Portland, Oregon is a city I used to hear a lot about. There was a period of a few years, the mid-to-late 2010s, when you may remember Portland was having a real moment. This was during the same era when a certain type of people called "hipsters" were also having a moment, and Portland, from what I heard, was a haven for them, much like Brooklyn. There was also a TV show I never actually watched called "Portlandia." Someone where I worked in San Antonio, who I didn't particularly like, was always spending his vacations in Portland back then. I really got the impression that this was the place to be, and it was only last year that I finally consciously noticed that I just don't hear people talking about Portland like they used to.
In between leaving Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge on Monday, and showing up at Electric Forest for early arrival on Wednesday, I had a little bit of extra time. At first I wanted to use this time to travel west on a long-distance train from Seattle to Chicago, but I also wanted to do more than just look at scenery. I'd never been to Portland before, so I booked a train ride there from Seattle on Monday night, and then a direct flight to Chicago on Wednesday morning.
Monday, June 19, 2023
Three different Amtrak Cascades trains parked at Seattle's King Street Station. The one on the right is the one I was about to board, along with everyone you see lined up here.
I have nothing but good things to say about this train ride. The passenger cars were all old Horizon cars built in the '80s, but recently refurbished to look brand new on the inside, with nice seats. There was a dining car where I got dinner, and that dinner was a delicious bowl of clam chowder, which was probably the best food I've ever had on Amtrak. And the best part: the train was actually four minutes early! Scheduled to arrive in Portland's Union Station at 9:35, got there at 9:31. That's really impressive considering Amtrak trains outside the Northeast Corridor are almost always late.
I was too tired to try to figure out the local transit system, so I took an Uber to where I was staying, Lolo Pass Hostel, at Burnside and 16th.
Google Maps briefly said the Lolo Pass Hostel is permanently closed, and now it's no longer even listed on Google Maps. But the website is still there and it's still available for booking on Hostelworld so I presume it still exists. I sure hope it still exists, because it was one of the best hostels I've ever stayed at.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Lolo Pass really was a great place to stay. For breakfast I actually had a quiche with salad. This was only a hostel, but had a better breakfast than most hotels.
I had a lot of dirty laundry to wash, which I did next, and then hung everything to dry on my bed's frame. Yeah...I don't use dryers anymore since I don't want anything to shrink.
And then, I went off to explore the city. The weather was great. Looking at the weather report on my phone, it said Portland could expect cloudy weather with a high of 68. That was great to see, since the southwest and south were getting hit with much higher heat.
I wanted to go downtown, and wanted to do this by way of the light rail that I'd heard so much about, MAX. The closest MAX station to the hostel was the Lloyd Center station, which was a bit of a walk north from Burnside Street.
MAX Blue Line train waiting at Lloyd Center.
Lloyd Center serves three light rail routes, Red, Green, and Blue. It was the Red Line I rode west from Lloyd Center, over the Willamette River, and into downtown.
Looking northward down the Willamette River from a westbound light rail train. This river flows north into the Columbia River, and the city of Portland is built on both sides of it. Most of the city, including the hostel, is on the east side of the river, but downtown, including Union Station, is on the west side.
First, I had to do some clothes shopping, which I took care of at a Target. One thing that stood out to me at Target and the other stores I looked into there, was that every one had an armed security guard at the entrance. I didn't see anything like this in any of the other cities I visited that year.
After my shopping trip, now looking for lunch, I walked to Pioneer Square in the center of downtown. There was a cool event going on there, called Noon Tunes.
Local band playing the Noon Tunes concert in Pioneer Square. Apparently this was happening every Tuesday that summer.
There were food trucks around the square during the concert, so I looked around for one to buy lunch from. One was called Rollin' Fresh, and from here I got a Northern Lights Poké Bowl: salmon, shrimp tempura, ginger guac, cucumber, slaw, goma seaweed, poké sauce, and miso sesame tahini. I got to eat this while sitting on the stairs listening to the band, and yes, it was delicious.
With this trip being sandwiched between two music festivals, I decided I didn't want to do a whole lot in Portland, and just take it easy. So I didn't bother looking for any museums or tourist attractions to check out on this day. My next stop after lunch was a nearby mall where I wanted to do some more clothes shopping, but didn't find anything worth buying at Zara.
The Pine Street Taproom, inside the Pine Street Market at the corner of Pine and 2nd, was a great place to have some local beers. I had a couple pints here: the first was a Wolves & People Landbier, a dark lager, and the other was Double Mountain Hefeweizen. Those were both pretty good. They also have wine there, so I had some Portlandia Pinot Gris.
The only other thing I wanted to do, on a day when I was taking it easy, was find a pool and swim some laps. The one I found that was open was the North Clackamas Aquatic Park, in a suburb called Milwaukie. The Blue Line train brought me across the river where I could walk back to the hostel and gather my swimsuit and a towel. A much longer ride on the Green Line took me south into Clackamas County, where I stepped off the train at the Clacakamas Town Center mall. The pool was just a little bit of a walk from there across a few parking lots.
Later, after my swim, by the time the Green Line train brought me back to the vicinity of the Lolo Pass Hostel, the time was already 8pm, and I still hadn't eaten dinner. But the hostel had a great restaurant, as I learned at breakfast, and their dinner was wonderful too! I had a quinoa salad with shredded pistachio sauce, and some more beer to go with that. First, a Caldera amber, which was rather bitter. Second, Wolves & Peoples Newberg Lager, which I liked much better than the amber. Finally, 10 Barrel Pub Beer, which was another lager but I didn't think it was quite as good as the Wolves & Peoples.
Yeah, this is a really great hostel.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Today was going to be three hours too short, thanks to the time zone boundaries I was about to cross. I had to drag myself out of bed at 4:30 in the morning, a bed I was reluctant to get out of because I would be sleeping on an air mattress in a tent the next five nights.
I didn't want to take any chances trying to reach the airport with the light rail, so I rode an Uber to the airport. Baggage check and security didn't take too long to get through. On the other side of security, there was a great coffee stand where I got some coffee, not just a cup to drink but also a bag of beans to take home, and a Hangry Vegan wrap (cabbage, shredded carrots, tofu, and spicy peanut sauce) for breakfast. Pretty soon I was on a flight to Chicago where I'd be catching a ride to Electric Forest...
Well, that was a nice first look at Portland. What little I saw during that one day was nice, with some good food and a decent light rail system, although since I don't hear people talking about Portland nearly as much as six or seven years ago, I have to wonder if I showed up just a bit too late. Also, homelessness there looks to be a huge problem, with clusters of tents in nearly every green space, making me wonder if anyone can afford to live there anymore. This was quite a contrast with Chicago, where I spent a couple days a week later, and where I saw only one single tent the entire time I was there. There's still a lot to see in Portland and since I barely looked at anything, I'll have to go back.
Beyond Wonderland & Electric Forest 2023 Trip:
- Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge 2023
- Stopping for a Quick Look at Portland
- Electric Forest 2023, and a Chicago Restaurant Recommendation
- Getting a Look at Chicago after Electric Forest
