2. Street Scenes

Portland

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Penguins plot their escape from the Oregon Zoo.
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Penguins plot their escape from the Oregon Zoo.

Oregon Vacation 2009Oregon ZooPortland

  • Another scene of the former warehouse area known as the Pearl District -- or, to me, "Portland's Yaletown."
  • Street scene in the Pearl District. I love the "Go by Streetcar" sign, which mimics the "Go by Train" sign that has long adorned Portland's Union Station.
  • An interesting park in the north end of the Pearl District recreates the wetlands once found in the Willamette River Estuary.
  • Many of the streets in Portland's Pearl District provided inspiration for character names in The Simpsons, whose founder Matt Groening is from Portland. In addition to Lovejoy street, there is also a (Sideshow Bob) Terwilliger Boulevard, a (Mayor) Quimby Street, a Flanders Street, a Kearney Street, a (Millhouse) Van Houten Avenue, a Montgomery (Burns) Park and even a Springfield, Oregon to the south!
  • A freeway runs through it: this is the I-405, a freeway loop running through Portland and connecting it to the I-5 on the east side of the river. It's big and ugly, but somewhat better handled and less divisive than the massive double-decked I-5 freeway that cuts Seattle right down the middle.
  • Another view of the Pearl District, "Portland's Yaletown."
  • A monument in Portland's South Park Blocks, a one-block-wide park that runs for about ten blocks long (Portland has pretty short blocks), providing a welcome respite in the middle of the city.
  • This is the newly rebuilt transit mall in downtown Portland. Since the 1970s, two north-south downtown streets have been designated bus corridors. These streets have now been reconfigured to carry MAX trains as well as buses.
  • The old Portland Armoury in the Pearl District has been remade into a very lovely theatre.
  • A Mandrill plucks its toenails at the Oregon Zoo.
  • It was a pretty flower and I had a nice lens for it. I don't know what else to say.
  • An intriguing piece of interactive public art, at a station on Portland's new WES commuter rail service.
  • Our favourite hotel in Portland: the Governor, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. We got an excellent price for this hotel on Hotwire.
  • A pretty swanky Starbucks, in the lobby of the Governor Hotel in Portland.
  • A Portland MAX train at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland.
  • A fascinating display inside Washington Park MAX Station. This station is the deepest underground subway station in the western hemisphere (only Moscow and Pyongyang have deeper stations). Stretched out along both platforms is a glass tube containing one of several core samples drilled while this station was being planned. Interpretive displays on the wall give information on the age of the rock, its composition and origin.
  • Penguins plot their escape from the Oregon Zoo.
  • Another specimen at the Oregon Zoo. Rather less cuddly-looking than the polar bears.
  • One of the Oregon Zoo's two polar bears.
  • Lobby of the Governor Hotel, where we stayed in Portland at a fabulous price, thanks to Hotwire.
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