Part Two of Trip Home

Saturday my dad and I hung out in downtown Portland. We started the day driving across all the bridges. One of Portland's nicknames is The Bridgetown because there are a lot of bridges. The city is divided by the Willamette River (pronounced will-amm-ett, emphasis on the amm) so there are bridges all over the place to get you from one side to the other. There's the Sellwood, Burnside, Morrison, Hawthorne, Ross Island, Broadway, Steel, Interstate, St John, the train bridges, and the list goes on. Here are some shots.

We didn't actually stop, so all my pictures are in motion, but there are some that turned out...

This one shows that we really are in the car driving
Luckily the wipers aren't in motion in the photos since it was raining.

This is the Hawthorne from a distance

The bridges are kind of low to the water, so they are draw bridges. Some lift like two arms from the center, like the Burnside and the Broadway and some, like the Steel and the Hawthorne, actually have the whole center of the bridge lift up in one piece. There weren't any tall boats on Saturday, so I could get any shots, but the links will take you to pictures of the lifting.

Draw bridge ahead...

You can sort of see the booth on the Morrison Bridge that communicates it's time to lift

There's all colors of bridges...

Like red bridges...

The bridges offer great views of downtown...



Does this bridge look familiar? Did you know that before they built the Golden Gate bridge, they built the St John's Bridge in Portland to be sure the design would work?


You don't get this great of a backdrop driving across the Golden Gate though...


Driving through downtown Portland, it's good to know your way around and pay attention. The whole city is full of these...

The streets are all one way

And of course, you gotta cruise by the trendy spots...

The Pearl District

China Town

We are proud of our natural ways...


Downtown is full of Benson Bubblers, sources of refreshing water to drink all day...

Sorry so blurry
Again, we were in motion

And downtown parking is quite modern. You will not find street lined with parking meters you put your change in. Instead, you see these handy meters. They take cash or card. It prints out a sticker (yes, I know - but you are wasting paper... so recycle it when you get home) that you stick on the driver side window and you are on your way...

I mean really, who carries cash, let alone change, these days

And because we are liberal tree huggers, we creatively honor other liberals by using their names when naming our establishments...

Gotta love this town!