The City of Roses (Before the Roses)

So many things I could say about Portland, Oregon's largest city,

but I'll let the photos do most of the talking...

Portland is known for being bicycle friendly;

many of its residents use their bicycles to get to work.

Some even commute from their homes in the suburbs to their jobs in the city on bike. We saw several bicylists during our time there, including this group of 'bicylists' found on top of a building in SE Portland. I do LOVE public art and Portland has a lot of that:)

Portland also has a mass transit system including buses, MAX (lightrail) and streetcar should you not want to ride a bike or walk. (IMHO it is a bit challenging to drive in downtown Portland, hence I let my wonderful friend, who is quite familiar with the downtown district do all the driving).
Oh I should say Portland has an aerial tram too--

Here is a photo I took of it in 2010.

Speaking of public art...

Portland is known for its bridges...there are 10 bridges that cross the Willamette River, the river that runs through the middle of Portland. The oldest, the Hawthorne Bridge, was built in 1910. Today we used the Burnside Bridge, built in 1926. I am particularly fond of its towers and think it is much prettier than the Marquam Bridge built in modern times.

The city has many historic churches-on both sides of the river. In the downtown section of Portland it seemed like their towers were everywhere I looked; some day I would love to spend time exploring them. Meanwhile I keep adding more photos to my collection of PNW historic churches...do you think it has something to do with the fact that I have some ministers in my ancestry? Maybe. But it could also be that I just adore the architecture of historical churches and imagining what it was like when they were new.

Did you notice the wind turbines on top of the skyscraper? The one behind this old church?And what about that combination of historical and modern; yes that is Portland too. We have historical buildings in the more rural areas of Oregon, where I happily reside, but it was quite exciting to see so much history in such a small area. I LOVE it!

This is the Keller Fountain; this is the dry Keller Fountain. I know this one well from having spent a lot of time in Portland when I was younger (during the so called hippie era) when we attended a church there. This is the first time I've seen it not running--but then I don't go to this area of Portland a lot anymore. It is quite popular when it is flowing during the summer; pretty too.

Portland is home to several colleges--both private and state. One of them is PSU (Portland State University). These spring blooms were on their campus.(BTW, the roses Portland is famous for start blooming later in spring--around May or so. Portland celebrates this with a big Rose Festival held in June. One year a friend of ours took us on his boat while it was going on. Quite a different view from streetside).

I should be in bed...that is if I want to get anything done today plus html is NOT cooperating with me so I will close with this photo that is SO Portland: a bike rack, electric car charging station, an eco (green) roof at a downtown office building...I LOVE the eco roof, don't you! If ever I get my dream of having a stabbur, it will have a green roof:)

Night all!

Blessings, Aimee
(SO sorry about the horrific formatting)

Links for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon

(wikipedia was one of the sources for some of the info in this post)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Portland_%28Oregon%29