Today we set out along the Columbia river towards Portland, turning off the monotonous Interstate 5 onto the historic highway which winds around tight corners and past some beautiful waterfalls. None of the scenery was on quite the same scale as Yosemite but you can easily get right up to some of the waterfalls to take a closer look.
We arrived in Portland around lunchtime. Being a Sunday there was very little traffic so within half an hour we were checking in at the Days Inn motel. The room was nice but fairly basic - I was surprised to find they had a selection of N64 games available on the entertainment system (at $7 an hour though).
Anyway, we grabbed a Starbucks (there didn't seem to be much choice of cafes) and went for a wander around the city. Down by the waterfront was a small gay pride festival going on, it looked quite interesting from a distance but up close it was the typical collection of stalls selling hippie chic clothes and jewelery, people riding unicycles and juggling and eateries selling tofu and other organic, veggie junk - like the Leamington Peace Festival only bigger then.
Downtown Portland seems devoid of anything interesting to look at so we went into Chinatown and visited some picturesque Chinese gardens. That was the highlight though, the rest of Chinatown pretty run-down and we didn't see a single Chinese person, just a selection of shady folk exchanging wads of cash in the street.
One thing Portland does have is America's largest bookstore. It really is big, there were at least six aisles dedicated to science fiction novels, so obviously I had to buy one. Amy's a big fan of books so she was in heaven and probably would have bought dozens of novels if we didn't have to get them home in our suitcase. In the end she only bought a restrained two.
So, that was Portland. It seems like a nice place but not a hugely exciting one. Definitely not the sort of place you'd want to spend more than a couple of days sightseeing in. Luckily we're off to Seattle tomorrow.
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