50 States: Oregon (31)

June 7th, 2008 · No Comments

50 States: Oregon

Finishing up the 1997 road trip arc is Oregon, a state I’d visited before the trip, and a state I thought for a long time I’d end up living in “when I grow up.” Oregon, and Portland specifically, seemed like a good mix of Alaska-like Pacific Northwestern-ness, with a healthy dose of cosmopolitanism. The city has since become about the coolest city in America, it seems, with livable neighborhoods, hundreds of brewpubs, people biking to work as in no other city, beautiful surroundings, a big letterpress community, all things that seem right up my alley. We had made tentative plans to move there from Boston, but when I decided to go back to school and we ended up in Rochester, that plan was put on hold, and fully derailed when the only jobs after graduation were in California. So, Portland has to wait, though we’ve been back recently, now that it’s a direct flight away, and it’s still an awfully nice place.

Portland aside, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, and the coast are also nice places to visit, and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the state. Aimee and I visited Oregon in the summer of 2004 (above, in the Rose Garden), and enjoyed driving the coast and exploring Portland. We spent last Thanksgiving there as well, with my parents, and had a great time despite the unfriendly weather, hanging out at the Heathman and wandering the Pearl district.

The map continues to fill up.

Tags: Photos · Portland · Travel ·