My friends and I spent five days in Portland, OR during my month-long trip to San Francisco. It was about 1h20min flight and the day couldn’t be more beautiful in SF.
At SFO, waiting for flight.
The bay.
Beautiful snowy mountains on our way to Portland.
About to land. I believe this is Mt Hood.
There is a MAX line (Red) from the airport to the city centre and back then my friend and I were not sure how to get to the hotel, which was located on Montgomery St between 4th and 5th Ave, and the hotel could’ve provided better directions because we ended up taking the streetcar to the hotel, but we could’ve taken the MAX (Green) and avoided doing some walking with all the luggage. By the fourth day we were mastering the public transportation in the city!
Inside MAX Red line from the airport.
Figuring out how to get to the hotel. We could’ve changed at the Convention Center stop, hopping off the Red line and onto the Green line without doing any walking with luggage…
The hotel location was excellent. We were there to have a taste of some of the city’s famous breweries, which are mostly located in the east part of town. Still, we were happy to stay in the SW part because it was really close to downtown and transportation. As of February 2015, the single ticket was $ 2.50 and the daily pass cost $ 5.00 and you can use it as many times as necessary. However, the weekly pass was $ 25 dollars and we were just dumbasses for not buying this one, as we spent five days there. The city is divided by the Willamette River in east and west and Burnside Street divides the city into north and south.
From portlandoregon.gov
We arrived at around noon and two people would join us later in the evening, and Daniel would come on Thursday. So Ro and I had the whole afternoon to get around town and see what was near the hotel.
On 4th Ave, towards downtown.
We were pretty hungry, so ended up going to a sportsbar to get some cheap food and beer. Next to us (which you can’t see here…) was US soccer coach Bob Bradley and what we believe was some of the technical team just watching a match (Man City X Barcelona?)
Just a few blocks from the hotel.
I had some trouble framing, I’m afraid.
We started with the craft beer later in the afternoon, when we went to Bailey’s Taproom (213 SW Broadway). People really take happy hour seriously and basically all places are packed. I wish we had the same eagerness in Porto Alegre, where there aren’t many happy hour places and people have to go out at around 8pm or 9pm because they work until bloody 7.30pm!
Bailey’s Taproom.
Ro went for the sour, I stuck to lager…
Afterwards we travelled to the other side of the river after a suggestion from a former student of mine and went to the Hair of the Dog (61 SE Yamhill St). We missed the stop and had to walk a great deal to get there. It’s in the industrial part of town and there’s basically nothing but warehouses around, so people go there just to go there! It’s an AMAZING place! Unfortunately I haven’t got one decent picture in it, the beer there was so strong (mine was around 11%) that I think it showed in my ability to take pictures…
Crappy picture of the Hair of the Dog…
As a couple of people would join us later, Ro’s friend and his nephew, we decided to go back to the hotel to meet them and do something together. We had been walking the whole day and I was pretty tired already, dying to just sit down at a bar or brewery and just drink some beer. Oh boy, little did we know that Ro’s friend is all about the meals… We HAD to have breakfast, we HAD to have lunch, we HAD to have dinner… So we found ourselves at almost 10pm walking around downtown trying to find a suitable place (for the guy) to eat. At this point, I had been looking forward to go to this bar on 10th Ave that would serve the happy hour menu again at 10pm, and I was about to strangle a person if I didn’t have a pint. We ended up at Rock Bottom, which was decent, but rather far from the hotel considering the situation (late at night, tired, and soon to need a bathroom after beers…) But hey, we didn’t want any conflict and went along with it… But conflict was just a matter of time…
-- Never too many beers -- 