After exercising, it was time for my "Best of Portland" walking tour. The tour started right in front of the hotel, how's that for easy access! The tour lasted a little over two hours. I'm really glad I went on the tour. I learned about the history of Portland and some of the buildings and I picked up a lot of trivia about buildings and public art that I wouldn't have known.
One of our first stops was Pioneer Courthouse Square, "Portland's living room".
This woman is standing in an interesting location. When you stand on the circle in the center and speak, you can hear your words amplified back to you as if with speakers.
Portland wanted their own symbol for the city so they commissioned an artist to create this statue. She's the 2nd largest hammered copper statue in the US, after the Statue of Liberty. Don't recognize her? That's because they allowed the artist to maintain rights to all likenesses of her and he doesn't allow her to be put on t-shirts, magnets, etc.
Trompe l'oiel on a building commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition.
As we were going around on the tour, we walked past a street fair with delicious smells. I already had plans to eat at the Loving Hut with Dode, but the memory of those smells kept calling back to the street fair instead. Once I caught up to Dode at lunch time, we headed out looking for Loving Hut and I was forced to walk right through the street fair again. But, we had no cash so our choice was made for us. The food at the Loving Hut ended up being fine, nothing to make the taste buds get all excited about. After dropping Dode back at the hotel, I grabbed money from the hotel room and headed back to the street fair to find dessert. As I wandered around, I felt like we'd really missed out by not eating there. Live and learn!
Some goodies I picked up when I went back.
I grabbed my bike and headed over to OMSI for the afternoon. It was a sunny but very windy day. I had to pedal across the Hawthorne bridge and I really had a hard time. The wind was blowing so hard it was pushing me sideways. I'd try to lean into the wind but then it would let up and I'd be tipping over the other way.
My first stop at OMSI was the submarine tour. I had to decide between that and an IMAX movie and I am so glad I chose the submarine. The volunteer tour guide was very entertaining and it was a great way to spend an hour.
The Blueback, America's last diesel sub. If you've watched The Hunt for Red October, this is the sub you saw. This sub was used for both the Russian and US scenes.
They controlled the diesel engines from this control table. The entire room was covered with dials and levers. I don't know how they kept track of everything!
After the sub tour, I spent two hours touring through the rest of OMSI. It was a bit of an odd feeling to visit a science center, which is geared a lot toward children, as a solo adult. It was great to get to read all the information they provide.
Inside one of the rooms at OMSI
When I finished at OMSI, I had time for a bike ride. I rode up the east side of the Willamette River on a multi user trail to where the trail ends and it passes over a bridge before heading down the west side of the river on another trail. I made it back to the hotel a few minutes before Dode was supposed to be done with his meetings and found him already there.
We set off to find the Waffle Window. They serve Liege Sugar Waffles, a European style waffles the owner learned to make and then perfected. If I lived in Portland, I'd eat here a lot!
Our dinner, ham and cheese waffle and peanut butter perfection waffle (peanut butter mousse, bananas, blackberries, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, peanuts). Our dinner came to $9. You can get a plain for $2 or a waffle dipped in Guittard dark chocolate for $3.
After the Waffle Window, we fought the traffic to drive to Powell Butte Nature Park. It is an extinct cinder cone volcano that has an expansive plateau. The park is 600 acres and has miles and miles of walking trails. The plateau was originally cleared as an orchard, then operated as a dairy for over 40 years before being converted to a city park.
We got to the bottom of the access road and found this sign. Bummer! They are currently in the process of constructing a 50 million gallon underground water reservoir on it. We had nothing better to do with our evening so we walked up the road. We thought we'd have the place to ourselves but a surprising number of people had also decided to walk in. The top of the butte is cleared grassland. I thought maybe we'd get a good view of the lights of Portland but some evergreens were always just in the way.
We did get to enjoy watching the sun disappear behind the hill. We walked back to the car in the dark and headed back to the hotel, another full day behind us.
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