Portland

About a 10 minute walk uphill from the International Rose Test Garden is the Japanese Gardens.   There’s an entry fee (less than $10).  The garden doesn’t take up that much space – it’s fairly compact.  It took us less than an hour to wander around.  Of course,

We were looking forward to the arts and crafts Saturday morning market, but we ended up being a little disappointed by it.  There is a lot of kitschy arts and crafts on display, but there wasn’t that much that we felt was truly local.  The prices were on average pretty high, and

We enjoyed our time in Portland.  We were happy to be staying in downtown, as the downtown area is very pretty, with lots of restaurants, great shopping, and a picturesque riverfront walk.  There’s cruises along the river, and speedboat trips are also available.  There is great

We walked from downtown to the Pearl district.  It wasn’t the most pleasant walk, but once we got there we enjoyed the shopping and wandering.  It looks like a residential area, but has lots of interesting shops to wander around – from chain stores like Crate and Barrel, t

When we researched where to stay cheaply in Portland in August, we found that there were seveal motels near the airport in the $60 range.  Even though there is excellent public transit, we weren’t too excited about staying half an hour (on public transit) from downtown.  We deci