Eugene, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
So maybe the 80’s dance party and late night drive through until 4:00A.M. wasn’t the best decision when trying to adhere to a strict driving schedule, but sometimes these things are just essential.
So we departed Eugene, Oregon a little later that morning than anticipated and headed off to Portland, only about 2 hours north. We were all pretty anxious to see the city as we’d heard a lot about it. We lucked out with a beautifully sunny day and with little direction headed to the nearest coffee shop to balance our less than adequate amount of sleep from the night earlier. We quickly found out we’d arrived in the midst of the rose festival and were in store for a huge firework show that night. Once again our luck had reigned.
Portland was the type of city that in almost a Truman Story like fashion was surreal. Never have I been in a place, and perhaps it is because I currently reside in the city of brotherly tough love (Philadelphia), where everyone is so happy. Walking down the street everyone will say hello to you. Crossing the street cars will slam on their brakes to let you pass in front of them as if they’re honored by the opportunity. We stopped someone on the street to ask directions to a well-known brewpub and before we knew it had 5 people practically walking us to our destination.
These are only some of the subtle things that make it stand out though. The city has free wifi connection everywhere, which is paid for by local advertising. The public transportation is all free in the center city district as well which made it incredibly easy to get around. The city boasts a welcoming aura that makes you want to move in as soon as possible. Dan, Lisl, and I talked a lot about what makes a city develop like that in terms of attitude and sustainability as opposed to some of the others we’d seen, but I won’t bore you with such dictations. Oh yeah…they also had stellar beer, as Oregon is known for.
With few places to camp in the city center we’d planned on checking into Hotel Jetta once again after the fireworks and then one of Lisl’s friends called and said we could crash at his place for the night. A gift of god.
The only thing greater than knowing we had a floor to sleep on was the donuts we had at VooDoo donuts, an institution of Portland. This is a cult-followed, late-night donut shop that boasts such delicacies as donuts covered in icing and fruit loops, or a maple glazed donut with 2 strips of bacon on top. This only further clarified that Portland was one of the cooler cities I’ve seen so far in the U.S.
The infamous Made In Oregon sign. So touristy.
Dan eating his VooDoo donut. If you can't see, it is a glazed donut with vanilla frosting and fruitloops all over it.
This pretty much sums up the VooDoo donuts experience.
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