Portland Redux

When I was in Portland, Oregon, attending Art & Soul, I took Saturday off to explore some of Portland with Nonie. In the morning we headed off to look for some shops that import seashells, as Nonie uses shells in her artwork and she is always looking for more sources. Thank goodness for GPS! My Honda came equipped with the most wonderful GPS unit and with its help we were able to track down the locations of these importers. All of them were out of business, but my, did we have fun hunting them down. We found one place that was waaaaaay out north and east of our location, under a bridge. I'm not sure the Post Office could find that place, but the Honda's GPS did. Too bad it was closed.

After our fruitless seashell expedition, we headed to the Pearl District and found the Saturday market. It was fun to wander about, reliving the early 70s, as many of the stalls were selling Hippie-style clothes and, well, equipment for smoking alternatives to tobacco....There were tie dyed granny dresses, vests, psychedelic patterned t-shirt, organic "fair food," candles, soap vendors and some fantastic musicians whose instruments were up ended plastic buckets. Those guys could drum!

I found the following sign on the side of building while we were walking around.....

....and this gentleman not far away. Obviously, keeping Portland weird will not be a problem.

It was a lovely early autumn day and we really enjoyed just having some free time to go out and explore a bit of Portland. Considering the number of times I've been there, it is sad to realize how little I know the city. Portland is a great place and I am planning on spending more time there.

I heart Portland!