We were slated to meet a friend of mine in the Pearl District. Instead of taking the streetcar (which is notoriously slow), we thought we'd walk it from our hotel...
Turns out we had a lot of time to kill. Too much time in fact. The downside was that it was cold and wet and I wanted to be someplace warm. Since it was a Sunday morning, a lot of places were still closed, but we found a Starbucks where we planted ourselves for a bit (while Bert nursed a coffee), then walked around some more.
The Pearl District is a former industrial area which, over the past decade or so, has been revitalized as an upscale area filled with lofts, art galleries, and other high end places. It's a mixture of old and new, as seen by this former brick facade across from Jamison Park.
To be honest, I wasn't really thrilled with this area of Portland. It was too cold, lifeless and devoid of any warmth unlike the other neighborhoods (Sorry to any Pearl dwellers who may be reading this).
Below, the French bakery where we met my friend (a colleague from another school who retired last year and moved up here)...
The views from the 9th floor viewing deck of her apartment/loft complex:
You can see one of the many bridges in Portland...
Her loft was gorgeous. It was like being in a model showroom. She was kind enough to drive us back to the hotel, which was a godsend because I was fighting a cold that I conracted earlier in the week. Walking back to our place in the rain didn't seem like a fun prospect.
After freshening up, we set out again. This time to check out The Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks. On our way, we drove parallel to the old Columbia River Gorge highway and saw many spontaneous waterfalls...
I had to open the window to get this shot and oh boy, did that wind really bite!
Below, a view of the Bridge of the Gods...
which leads to Stevenson, WA.
Part of this massive "fish wheel" as seen in the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum...
The museum also has the world's largest collection of rosaries (nearly 4,000).
The rosaries are numbered but not in order. So many different kinds!
Our pre-dinner snack was at a local tiny eatery just a short drive from the bridge.
The burgers weren't on par with In-n-Out and it definitely wasn't an upscale burger place either. Sometimes when you just want plain old greasy spoon grub...
A quick glimpse of Multnomah Falls as we headed back to the city...
Our flight the next day would be late so that way we could still enjoy the city and make any last minute visits...
By the way, the Portland Timbers lost against Real Salt Lake a few nights ago. Bummer, I really would have wanted to see Timber Joey fire up the chainsaw again and hold up a log slice over his head!
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