Internal Oregons

Up from Waldport to Portland today! After the promised hike to the top of a foxglove-lined Cape Perpetua trail and the gaping at its nonpareil view of a surf-beaten Oregon coast, we piled back in the car and undertook what seemed like a short jaunt compared to yesterday's marathon. Our one stop amidst the pine forests was at the cheese factory in Tillamook, and if that doesn't sound like a good time to you then you have clearly never been to the Tillamook cheese factory. Their signature product is cheddar, and based on their samples it is by my estimation very fine. But what was even better was their ice cream -- I had two scoops of blackberry -- and what was even better than that was the production floor. So many machines and people working in tandem, executing one of the innumerable minute steps between milk and packaged extra sharp cheddar cheese! It was like something out of Adam Smith -- or Rube Goldberg. Totally worth taking the detour rather than the direct route to Portland.

We arrived in Portland before six, leaving plenty of time to explore. Isaac grew up here and Alexis lived here for a few months; between their narratives and our foray downtown, I've already had more education about the culture and characteristics of Portland than about most of the other cities on this trip. Here are some tidbits before I pass out from exhaustion.

1. From the perspective of Isaac, a musician aspiring to become professional, the distinguishing feature of Portland is its very lively indie music scene. Sometime in the last decade, downtown Portland became Mecca for both "hipsters" and "aging hipsters," to Isaac's mixed delight and disgust.

2. Portland has cable cars and light rail in the same places, often with intersecting tracks. Bicycling is also big. As a result, bicyclists commonly get stuck in the grooves of the PT rails, leading to nasty falls. There are yellow signs illustrating this road hazard.

3. One can have any kind of cuisine one can imagine in Portland, served out of a van that camps out in the same place every day like a restaurant on wheels. I had Indian food tonight. It was average in quality but cost $5 for twice as much as I could eat, so you don't hear me complaining.

4. To celebrate saving money on dinner, it is possible to go to Powell's Books to spend money on books instead. Powell's is a new and used bookstore that must be three times the size of the Barnes & Noble in Fort Myers -- three enormous floors of books of all subjects and languages and editions. I bought three, including a book that's been out of print for twenty years and is difficult to find at a good price online.

5. On the first Thursday of every month -- like today -- downtown art galleries have free exhibitions, drawing out the art crowd. Perhaps as a result, today I saw a greater density of people obviously hopped up on one illicit substance or another than I have ever seen before in my life.

6. Especially during the recession, which has hit Oregon hard, Portland's downtown businesses have a very high turnover rate. The places where Isaac hung out when he was little are gone, as is the place where his dad used to buy cookies. One porn shop literally disappeared off the face of the earth overnight, leaving a vacant lot on the corner. You have to be paying close attention to the indie scene to know where the culturally important clubs of the moment are (and generally you have to sell your own tickets to play at one and receive some fraction of the proceeds).

Tomorrow, after a nice sleep on a mattress at Isaac's dad's house, I'll explore Portland some more with him and Alexis and perhaps Aviva, who lives up here and drove separately. Then in the afternoon Alexis and I will make for Seattle, arriving neatly before Independence Day so that we can relax on the Fourth instead of fighting traffic. Till then!