A friend of mine came to visit me recently. She is from Pennsylvania, right on the border, about 30 minutes from Washington, DC. She had never been to the PNW before. She spent an evening with her husband in Portland then came down to visit with me for 5 days. So, one day I took her to Portland. Anyway, I was reading through this forum and noticed a common theme. So I thought I would share the observations that she made about the lovely city of Portland.
1st, I took her to Powell%26#39;s. Which she was completely overwhelmed at. I had to rush her out of there because I thought she was going to go into overload and explode.
2nd, we thoroughly explored the Pearl District. She was extemely impressed with the cleanliness. She was impressed, as one who has lived in DC, with the amount of amenidities and stores that you could get ~ all within walking distance. What puzzled her, where all the dogs. It seemed every person walking down the street, was walking their dog. Then seeing the dog salons, the dog food bowls outside businesses and so on, had her cracking up. She said you would never see that in DC.
3rd, we went down to Pioneer Square. Again, impressed with the cleanliness (as compared to DC). Loved the look and ';feel';. She was not bothered with the homeless people. In fact, she thinks it was nothing, again compared to DC.
What she kept saying over and over is: It%26#39;s so clean.
Anyway, it was interesting to ';see'; your home experienced through someone elses eyes. And it gave me a deeper appreciation for the state/town/place, we all live in.
To Amuse you Portlanders (or soon to be visitors)......
I love it! Thanks :)
It is clean and especially if you think of all those dogs and all those people who are not considerate enough to pick up after them..it still is not bad!
I think the Pearl is just so new with all the new buildings having people who clean around them all the time, as soon as you go towards the Sat Mkt or Chinatown, things change some.
I have been to DC and did not find it bad there at all, although I do remember the homeless and sad cases, but then of course, I was there as a visitor and did not come across what residents see day after day.
It is fun , though, to bring someone to your hometown and watch them enjoy it :)
To Amuse you Portlanders (or soon to be visitors)......
Thanks Little Lisa! My son and his wife brought their friends along last time they were in Portland in June. They stayed at the Riverplace Hotel for a couple of nights before heading over to the coast to our beach cottage in Seaside. They also found Portland to be very pretty! :)
LittleLisa--Sounds like a fun thing to do:) I definitely agree about seeing it through a visitors eyes. This summer, my best friend was visiting from AZ. She is from Eugene, and only left the PNW a year ago, but even in that short of time, she forgot a few things, so was noticing all the little details. As you know, we have lived all over the country, so I can definitely appreciate the differences in cities.
Hi Lisa....so are you going to bug Missy Ladybug to post a good trip report? I for one would love to read her suggestions and top ten! Thanks for sharing your insight. We need her to write a CRG trip report and a Depoe Bay trip report and, and, and.....
Nice to hear Portland left her with a positive impression. LOL, of course there was a lot of dogs, you took her to the Pearl and it%26#39;s the trendy thing to have a dog and Heaven forbid you get seen around there not being trendy...I bet most of them were the little annoying dogs too...right?
Little annoying dogs? Ha! WhiteRabbit, you have to come over here to the Pearl and take a walk!
Jeez, I see some of the biggest dogs I have ever seen ,walking around my neighborhood. I mean, NYC has it%26#39;s share of dogs and large dogs, but lately I am seeing some wonderful huge dogs here..and considering no yards are available, these people really have to put in some dogwalking time LOL
My pup is large but looks like a kitten next to the local Great Danes and Rottweilers..
Chico: I doubt I can talk her into posting a trip report! Something about case studies and interning and all kinds of anatomy learning are keeping her busy ;0)
Scarlett: Yep, those dogs we were seeing were not ';little';. They were Rotts, and Labs and big ole dogs. We could not believe it. But alas, I did read awhile back that Portland was voted most ';pet-friendly';, so after that visit, I can see why.
Little Lisa, I think Portland no, Oregon is the most pet friendly place we have ever been!
I lived in NYC and you will see dogs everywhere but not all stores want them inside and the sidewalk cafes can make it hard too.
Here, there are few places that Pup cannot go. Which is good for us but it was wonderful for us when we first moved here and had no furniture, no dishes, etc and ate out all meals as well as had to shop and explore...he could go with us all the time. He can even ride the Streetcar ( we haven%26#39;t yet, but he is allowed)...
Have I mentioned lately that I heart Portland? :O)
%26lt;%26lt;Anyway, it was interesting to ';see'; your home experienced through someone elses eyes.%26gt;%26gt;
I agree, Lisa. Visitors often marvel at things we take for granted, and share insights we%26#39;ve never considered.
%26lt;%26lt;And it gave me a deeper appreciation for the state/town/place, we all live in.%26gt;%26gt;
Well, most of us anyway. ;-)
Nice to see you posting again.
Hi -
I%26#39;m actually a Washingtonian of 11 years, relocating to Portland soon. I don%26#39;t mean to offend, littlelisa, but in defense of DC, I have to wonder if your friend from Pennsylvania is as familiar with DC as she says. Has she actually lived in DC or is PA the closest she gets?
1. Washington is generally one of the cleanest big cities in the nation - and I don%26#39;t think I%26#39;m being biased on that. Just kind of puzzles me that she would give the impression that DC is so dirty compared to Portland. Unless maybe she hangs out in Anacostia or SE (particularly bad sections of DC)...
2. My husband and I were in Portland in June and decided to head out on the town on Saturday night in the Pearl District and were surprised/amused to see that the restaurants were generally very quiet with no waits at around 7:30pm. We kept thinking, ';Wasn%26#39;t this supposed to be the happening area of Portland? Where are all the people?'; Now that%26#39;s very different from DC. Good luck getting into most any restaurant in DuPont Circle, Adams Morgan, Chinatown, or U Street on a Saturday night w/o waiting at least an hour. (And we wont%26#39; miss that, by the way.) Those same neighborhoods, to name a few, are chock full of unique shops and restaurants, all within walking distance of where tons of people live. And if it%26#39;s mass shopping you want, go out to Tysons Corner, which is one of the largest shopping malls in the nation (it%26#39;s actually two separate malls across the street from each other) with every store you can imagine - times two in some cases.
3. I wouldn%26#39;t put DC up there with NYC in terms of number of folks with dogs, but there are quite a few dog owners in the city. I can think of a few places off the top of my head that always have out water dishes and snacks for dogs.
4. Agree that there are many homeless people here. Can%26#39;t compare that with Portland as I haven%26#39;t spent enough time there.
I also agree that Portland is beautiful and we are very much looking forward to our move there, but I guess it just made me a little sad to see your friend give a negative impression of DC in ways that aren%26#39;t true at all (in my opinion, but I%26#39;m pretty famliar with the city...).
BTW, here are the true bad things about DC: the horrible traffic everywhere, any day, any time (DC region is consistently named in the top three worst commute times in America with LA and San Francisco), the bad air (we don%26#39;t meet federal standards for air quality), the extremely high cost of living; the self importance of people here and singular focus on career and money where it%26#39;s a badge of honor if you spend your evenings and weekends at work instead of with your family, and the first question at every party is ';So what do you do (for a living)?';
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