Our summer vacation this year is to Portland, Oregon. Why, you may ask? Well, for one, we had a good time visiting Eugene, Oregon many years ago when we were there for a conference. There's also a lot of stuff to see and do there, as I've been learning all day long by using the Web and a Frommer's guide. My short list so far includes: 1) An M.C. Escher exhibit at the Portland Art Museum; 2) The Portland Classical Chinese Garden (in Old Town Chinatown, which would be my first ever "Chinatown" visit anywhere); 3) the Saturday Market, a huge arts and crafts fair; 4) The 3D Center of Art & Photography, with an exhibit of View-Master human anatomy reels; 5) lots of shopping, including Powell's City of Books, a couple of collector's record stores, and a men's underwear store (!!--see pic at bottom); 6) lots of interesting restaurants.
The real reason we're going there, however, is so Don can attend the Sock Summit, a huge 4-day conference for sock knitters, which he most certainly is! He's planning on taking a few classes (though frankly he should probably be teaching a few as he does here in Columbus on occasion, on his toe-up knitting style) and buying some yarn, and we have a Saturday dinner planned with some of his fellow online knitters. While he's knitting, I'll be roaming the streets of downtown, attending to shopping (of which he is not a big fan) and probably eating too much, and when we're together, we'll be doing arty things and, yes, eating too much.As I said, I have pages of notes on things to see, and Google Maps by the score ready to print out, but if anyone has any recommendations, comment away. I'll report back here next week.
I hope you have a terrific trip, and that the heat wave is well and done by the time you're there!
ReplyDeleteIf you have a car, I'd recommend a trip out to Cannon Beach on the coast--absolutely stunning (and you can make an easy side trip to the Tillamook cheese factory from there, too)!
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know if it's still open, but in downtown Portland, the "24 Hour Church of Elvis" was kind of a weird and campy little hole-in-the-wall, uh, "museum"? Performance-art piece? Kind of hard to describe, but interesting.
Have a great time!