New Day #198

My friend Tim is a walking Chamber of Commerce. Every time I'm out with him, he's pointing out a building or a business and telling me its story. ("You haven't seen the view from Rocket? C'mon, let me show you..." )

To stroll the streets of Portland with him is to see the city with new eyes--his passion for this nutty town knows no bounds.

But here's what he does that's totally new for me: if he wants to check out a restaurant or a bar or a store, he just goes in to wander around. As incredible as it sounds, it never occurred to me I could do that. I would never go into a restaurant or bar unless I was planning on buying something.

So Tim and I toured ten different spots, which not only gave me an overview of places to go, but provided a marvelous night of walking and talking.

Seriously, try it sometime.

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New Day #180

See downtown Portland. See the big hill behind it? I live on the other side of that hill, seven miles away. Today I biked downtown and back. Which means I biked up and down that big hill.

This video explains how I feel:




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New Day #146

Eighteen years I've lived in Portland. Eighteen years. And still I don't know the order of the streets downtown. There's simply no order to them. For instance, we have Jefferson and Madison right next to each other with Washington seven blocks away. Meanwhile, Columbia is nowhere near the Columbia River and Main isn't the main street at all.

Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. This is a city where the numerical streets going the other way are 1st through 6th, followed by Broadway (7th), then Park, then Park AGAIN, followed by 10th and up. That's right, we have two streets going opposite directions with the same friggin' name.

Welcome to Portland.

So I finally decided once and for all to come up with a mnemonic device to remember the streets with names.

First, the streets: Market, Clay, Columbia, Jefferson, Madison, Main, Salmon, Taylor, Yamhill, Morrison, Alder, Washington.

Now, the mnemonic device:

The market for clay columns of Jefferson and Madison are maintained by Sammy the tailor, who yammers for more aldermans' washing.

I'll let you know if it works. In the meantime, here's Petula Clark singing "Downtown."




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