Portland, OR

I left California first thing in the morning heading to Oregon. I was hoping to stop in mountain biking hotspot Oakridge, OR to enjoy some of the trails, but the weather was cold and threatening to rain, so I opted to save some time and stay on the freeway. I made it to Portland sometime in the late afternoon, with enough time to check into the hostel I was staying at and explore the downtown area a little bit before dark. I made it downtown in time to check out a few stores and pick out somewhere to get dinner. One of the most prominent downtown businesses is Powell's City of Books, which claims to be the worlds largest bookstore, which takes up an entire city block and is four stories high. I went inside and promptly got lost wandering around the giant store. I did eventually find my bearings and was able to pick up a good used copy of Keroauc's "On The Road," which is any road trippers bible. The next morning I was up bright and early, ready to hit the town. The weather was pretty wet and rainy, but I thought of that as being a part of the Pacific NW experience so I hopped on my bike to go. It did not take very long to realize that this was a mistake as my jeans got soaking wet and I started to freeze. Fortunately, Portland is the kind of town where you can pull over pretty much any time and walk into a store to buy a new pair of Gore-tex pants for half off, which is exactly what I did. I went back to the hostel to change into dry clothes and set off again. I went down to the waterfront to hang out around the waterfront park, and see Mill Ends park, the worlds smallest park, which is right next door. While I was in the area, I went to grab some lunch at an all veg chinese restaurant in Chinatown and continued exploring downtown, this time in the area of Portland State University, and made sure to scout out a good route to the Amtrak station where I would be heading first thing the next morning.

Waterfront Park