Snow and Empty Fountains

March isn't the best time to visit Portland: the fountains are empty, and it just might snow at the zoo. I spent last week wandering the streets of downtown Portland and I found it to be a delightful city. I loved the evergreen trees, the random sculptures sprinkled throughout downtown, and the many plazas. Unfortunately for me, it appears that the fountains are drained in the winter. Above is a picture of the Ira Keller Memorial Fountain which should be a complex waterfall, but as you can see, it's simply empty.

I spent three days getting to know downtown Portland. Perhaps it's my pessimistic side, but whenever I find myself in a new city, I'm always afraid I'll get mugged. I warmed up quickly to Portland though. In addition to the little plazas with benches (convenient resting spots), the downtown area also has drinking fountains every few blocks. Since I'm the type of person that can't go anywhere without my lotion, cough drops, and a bottle of water, I dug the water fountains.

What's more, Portland feels like the type of city where I could almost be in style. I'm not really fashionable and I've become even more acutely aware of that fact since moving to Los Angeles: I love flip flops, but otherwise I'm hopelessly unhip. During my first day exploring Portland, I worried that I was an obvious tourist. One of the many highlights of this trip was when a guy asked me if I was registered to vote in Oregon. At first I thought that meant I fit in. I figured that maybe my NorthFace backpack and the fact that I relied on my raincoat rather than an umbrella convinced him that I actually belonged in Portland. But I was also approached by two other people who wanted money. One was homeless and the other wanted me to join her environmental group, leading me to believe that I'm just an easy target. But I'd rather walk around looking pleasantly approachable than not.

Another highlight of my trip was Powell's bookstore (thanks to my friend Lisa for cluing me in). It's got all the organization of a Borders or Barnes and Noble and all the comfort and frugality of used books. There's just something wonderfully nostalgic about stumbling upon the Chronicles of Narnia as I remember them. I also found Spanish magnetic poetry and two different versions of Jane Austen (a plastic action figure and a soft, floppy doll). I think my personal favorite was the Gandhi doll. And I found something I have never seen before in my life: a road map of Bolivia. Of course when I looked at the magnified versions of Sucre and Cochabamba, two towns I thought I knew rather well, I couldn't find a single street name I recognized. Still, just the fact that there actually exists a Bolivian road map and that it's for sale in Portland, Oregon was pretty cool.

In addition to walking the streets of Portland, I spent some time visiting many of their museums. I happened to catch the much ballyhooed Lewis and Clark exhibit at the Oregon History Center, but I'm not really so interested in looking at copies of really old (and incorrect) maps or a compass that may have been used by those men, though I did like the stories about Sacajawea. The Portland Art Museum was more to my taste; I guess I prefer art over artifacts. Their collection is quite impressive and I would guess that the museum is larger than the Norton Simon and comparable or larger to the art collections at the Huntington. But best of all, it had art ranging from the Middle Ages to current times. We also visited the World Forestry Museum and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). We ended up at the Forestry Museum when we got to Washington Park where the zoo is located and discovered inches of snow on the ground (it had only been raining downtown). The museum has lots of new interactive exhibits including a smoke jumping simulator. I was so good at smoke jumping that I'm thinking about changing careers. We only got to spend a few hours at OMSI, but I really enjoyed their visiting exhibit on animation. They had stations where you could try out different aspects of animation from stop-motion to doing the voices. It's too bad it's only there temporarily.

Other cool things about Portland include their great public transportation system which is free within most of the downtown area. They've also got a fabulous information booth at Pioneer Square where people are begging to help you. It's conveniently located next to the Tri Met (public transport) ticket counter, so once you decide where to go, the Tri Met people can tell you how to get there.