Portland Advice

[SgtPepper]

Hi!  I'm hitting up GEAR Con this year and I'm super excited to be going to my very first convention, of any kind, but I'm also excited to be visiting Portland, OR again!  So excited that I'm coming up a day early just so that I have time to enjoy the city.

I saw most of the touristy things on my last trip - Rose Garden, Powell's, VooDoo, etc. - and I've got a couple things on my list tis time around.  I was wondering if any of you lovely steamalicious people had any recommendations for things  and places I should check out while I'm in the area?

[superbill22]

I can name quite a few (I live just north of the Washington border). There's the Oregon Zoo, OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), Ground Kontrol (a bar/arcade), the Shanghai Tunnels, any number of bars (the Lovecraft {yes named after that one} is interesting) and restaurants,  if you want to do some shopping, I've heard good things about the Portland Outdoor store (western gear and tack, apparently carries a good selection of old west style clothing), and there's Andy and Bax (military surplus and camping) of course.

Let me know if you need more ideas!

[superbill22]

I'd love it if you could give me your impressions on Gearcon, by the way. I'm finally going to make it up to Steamcon this October but unfortunately I have to work this next weekend and miss Gearcon again. I'm hoping to make next years though, should my schedule allow it.

[Lachlan_MacAuslander]

Thank you, Superbill - my wife and I are planning to spend some time relaxing in Portland after Steamcon, and information from the locals is always great to have. As seems to be my pattern, I did not find out about Gearcon until well after the event had already happened, but it's going on the list of events to consider for future reference.

[Lord Wraste]

Shopping and eating up on Hawthorne in South East is pretty darn great. Great food and odd, one of a kind shops.

Over in Beaverton, not too far away, is a giant Asian grocery called Uwajimaya. It has lots of odds and ends of mostly a Japanese theme, as well as an in-house bookstore.

Superbill mentioned OMSI. OMSI also has an OMNIMAX theater and laser shows.

But I have to agree with him, Portland is a food town. If you want good eats just grab a local and ask where they'd get lunch/dinner whatever. It's one thing I miss about living there is the access to great food places.

[Lachlan_MacAuslander]

Cool - I grew up in Seattle, so I've been to the Uwajimaya up there. Will have to check out their southern branch... Hoping to find a good sushi place, as well. 

[Lady Evelyn Grey]

This isn't steampunk, but the Chinese Gardens are an excellent place to take a breath, relax and drink some truly excellent tea.

I hope you have a wonderful time. Portland is beautiful.

[Prof Marvel]

My Good Sgt Pepper -
By all means visit the Chinese Gardens, the Japoanese Garden in the Park, and the Uwajimaya Store. The Lovely Spousal Unit and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

You might also check out the Zombie Donuts at Voodoo Donuts  voodoodoughnut.com
Voodoo Doughnut - The Magic is in the Hole!!!

yhs
prof marvel

[topazsol]

I live in OR and I recommend going to the Japanese gardens.