Portland Oregon Day Three: Voodoo Doughnuts, Aerial cabs, and Random stuff

I was alone. My cousin took me with her on the bus and I wandered around the city all day. It took a few minutes to get my bearings. The all day bus pass I bought worked on the street cars so that helped me cover a lot of ground. There was a lot of ground to cover. Portland is divided into quadrants, and each one has different stuff in it. For example,  Portland State University (PSU) takes up a lot of blocks or there will be a city block of boutiques or restaurants.  I found one of these selling items from Russia, which I was amazed by and I got to practice speaking Russian.  Be forewarned that there are few public restrooms because the homeless population is so large. I took a stroll by the Willamette River, which runs through the downtown and wished it had been less rainy, but the weather was pretty typical for this area of the country.


It was obvious to me that downtown Portland was the center for shopping. There were a couple of good size malls and many clothing stores. I browsed Nordstorm's Rack and Ross. I also found the Pioneer Court house. It is still a working court house, but it's very central in the city. You can check in at the front and they will search your bags, check your ID, then you can go to the top of the Cupola. It's a pretty good view and it's cheap entertainment. Also, there is a really cool old elevator. It only goes to the third floor, but it's beautiful.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=559335047412494&notif_t=like

I took the street car to the Ariel cab. I had scene it my first day and was intrigued. It looked like a giant enclosed ski lift. I don't like cable cars, sky cabs, or any large heavy object that is hanging by cables higher than 15 feet in the air.... So taking this by myself was really scary. I made a video to go along with this adventure as well and the link is attached to my Facebook page, it is public. The video was a lot of fun to make, not as much filming it. As the cable car descends back down it swings when it hits the towers. I think it's really pretty scary.





















I found a place called voodoo doughnuts. It had tons of different doughnuts. The one I got wasn't the tastiest doughnut I'd ever eaten, however it was pretty creative. The place looked like it had been there forever, and it had a really cool neon sign outside the building.

The final place I went I have no pictures for, it's a store named Powell Books. It's a place so big you need a map. Seriously. The whole store is divided up into colors and floors. It's a crazy hot mess unless you know what you want. But it's also a dream come true. I wandered around for at least an hour before picking up two books, one on writing in Russian and the other a novel, which I discovered upon opening it on the plane had been signed by the writer. I knew they sold used, but this book was in really good condition. I guess you never know what you'll find. I highly recommend going in if you are in the area, it's in the Pearl on 10th Street. The street car stops right in front.

Where I went:

http://voodoodoughnut.com/
http://gobytram.com/
http://www.powells.com/locations/powells-city-of-books/