"Jewel of Cascadia" a Portland Travel Page by xeberus

Despite being the largest city in the state of Oregon and growing fast, Portland has retained a comfy feeling so that you never feel like you're lost in an urban jungle. Yet Portland offers a variety of choices to visitors. Portland has great restaurants, beautiful neighborhoods, tons of shopping from local stores (not just the usual chains), parks a plenty, natural surrounding for outdoor enthusiasts, nightlife for all tastes, ballet, opera, museums, gardens, a great zoo, and friendly yet proud people. Many people have come on vacation and loved it so much that they move on in. Now we don't want EVERYONE who visits Portland to do that, but we certainly want visitors enjoy their time with us.

Though Portland is a rather white city, there is a lot of diversity with immigrants from around the world making their homes here and adding to the local flavor. Portland is home to large numbers of hippies, business types, and alternative skate-board punks, living together in relative harmony.

Though there is no way to describe each and every one of us Portlanders but our city tends to be liberal and we like it that way damned it (if you have a closed mind, stay away).

Portland prides itself on it's unique laid-back character, on it's attitude that different is OK. Though we drink as much coffee as Seattlites, we even it out with a good dose of local beer brews and a lot of Buddhist meditation (or at least you'd think with the number of prayer flags one sees displayed). In Portland we definitely have the main stream, but what stands out is the alternative and what most people in Witchita, Billings or Fort Wayne would consider quirky, exotic, or just plain wierd. (Look for the bumper sticker that reads "Keep Portland Wierd")

So it's February and you have barely seen the sun since October or November. What are you going to do? Well, a lot of Portlanders turn to literature and caffeine. So there are an abundance of coffee shops and book sellers, often together. Powell's is the most famous bookstore in Portland filling an entire city block with several stories of books new and used. Powell's also has a smaller (but by no means small) Hawthorne Blvd store as well as the Technical Book store, and the Books for Cooks and Gardeners store. Other great local book sellers are Books on Broadway, Looking Glass, 23rd Ave. Books, In Other Words (feminist collective book store), New Renaisance Books (New Age/spirituality bookstore), Laughing Horse Books (radical/progressive book store collective) and several others. For local coffee, try Stumptown, Cafe Uno, World Cup, Common Grounds, Anna Banana's, Three Friends, and Coffee Time.