Portlandia

It’s been another busy week on the road as we continued our travels around Oregon.

We arrived at our next stop, an RV park NE of Portland and planned our next expedition. On July 29th we headed into the city of Portland using the fast and friendly MAX train. Our goal was to find Pioneer Courthouse Square and meet up with the “Secrets of Portlandia” free walking tour.

The “Secrets of Portlandia” free walking tour is actually one guy, Eric, who does an amazing walking tour around downtown portland twice a day in the summer time. He started the tour 5 years ago after doing similar tours in Spain and Portugal. He saw the need for a “pay what you wish” tour in Portland and has turned it into a successful business. It is at the top of Trip Advisor’s things to do in Portland. 

We learned a lot about the history of Portland, and laughed at the quirky things that make Portland unique:

• Portland got it’s name with a 2 out of 3 penny toss. Settled by two guys from the east coast, Portland was almost named Boston.
• The one square mile that defined the original Portland settlement cost 25 cents. 
• Thousands of large trees had to be removed to make room for the new town. The city founders cut down the trees but did not have the manpower or the motivation to remove the stumps from the ground. When settlers arrived on the Oregon Trail they saw a muddy landscape filled with large stumps. To this day Portland is still called “Stumptown”. 
• There are drinking fountains, called Benson Bubblers, all over town that constantly spout fresh spring water. The first fountains, around 20 of them, were installed around town directly in front of saloons. Men working in the lumber mills were encouraged to drink free water, not beer, to increase safety in the mills. It worked. The city of Portland later added more fountains and now maintains 52 throughout the city.
• Portland is a very “green” town and was one of the first cities to recognize global warming and greenhouse gasses. In 1993 the city made it a priority and citizens have reduced their carbon footprint over 26% since then. On average, most American citizens have INCREASED their carbon footprint by over 12%  since 1996.
• Speaking of fountains, there are dozens of beautiful ones around town and unlike most cities, you can wade and swim in them. Signs at many fountains remind you that it’s ok to get wet.
• Courthouse square is the Portland meeting place and hosts activities almost every day. On halloween they have a Zombie party where party goers dance to “Thriller” for 4 hours straight.
• Portland boasts the record for the largest and smallest urban parks. Forest Park covers more than 5100 acres, Mill Ends Park is a tiny circle in the middle of a street less than 2 feet across with an interesting story.
• There are over 70 microbreweries in the city and 400+ in the surrounding area. This is a beer loving town. They also have amazing coffee houses, giving us more reasons to avoid Starbucks.
• The 34 foot tall “Portlandia” statue (modeled after the city seal and protector of the city) is the second largest of its kind, after the statue of liberty. It sits over the door of the Portland Building but few people know about it because the artist retained all rights to the artwork and does not allow the image to be used for any commercial purposes. Even posting a photo of it on this blog could generate a law suit so I've provided an illustration instead :-)

We really enjoyed our tour and when it ended we headed to the river to check out the Oregon Brewers Fest to sample some home brewed beer. Full of beer and bratwurst, we wandered over to Voodoo Donuts. We spent the end of our Portland visit at Powell’s City of Books before hopping on the MAX back to our RV.

Portland is a great town we look forward to visiting again!

Follow this link to see other photos from our visit to Portland and surrounding areas: FLICKR Portland