We enjoyed our week in Portland, despite the empty storefronts, familiar businesses that fled downtown, and various reminders of the protests and riots of the past couple of years. We were staying downtown, and I suspect things were more normal out in the various neighborhoods.
We have a long relationship with Portland. Meda’s grandparents moved there from Hawaii, as I recall in the later 1930s. Meda’s mom moved teh family back there after her divorce. Single mom with four kids. Meda went to Parkrose High School in northeast Portland, and we visited her mom there for at least two decades before she moved down to California to be near her other two daughters. We would regular catch a bus mid-morning to downtown from Council Crest in the southwest hills, where her mom lived at that time, and then back in the late afternoon. We walked downtown during the years all the streets were dug up for construction of their light rail system. And we have enjoyed the benefits now that the system is built out. We enjoyed watching and having brief conversations with Walter Powell, who occupied a prominent spot in the original Powell’s Bookstore as he bought and sorted piles of used books. So we’ve spent a lot of time in Portland over the years. For a while we toyed with moving there, at least part time, but I think that window has closed.
In any case, here are my impressions of Portland from our visit at the end of March 2022. They begin with three shots of Meda and me, in an empty airport concourse in Honolulu on the morning of our departure, on the plane in our upgraded seats, and then on the Max light rail from the airport to within a block of our hotel downtown. At $1.25 each (at the geezer or “honored citizen” rate, one of the best bargains to be found). There are also a number of photos taken during our two visits to the special Frida Kahlo/Diego Rivera exhibition at the Portland Art Museum, and others at the Portland Saturday Market.
