Day 16: Portland

Quote of the Day: "Thank you for your hostility"

Portland's Park in the Pearl District

Christina and Shaun

Willamette River

Lan Su Chinese Gardens

Powell's Rare Book Room

Pioneer Square

Pittock Mansion

Mt. Hood and Downtown Portland

Listening to Reggae in The International Rose Test Garden

The International Rose Test Garden

Oh Haley...

Fourth of July Jazz Festival at the Waterfront Park

            I woke up this morning without feeling any patriotic spirit (but I guess that’s pretty normal, even on the 4^th of July)… The rest of KECH sluggishly got ready while Estrella planned our PACKED itinerary for our day in Portland. I was working on finding a roommate for Georgetown, adding anxiety for me the rest of the day.

            At 11:11, Haley forgot to make a wish—apparently this was an end-all situation because I had asked, “What’s the issue.” Haha. By 11:40, Shaun (Christina’s cousin) called us up to go out to brunch in the Pearl District. We went to this hipster breakfast café that has a different menu everyday—certain dishes become ‘sold out’ as the restaurant runs out of food. After ordering, we sat and chatted with Shaun about his life. He told us a variety of stories; we learned a lot about being a doctor (boy, do they get sued a lot!). Despite the long wait for our food, breakfast was great and energized us for the walking we were going to do.

            Heading towards downtown, we passed by Portland’s shore and observed Portland natives as they tanned (they all come out to tan when it’s sunny I guess). We walked through the city and passed by the Chinese Zen Garden. Afterwards, we headed to Powell’s Book Store, the country’s largest used and new bookstore. We got our map of downtown there and became experts of Portland’s streetcar and public transportation system. With our new knowledge, we used the streetcar to go to Pioneer Square and bought some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while there (did I mention that Oregon doesn’t have sales tax?). When we finished exploring most of downtown Portland, we walked back to the apartment to get the car (our other destinations weren’t in walking distance). I made sure that we sang, “God Bless the USA” before we left. This really brought out our patriotism…!

            Next, we went to some mansion at the top of a hill with a beautiful view. From there, we headed to the International Rose Garden--it's a garden that has every type of rose in the world (Portland's climate is ideal to experiment on roses apparently). The Rose Garden was also the location of an Independence Day Festival that was also an event to support the legalization of marijuana. The music that played was…reggae? As we walked through the beautiful rose bushes, we also got to discuss our favorite flowers. Both Haley and Estrella like sunflowers best while Christina likes gardenias. I like lilies and tulips.

            We left the garden in search of dinner (which ended up being Subway-Hooray for $5 footlongs without sales tax!). After that, we went back to the apartment and changed our clothes to 4^th of July-appropriate clothing. Estrella also got to send her AP Scores. 

            By dark, we drove out towards the waterfront, heading to a Jazz Festival that was having a firework show at 10. We made it to the very front of the waterfront, right next to the huge stage. There were thousands of people there! Standing at the front of the port, we had the best view of the firework show. The whole spectacle felt very American, especially when Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blasted the crowd of cheering people. We were all insulted when the Canadians behind us complained about how Americans don’t sing along to the National Anthem. I mean c’mon, Canada Day was NOTHING special…

            Going back to the apartment, we had a long night still. Hopefully we won’t be too tired as we cross the border to Cali tomorrow!

Bests

• ·      Hanging out with Shaun
• ·      Portland’s great views
• ·      Not having to pay tax
• ·      Powell’s Book Store
• ·      Firework show at the Jazz Festival

Worsts

• ·      Haley almost missed the streetcar
• ·      Bunny ears by strangers who smoke bud