Portland & More

Yes, it has been awhile, hasn't it?

I have a good excuse. I have travelled to Vancouver, Skagway, Vancouver, Portland and Vancouver again in the past 3 weeks. I have also worked on homework, writing articles, work and contract work. Yike!

Portland was really cool. It is quite the indie/hip city, with record shops, charcuterie platters, artisan cheeses, indie ground coffee and microbrews galore. It also rained a lot. And was freezing. I was rather unprepared for that, as it was +18 in frosty ol' Whitehorse so I figured if it is warm here, it must be warm everywhere else! Not so...

We stayed at the Ace hotel: www.acehotel.com/portland
And it was very hip. Very cool. I loved it! You do have to be pretty intimate with your travel buddy/room share person, as our room's shower was right in the room. The toilet, mercifully, was in a room of it's own.

We ate at so many restaurants, I wanted to eat everywhere! They had the coolest food (popcorn with pimentio appys? Roasted almonds with olives? Paninis with proscuitto and apple? yes please!)

The beer was good too, and you can't miss Powell's books, it takes up an entire city block!! We also visited the zoo, where my allergies went absolutely insane and I was overcome with pounding sinus pain (stupid rhododendrons), and it was freezing and raining. The zoo was quaint, small but nice. The animals were rambunctions, we saw a tortoise attempt to snatch at broccoli without moving it's body, and an elephant ponderously back itself into it's elephant cave. hahaha.

The train is a good way to go but takes forever (6+hrs) and the customs agents are serious pain in the asses--we had to go through customs TWICE leaving Vancouver, we were also 30 mins late leaving Van b/c of the incredible ineptitute of pretty much everyone there. JEebus.

Train is also cheap ($100 return).

Go, enjoy Portland! City of roses, good food and good beer. Stay at the ACE hotel, you won't regret it! Good shopping too, but we didn't have much time for that.