liking again. Lots of movie memorabilia
there, so I got permission to get photos. In fact I almost forgot my DVDs
there!
[NOW: The stop above
was at a Walgreen’s.]
More rain luckily
mainly while waiting in the bus shelter. Another 15 back downtown. I walked to
Powell’s, then took a Portland Streetcar back to the downtown core. I sought
out art pieces like the fountains with small animals, a pirate skeleton seen
earlier this trip (forgot to mention), a topless hooded woman.
[NOW: The art pieces
described above are Animals in Pools fountains, an unofficial art piece in
front of Glowing Greens, and Kvinneakt.]
I visited Mill Ends
Park once more then rested at the fountain. I then got on a Blue MAX train
(really been beating the odds with Blue; for all but three times this trip a
Red train had it come first would have worked just as well). I got off at
Washington Park MAX Station. I was just going to wander around, but the Oregon
Zoo was right there and only cost $11.50. I decided it would be a nice thing to
do at the tail end of the trip. I think if anything it does an even better job
than Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo at simulating a nature environment. Saw
penguins (and later bat) flying, female lions play fighting until they noticed
they had an audience, etc.
I went back to the MAX
station (accessed by an elevator trip underground) and took a Blue MAX train to
JELD-WEN Field MAX Station, in part because I had only got off before heading
the other way and wanted to find the other side’s stop for the trip tomorrow
morning. I almost had dinner at McDonald’s but reconsidered at the last minute
and went to Sbarro at Pioneer Place). I got on a Blue MAX train that said
Hillsboro (west), realized it was actually going east, got on a Blue MAX
heading in the right direction, and made it to my hostel to pack.
[NOW: That Sbarro is now closed.]
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