{"id":2946,"date":"2015-10-21T09:46:56","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T16:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hijenx.us\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2015-10-21T09:46:56","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T16:46:56","slug":"day-127-130-portland-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hijenx.us\/?p=2946","title":{"rendered":"Day 127-130: Portland, Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

We drove up to Portland through a massive pine forest that went on for miles.\u00a0As a result of all those trees, there were quite a few lumber related vehicles on the road:\"2015-10-12<\/a> Portland isn’t just another American city, but rather the place where the kids I babysat in Minnesota\u00a0for 6 years moved to a few years ago, so I got to see how big they’ve gotten:<\/p>\n

\"2015-10-12<\/a>

Enjoying the selfie stick<\/p><\/div>\n

Since we had such an awful time in the Roseburg Motel 6 and surrounding area, we decided we needed a much better hotel. We stayed in a pretty flash Best Western with this excellent river view from the balcony:\"2015-10-12<\/a> We spent most of the evening hanging out with the boys and their parents. It was lovely to be in a house again and eat real food. Many thanks to their mom, Val, for cooking for us. They had come out to Oregon from Minnesota, so Val was able to tell me what was different about Portland compared to the Midwest. She said it was a very do-it-yourself place. People here were likely to do things like make their own yogurt or dry their own fruit and were much more likely to home school. She said the flannel and beards is all true, but she said she was surprised to find out they were more polite drivers than in the Midwest for the most part. I wonder if this is due to having so many cyclists and it being very bike friendly.<\/p>\n

The next day we all went out in the city center:<\/p>\n

\"2015-10-13<\/a>

The Boys on the Brand New Pedestrian Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

\"2015-10-13<\/a> Portland has an art tax, so there is a lot of this sort of thing around the city:\u00a0\"2015-10-13<\/a> We all had a very late but delicious lunch at a place called Voodoo Doughnuts<\/a>. You can stab the voodoo doughnut to make all the delicious raspberry sauce come out. Naturally Chris and the two youngest boys chose this:\"2015-10-13<\/a> I chose the first doughnut I’ve ever had that was so utterly non-vegetarian that it included two slices of real bacon:\"2015-10-13<\/a> \"2015-10-13<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the video:<\/p>\n