i even caught a squirrel running across the telephone lines!
here we are outside the steps to brandi's 2nd floor apartment, note the 5 layers of clothing that was still not enough to keep me warm the whole day.
first stop... the portland saturday market! it was pretty cool, like the swap meet except with quality things. plus, in order to be a vendor, your products had to be locally made and not mass produced, so there were a lot of cool things. unfortunately, nothing for me to buy, but still great stuff.
even though the forecast said the temperature was finally above freezing, we still found spots of snow and ice. the entire market was OUTSIDE (crazy people) and some tents had little space heaters... so at least we found a little bit of shelter. i had hot pho for lunch, which wasn't really great pho, but it was so warm that it tasted like a bowl full of heaven.
around the market was a park (we're now on the other side of the williamette river, on the opposite side of the museum) which was very cool. lots of stone paved walkways and old-looking street lamps. we're kind of in a historic district right now so all the architecture and surroundings were very nice.
after the market i was feeling like a popsicle so we stopped off at stumptown (fancy coffee chain) for coffee. i don't think i've ever drank so much coffee in the span of 4 days (or ever) in my life. but it was so cold that everytime i saw one of those hot, frothy drinks i wanted one. coffee shops were pretty happening places too, i don't think i ever saw an empty one, and each one was very lively.
after warming up for a bit we headed to pioneer square... it's a shopping district, but we went there to see a tuba christmas concert! well, it sounded kinda neat at least. when we got there they were still setting up (i think they said there were 200 tubas there) so we waited in the cold with everyone else (and there were a surprising amount of people waiting out on the icy steps to hear a tuba concert). then a super old guy came up (he was the conductor) and like an old geezer talked endlessly trying to introduce the band, it would have been comical except that by that time we were frozen solid and just wanted them to hurry up and start because we had to get to our walking tour very shortly. anyway, we ended up only hearing 2 songs (which were like 2 minutes each, it was weird) before we had to catch a train to our walking tour.
GO BEAVERS!
our tour was called a portland underground walking tour, because it was all about crime, sex, and other shady business. we started out exploring some underground tunnels, all the building in portland have underground tunnels to move goods, drain floodwaters, and (allegedly) kidnap people from their homes and force them to work on the export ships! here's one tunnel (it was closed up by the police) that may have been used for that purpose...
in the underground basement of a pizza parlor we sat in the dark and heard these kinds of stories, shanghai-ing, illicit trade, etc. i don't know what this sign was, our tour guide didn't know either because there really was nothing else in this basement except bricks, dirt, and more tunnels. but he said lots of people take pictures by it... so we did too.
after the undergroud we walked through more of the district and were told stories of corruption, brothels, and bars. it was pretty interesting stuff, mostly because the history was all pretty recent. i think his theme was "history repeats itself" because a lot of the places that he told us stories about were either still in existance or have come back in another form. for example, we walked along one stretch of the city that was mostly bars, clubs, etc, and when the city was first beginning those were the same kinds of establishments that portland was founded on.
we rode the tri-met a lot of places, it was cool because it's free within a certain area (then you just pay if you want to go beyond that area).
finally for dinner we ended up at rock bottom brewery. portland is famous for their multitude of microbreweries and this one was pretty good, i got the sampler...
this picture came out blurry, but i put it in here because immediately after taking this picture we were approached by an old man who asked us, "are you okay?" then, without waiting for our answer, promptly followed up that question with "you got any weed?"
after getting home for a bit, we decided to go back out to a mcmenamin's pub. it's a chain, but each establishment is pretty seperate. like this one was an old school that they turned into a resturant, bar, movie theater, hot tub place, etc. it was pretty darn cool, they really didn't change anything about the school, so walking down the halls you have your choice of getting a drink in any one of the seperate classrooms, the teacher's lounge, go for a hot tub soak or grab a pizza, pitcher of beer and watch a movie! we saw zombieland (awesome!). which was appropriate because on the way out we walked past this painting in the halls... creepy...
i liked that place a lot, i think i would go drinking there any day. later on i found out that my cousin (who lives in oregon) had her wedding reception in the gymnasium! coincidence huh? and at the time (before i knew about this place) i was thinking, "a wedding reception in a school gym? that's a weird thing, but i guess they do that on the mainland." now i realize it must have actually been pretty cool!
day 4 - coming soon....
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