In
an effort to escape the mid-September heat of Phoenix, Frank and
I took a long weekend trip to Portland, Oregon.
After working our way through the Portland International Airport,
we found our hotel, the Portland Inn City Center, in Portland’s
downtown district. Hungry, we grabbed a late lunch and cup of coffee
and set out to take in a little of the city by foot.
We stumbled across Pioneer Music Co., a small, musical instrument
shop. We soon began to refer to the friendly folks at Pioneer Music
as our “musical concierge,” as they directed us to a number
of old-time music gigs going on around the city. Our first evening,
we went to McMenamins’ White Eagle Café, Saloon &
Hotel to watch a succession of duets playing songs from the 1920s
on their banjos, guitars, mandolins and fiddles.
On our first full day in Portland, we headed to the Saturday Market,
where local artists display and sell their goods. Street musicians
were dispersed among the booths to entertain, as well. After loading
up on souvenirs at the market, we visited some of the districts
of Portland that sounded interesting: the artsy Pearl District,
the uptown Nob Hill with its upscale boutiques and cafés,
and the bohemian Hawthorne district, to name a few. Then there was
the highly reputed seafood restaurant called Salty’s, located
on the Columbia River, where we spent way too much money for an
utterly disappointing meal. After dinner, we drove down to the Champoeg
State Heritage Area in Butteville for none other than a rustic barn
dance, where a fiddler and guitarist played tunes and a group of
about 10 people learned how to contra dance with the help of a skillful
caller.
Sunday morning brought us to a restaurant named Bijou for a 100-percent
organic breakfast. From there, we set out to see the sights of coastal
Oregon at two small towns: Cannon Beach and Astoria. At Cannon Beach,
you can find the locally famed Haystack Rock, a rock formation on
the shore that juts 235 feet out of the water at low tide. Astoria
has been the filming location for at least 24 films – “The
Black Stallion” and “Kindergarten Cop” are just a
couple of examples. The neighborhoods in Astoria are full of painstakingly
detailed Victorian homes. On our last evening in Portland, we attended
an old-time music session played by our favorite band, Foghorn Stringband,
at a quaint British-style bar called the Moon and Sixpence.
On Monday morning, we visited the Rose Garden in Washington Park,
where we spent our last hour as tourists in Portland.
The cooler weather; fresh, healthy food; friendly people; beautifully
rugged terrain; and comfortable atmosphere made for a fantastic
vacation. Next time we’ll stay a little longer..
