"The City of Roses" a Portland Travel Page by TashieKitten

Portland is a beautiful city. It does rain a lot but it keeps the streets clean and trees green.
Portland of course was one of the stops made by Lewis and Clark when they went on their famous Corps of Discovery journey through the Louisiana Purchase territory. This year there is a lot to celebrate as 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of the travellers efforts.

I've heard 2 different versions of the story of how Portland got its name, though both are generally the same. Basically, it involved a coin toss between two people, the winner naming the town after their hometown (After Portland, Maine or Boston, Massachussetts). I've heard the coin toss was between Lewis and Clark and I've heard it was between Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy, both who have streets named after them in the NW section of town.

The Willamette River divides Portland East/West and Burnside divides Portland North/South. Due to this sectioning of the city, all the streets have an indicator in front of the name, such as SW Taylor or NE Morrison. Without knowing if the street you're looking for is SW, NW, SE, NE and N you could wind up in a very different location than you intended. No one ever says, "yeah I live on Morrison" because you wouldn't know where to find it without the SW or SE part. The only street we don't really do this to is Burnside. But the question of whether you mean west or east Burnside will occassionally come up.

There are many distinct and unusual neighborhoods, each with their own flavor, to be found in each of the sections listed above. Should I become ambitious, I'll list some places to go in each section of town.

General things to know about Portland:

I've placed information regarding annual festivals in and around Portland (such as the Rose Festival and the Oregon Brewers Festival) under "local customs" section.

Information regarding state laws can be found on my Oregon state page under "local customs" due to lack of a better place to put such information.

There are more public parks in Portland than any other city in America, including 28-acre Forest Park.

We have one of the largest bookstores around (Powell's-an entire city block).

I've heard we have more microbreweries per capita than any other city and if you like beer, it's a good place to be.

If the coast is your thing it's a mere hour and a half away, through gorgeous country including farms where you can “U-pick” berries and forest.

You can head east from Portland and run over to Mt. Hood (which is technically a volcano) for some skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing in the winter and hiking in the summer.

The mass transit in the downtown area is in the "fareless square" where you don't have to pay (check transit maps).

If you need assistance, there are guides with kelly green shirts on that will give you directions or help you figure what bus you need to get on, and what activities are going on that you might enjoy . . . or you can ask people on the street, as they're usually friendly.