Portland, Oregon - Two great days! Today is day 41

Hey all,

Updates have been made to British Columbia Photos - Seattle and Portland to come in a few days, as well as with Astoria and Redwood Forest. Videos will be uploaded as well - we have more - and still some with bears from Alaska that we found. I'd upload now, but the page times out due to small connection.

Portland - 2 days of pleasure in this little big city.

I didn't know it, but Portland is quite the bustling American City. It's like Seattle with it's fashion, techies, and transit system, but Portland seems more reserved.

Known for being green, this city has trees on every street, parks every few blocks, metro station to take you in and around Portland (free ride in downtown area), and that attitude that today will be great. It rains here a lot, but not as much as in Seattle, but many of the buildings have overhangs, and the trees on the streets also shelter from the rain.

We spent the first night at a place called Momo's; a cocktail bar with a pool table and patio. We met up with Khary and Lucy who just moved here a year ago. Khary is a producer/director/writer for Good Habit Productions and Lucy is a new media artist. Both came to Portland looking for opportunity and change; just like I can see myself doing in the next two years as I graduate college, save up money, and job hunt. There seems to be a lot going on in this city, and we were only here for two days. The prices for living are cheaper than Rochester and there is no sales tax here either.

The next day we roamed around town hitting street vendors for lunch and walked over to Summer as the Square for a free Noon show. Bryan had bbq pulled pork and I munched on a chicken ceasar wrap as we listened and people watched, again pondering what life would be like in Portland.

We walked all over the city stopping in a book store and Nike World, where Bryan picked up a US Soccer jersey - last one left on the rack, "What a steal, and its my size!!", Byran proclaimed. We made it back to the hotel that afternoon taking the MAX metro transit a few blocks then walking the rest. After a nice two hour nap we headed to Todai, a sushi and seafood buffet that Bryan had the experience of enjoying in Hawaii earlier this year. He said we had to go and that I could find something on the menu that wasn't sushi; I did and it was great.

We exited an hour or so later into this plaza. It looked like the Gueggenheim Museum in NYC with 5 floors of circled hallways, open in the middle to a plethora of light and escalators transending from floor to floor. We made our way to Kell's Irish Pub for the night to enjoy a few drinks and live Irish Music. Portland has lots of music, and something new you can enjoy everynight in this town.

We love Portland and have put this city on our where to live in the future list. Few hours from beach and mountain, and Seattle and California, its a nice central location for weekend getaways.

We are headed to Astoria this afternoon to visit the Goonies house as well as the setting on Cresent Beach. Should be interesting - its a little out of the way, but it does take us straight on the Pacific Highway that we will follow all the down to the Redwood Forest in Northern California.

Many updates to come by Sunday as we will be in Reno for the night there. Unless plans change - but thats what we are aiming for. Back in Rochester looks to be the 30th of July...this adventure is coming to an end soon - but only to inspire and spawn more adventures for us and others in the future

We are out,

Matt & Bryan