Port of Departure

Our fourth day in Portland was our last. Our flight back home was in the late afternoon, though, giving us a little more time to see and do more. Staying in town, we wandered to a few various places.

We'd heard about a Festival of Flowers that was going on in the Pioneer Courthouse Square and decided to start there. That turned out to be a thing really meant for locals more than tourists. A small stone amphitheater in the middle of the city had been decorated with an array of potted flowers (which, after a few weeks on display, would be sold off). It took only a minute to circle the entire thing and see it all.

The next stop took quite a bit more time: Powell's City of Books. Portland's largest book store, it just happened to be in the area and seemed like a fun thing to check out. It was as big as you'd imagine, and then some. Longtime Denver locals might think back to the original five-floor location of the Tattered Cover in Cherry Creek, but I'm pretty sure Powell's was larger still. It was hard to tell, as Powell's was laid out in a labyrinthine split-level configuration that seemed to just keep going and going and going, each room as big as the biggest chain bookstore you've ever seen. We wandered around, enjoying the "olden days" pleasure of book browsing.

Noon was rolling around, and with it the opening of a few more local breweries to try before we headed home. First, we hit up Breakside Brewery. Besides its normal variety of beers, they were offering up a 5-beer taster flight of Salted Caramel Stouts. Most were bourbon barrel aged, with an array of different flavors (like chocolate and vanilla), making for a tasty little flight.

We also walked over to the Lucky Labrador Beer Hall that was just two blocks away. It wasn't really in full swing yet. It was a series of long tables set up inside a large converted garage; the place felt like it could be a local college hangout, though I have no idea if a college was actually nearby. Their list of beers weren't really grabbing us (and we were, no surprise, starting to feel "beered out"), so we only stayed for a little bit.

To change things up, our last stop was at Portland Cider House. Like Cider Bite, it was a place with dozens of taps of nothing but cider. Unlike Cider Bite, about half the taps were varieties of their own creation. We enjoyed a small batch of samples, took in the super quirky art on the walls (this one was titled "What Happened to the Dinosaurs"), and just sort of relaxed. We'd had a good time, but were ready to be home.

From there, it was a quick stop at the gas station (one more chance to experience Oregon's silly "you can't pump your own gas" law) and then on to the airport. An uneventful flight home concluded a fun getaway -- completing my "collection" of trips to all the west coast states. It was a lovely place to spend a long weekend.