Thursday, September 12, 2013...

 

Jackson Tower, first electrified building in Portland

 

 

 

Up at 7:30 AM for coffee, cereal and banana...then leisurely got ready to head into downtown for the Pink "Hop On, Hop Off" Trolley.  Pat, Sharon and I left at 9:45 AM made it through morning traffic to Nordstrom, finding parking nearby in the Fox Tower.  We got our 3 tickets and daily schedule for the 11:00 AM trolley tour and headed to Starbucks for PSL and waited for the trolley to arrive across the street.  We were soon headed up Broadway Street, which we learned was once home to many theaters, but now is mainly a shopping district.  Next to Starbucks was Jackson Tower, the first electrified building in Portland, and Pioneer Square Courthouse. 

One of the large one-family homes in the wealthy district

Beautiful mansion on the hill overlooking Portland

 

 

 

 

One of the many beautiful roses in the
International Rose Garden

Interesting arch & seating area in the Rose Garden

Pat & Sharon Rose...under an arch of roses

 

 

Amazing fragrant award-winning rose

Artist capturing beautiful roses on canvas

 

 

Turning off Broadway we entered a street leading up a hill, which was a very wealthy area with large one-family homes.  Our first stop  was Portland's International Rose Garden, with an amazing array of more than 500 varieties of roses.  There were roses of every hue, style and fragrance covering the beautiful terraced grounds with arches, fountains, and en plein artists at work capturing the abounding beauty on canvas.  The rose garden is a part of the over 16,000 acre Washington Park...the largest city park in the United States.  The Portland Zoo is part of this park, which also includes a statue of Sacajawea and a column honoring Lewis & Clark.

 

Wild flower with "lantern-like" blossoms, as well as the white star flower

View of Portland from Washington Park

Stone column to honor Lewis & Clark

 

 

Our next "hop off" was to stop in a unique shopping area with a Paper Source store on the corner.  Of course art teacher, Sharon, was in 7th Heaven as we entered the store whose catalog had provided her with many wonderful art supplies.  Pat & I also enjoyed the many specialty papers, cards, envelopes, and creative paper projects on display.  It was easy to spend an hour in this shop, but soon it was time to catch our Pink Trolley and "hop on" to discover a new area of town.

 

Abandoned warehouses made into trendy lofts
in the Pearl District

 

Pearl District street sign

 

Our next stop was the Pearl District, which was once filled with warehouses and light industry.  Due to a renaissance within the past 20 years, warehouses have been turned into lofts...occupied by artists.  Therefore, the "pearls" have been found within abandoned buildings...restaurants, breweries, galleries, and trendy shops abound.  We first headed to the world's largest independently owned new & used bookstore, Powell's Books.  Taking up two city blocks and 4 floors...it was overwhelming to shop in this store.  I headed to the children's books area, and found a special book for each of my 5 grandchildren.  I met Pat & Sharon at the checkout, then headed up the street to Deschutes Brewery for lunch.

World's largest book store....Powell's Books

Column made up of class books, supporting
Powell's Books entrance

 

The large restaurant had beautifully carved beams, and oversized booths, along with windows allowing you to view the massive brewing equipment.  We were seated right away, and we ordered sandwiches to split...turkey sandwich and a cheeseburger.  They provided a side of delicious pickles, their own, that had an unusual floral taste.  When we asked about them the waiter really didn't know anything about the flavoring, but nicely offered to bring us more.  Yum!  We had spent so much time at Powell's Books that we had to hurry a bit to catch the Pink Trolley. 

 

 

Twin glass towers at the Portland Civic Center,
built to honor the World Trade Center

 

The really nice thing about the "Hop On, Hop Off" trolley system was that we could stay 2 hours at one location, follow the schedule, and know we would get picked up after the extended time.  Just as scheduled the trolley picked us up as we headed to the "Old Town" area of Portland.  On our way the tour guide pointed out the Chinese section of town, the Gold West Hotel, where Chinese railroad workers stayed, and the Portland Civic Center, with twin glass towers built in honor of the World Trade Center.  The guide explained that they are only lighted on 9/11...which we had gotten to see last night.

 

 

 

Gas street lamps are painted red and white in Chinatown area

 

 

This hotel housed many Chinese
railroad workers

 

 

The tour guide dropped us off one block sooner, since we said we were headed to world famous, "Voodoo Doughnuts", then we hiked the four blocks to the shop.  We had heard stories of great lines of people, waiting for a long time just to enter the Voodoo Doughnut shop, so we were pushing to get their as soon as possible.  Seeing the sign ahead, we noticed that there were only about 5 people in line outside the main entrance.  Good!  Now we just hope they have doughnuts left for us to enjoy!  YES!  There were so many unusual varieties, flavorings and decorations on all of their doughnuts.  And their signature "Voodoo Doll" red jelly-filled doughnut, with a pretzel "stake" thru its heart was readily available.  Of course we wanted a BOX for our doughnuts...and we started choosing the kind we wanted.  We got bubble gum flavored, a maple frosted one with bacon slices, beautiful "web-like" iced doughnuts with lemon or Bavarian cream, an apple fritter, and of course, 6 Voodoo Dolls, so we'd have enough to share for breakfast tomorrow.  We ordered some fizzy drinks, and some souvenirs, then headed to an outdoor patio to taste at least one of the tempting treats before heading back to our trolley stop.  The doughnuts were even more delicious than they looked!

Famous original "Voodoo Doughnut" sign

 

 

Should we get a box or COFFIN of
delicious Voodoo Doughnuts??

Interior of the funky doughnut shop

Lots of different varieties on the menu board

Here's the famous "Voodoo Doughnut"....filled with blood...
I mean strawberry jelly!

Crazy stained-glass windows & chadalier in the shop



We'll take a box of Voodoo's to go!

 

Now for some exercise...taking the walk, a little more slowly, back to the trolley stop in front of an historic iron building built by Willamette Iron Works in 1885.  The Fechheimer and White Building at 233 SW Front Street, was built for $7,000.  On the corner was an historic "Benson Bubbler," one of 52 found around Portland that had been a gift to the town by wealthy industrialist, Simon Benson.  As the story goes, Mr. Benson, did not drink alcohol and wanted to encourage people, especially his workers to drink water.  The bubblers made water readily available to workers as well as visitors to Portland.  Since the trolley was 15 minutes late, I called the dispatcher to check on the situation.  He said he'd check with the driver...but it was most likely due to traffic.  The traffic was very heavy, and finally a the Pink Trolley appeared about 15 minutes later.  We weren't making any more "hop off" stops, but did head into the waterfront area to pick up guests at the last stop.

 

Plaque on the historic structure

Historic Fechheimer Building

 

Benson Bubbler

Park along the Willamette River

Heavily travelled bridge across the river

 

 

Our Pink Trolley

 

We finally made it back to the Trolley station, where Pat & Sharon ran into Nordstrom for a pit stop, while I ran back into Starbucks to buy some freshly ground coffee for us to brew for our breakfasts.  We headed out through the busy downtown traffic, and made our way to I-5.  As we neared our exit, we decided to take Sharon across the Columbia River so she could say that she had been to Washington during this adventure.  There were many beautiful sailboats cruising on the Columbia as we crossed into Washington, made the turn around and came back.  Arriving back at the condo, we felt we had accomplished a lot in our first "official" visit in Portland.  Now, what should we do tomorrow?