Portland 2019

Seven years ago, to kick off the start of 2019, I took a road trip down to Portland with two friends. I hadn’t been to the city before, only heard that it was a quirky and interesting place. The trip turned out to be a great photo opportunity. We found old bookstores, neon-lit bars, eclectic restaurants, and more.

We didn’t plan anything for the trip, just packed up and left with only the destination in mind. Figuring it out as we went made the trip that much more fun, and was perfect for grabbing unexpected shots. I can’t imagine going on a trip now without plans laid out and budgeted for, but this was back before we had rent and bills to worry about.

We passed through Seattle on the way to our first stop. It always feels like an uncanny over-the-border sister city to Vancouver. Not a new observation, I know, but for someone like me that rarely travels into the US I find it striking; familiar but slightly off. Like Van’s Burrard area there's lots of tall glass-facade sky scrapers for nice black and white architecture shots.

The first actual stop was in Olympia, just past Tacoma on the path to Portland. This was a detour I insisted on in order to visit the 5th Avenue Sandwich Shop. My Dad and I had stopped here before on previous visits to Washington, and the memory of their chicken salad sandwich stuck with me.

I haven’t been back since. When looking online I see info for 5th On 4th Sandwiches, but I’m not sure if this is the same business just moved locations or a completely different place.

Wandering around Olympia we spotted a bunch of murals, a few stores, and the Washington State Capitol. The city somewhat reminds me of the older parts of Langley, BC. In Olympia, and throughout the whole trip, the weather was overcast and cool. Clouds and grey ambient light aren’t my favourite conditions for photography, but in this case it worked out fairly well for a lot of the outdoor shots. The grey lets you make use of the reds and oranges in an interesting way.

Arriving in Portland we spent a little time wandering around to decide where we wanted to get a hotel. We made our way to SW Broadway, and went to a few different places to compare. The Hotel Vintage downtown ended up being our choice. It was an older looking building that had been dramatically redone on the inside. The entryway had glass displays of found-item art, and the hotel bar was open to the lobby with a small sitting area under an open atrium up to a skylight.

The sitting area by the bar had oversized game sets of Checkers and Connect Four on a low table, with soft grey fabric furniture to match the lobby. Up a spiral staircase was the main games room; a loft overlooking the lobby. The walls were dark and covered in graffiti style artwork, leather furniture lined the back wall in front of TVs, and a billiard table sat under a chandelier made of empty bottles. We played pool and chatted over glasses of craft beer before heading out for the night.

For dinner on the first night we went to a sushi restaurant near the hotel. It was one of the places with the conveyer belts of dishes moving by your seat. Behind the passing multicoloured plates of food, we had a good view of the open kitchen area, and watched as rolls were made and fresh fish was flash-cooked with blowtorches.

After dinner we looked for a bar. We found a place a few blocks from the hotel, lit from inside and out by colourful neon signs, called Kelly’s Olympian. The inside had old garage items and retro signs decorating the entire place. There were motorcycles hanging from the ceiling, biker helmets on the walls, and two large neon pegasi on the wall behind the bar.

We slept in the next morning, and looked up suggestions for a late brunch. Local reviews pointed to restaurant called Mother’s Bistro as the place to go. We left the hotel and walked over. Again, this is where the overcast conditions worked surprisingly well for shots of Portland’s downtown streets, whether that was a gold-brown of old stonework, or the colours of a flag standing out against a white facade.

Portland reminded me a lot of Vancouver’s Gastown, but encompassing nearly the entire city; the older style of the buildings and feeling of eclectic historyw. Some things stood out as very different though. For example, Portland has trains that run at street level, as opposed to Vancouver’s overhead and underground SkyTrain system. We didn’t ride them, but still I thought it was very cool.

Arriving at Mother’s Bistro we sat down for a wait to get a table. The restaurant seemed small at first, but afterwards we realized that it had a second larger dining room hidden around a corner by the front desk. Our table was to the right of the entrance in the bar area of the bistro. It was a beatiful room. The bar wrapped around a corner, and the outside walls were red brick covered with mirrors in golden frames. Small crystal chandeliers hung around the room, and patterned curtains framed the large bay windows by our table. The food was excellent. But what made me even happier was the entire separate menu they had for the different types of coffee that were available. I ordered a french-press Ethiopian blend, and they brought the freshly made french-press right to the table.

After eating we wandered around the area to see what was around. We didn’t need to go far to find several narrow shops full of random antiques and vintage clothing, old record stores, a hat store (with a very charismatic and funny employee who wondered why we came to see the city in the middle of winter), as well as a few interesting places in the Pioneer Place mall.

My favourite though was easily Cameron’s Books on Harvey Milk and 3rd. It was an old single-room space, and was packed to the gills with old and used books. Cameron’s was the definition of that “old book” smell, and wandering around the winding paths of shelves made me wish there was more places like it back home. Sadly it seems to have closed down since I was there.

For dinner that night we asked around for recommendations for a good steak restaurant. Our hotel bartender tipped us off to the Urban Farmer, directing us to the Hotel Nines. Without realizing it, I had snagged a photo of the hotel/restaurant sign earlier in the day while walking around.

Arriving at the hotel, we took the elevator up to the eighth floor to find the restaurant. From there we were let into a sort of hallway/foyer with windows on one side, and art displays of dresses made from wire and mesh on the opposite wall.

Through more doors was the actual restaurant space, a six story atrium with the restaurant laid out like an open air bistro under the giant skylight. The food, as expected, was fantastic and aside from the hotel it was the most expensive thing we did on the whole trip.

After dinner we wandered back to the hotel for bit to relax. We had a few drinks with some games, and met a group of three local girls to play a few rounds of pool with. Finally we rounded out the night with one more stop at Kelly’s Olympian.

Starting the last day of the trip, we made a point of getting some more stops and shop visits in. We sat at F&B Cafe for a late breakfast paired with a chess game. Powell’s Books was next, then set about our last bits of window shopping and perusing Portland’s streets before heading out of town.

We made it into Seattle at around 6:00pm. After stopping for dinner we wandered around Pike Place Market (though almost everything was closed) and some of the surrounding streets before finally heading back across the border home.

I liked Portland a lot, I think it suits me quite well. Along side San Jose it’s a place I’d love to show my Fiancé one day. Even though it wasn’t home, the Cascadian in me felt in the right place.