Portland has Breweries and Happy Hours like Seattle has coffee shops. Every corner on just about every street and often in the middle of the block. I also saw coffee places. For that matter, I really didn’t see more than one or two of your ordinary cafe. The pubs open at 1100 and serve lunch, pub food most like with a side of lineage for everything that is put on your plate. I am more than appreciative of farm to table but really do not need to know the name of the cow that produced the milk that became the cheese that graced my sandwich. For that matter – since I don’t believe in naming my food anyway – I really don’t need to know the name of the creature who died to provide that steak for the next table’s occupants.
It is also home to a lovely long River Walk, a lot of joggers and bicyclists and a significant cadre of homeless living along that same river under a couple of bridges or hanging in more than the occasional bridge. It gets cool, rains a lot but doesn’t often freeze or snow. The social support seems to be good, the VA by reputation isn’t and the city is really, really white. For that matter – so is Oregon. The editor of the Wiki article on Portland does a good job of describing the whiteness of Portland – it has much more diversity in its gender/gender choice mix than it does in racial balance. The rest I will leave up to you to read as you so choose.
George went on a wine tour and frolic out to the Willamette Valley – I hiked around the city instead. There were interesting buildings, there is Powell’s Books, and there is Pearl Fiber Arts where I had a lovely time fondling yarn, picking out handmade porcelain buttons and chatting with both the owner and a local dyer who was setting up a special box store for the weekend. Needless to say, I broke down and bought a bit of gradient dyed yarn to go along with the above mentioned buttons.