Portland, OR

This is the Portland Building and the second largest hammered copper statue in the world, second only to the Statue of Liberty. It is known as Portlandia. Note Robert on his bicycle.
We were really impressed with Portland. It is a beautiful city. We got our bikes out and rode all over the city. This is a bike riding city, and very green conscious. There were people everywhere, and on a Saturday and Sunday. We went to a large outdoor market that was all artsy craftsy. There is a China town, we went into Powell's City of Books, the world's largest independent book store, and we didn't even make a dent in the breweries. Portland (Beervana) has more microbreweries and brewpubs per capita than any other city in the US. Portland is also known as the City of Roses, and the City of Bridges. There were seven bridges just in the downtown area we rode in, all across the big Willamette River. There are over 200 parks, a Japanese garden, a rose test garden, and a classical Chinese garden.


While at Champoeg State Park we did a bike and hike to the Willamette River dock. In 1996 there was a flood and the water was up to the little sign on top of the pole on the right. So now all the docks are floating and leave a lot of room to rise. Any houses are built up off the river and have little dolly lifting systems to bring stuff up from the water.