Portland, OR (5/1 thru 5/6/2020)

Well, the coronavirus continues to impact my trip.  Not the virus itself, but our country's reaction to it.  I was pleased to get an RV site in Portland without having to commit to a one month stay.  However, nothing is open. No parks, no museums, no theaters, no restaurants (except take-out), no Federal lands, no state parks, nothing.  So, when Ashley's flight from Tampa was cancelled and the alternate offered her was unacceptable, she wisely decided not to make the trip.  There was nothing to do here anyway.

Trying to make lemonade from these sour lemons, I decided to get better acquainted with the city by driving around and taking pictures of things that I feel others may find interesting if they have never been here.  Mind you, I don't expect to generate a lot of enthusiasm because all the best things this area normally offers...the beautiful waterfalls, the lush hiking trails, the International Rose Garden, the Japanese and Chinese gardens, the Saturday Market, and even Voo Doo Donuts...are all unavailable to me.  It was shocking to learn that even the annual Naked Bike Ride has been cancelled, although there are rumors it will be replaced by a Naked Protest March.

Here are the tidbits I've gathered for your enlightenment.  Portland's official population is 653,000, but the overall area is much more populous.  The city sits along the mighty Columbia River of Lewis & Clark fame, where the north-flowing Willamette River joins it and near where it enters the Pacific Ocean.  Consequently, Portland is one of our largest ports, particularly for goods coming from or going to Asia.  The fertile Willamette Valley produces huge quantities of goods for foreign consumption.  Consequently, much of the city's waterfront is dedicated to that industry, but plenty of waterfront land has also been set aside for parks and recreation.  There are many miles of bike trails, all heavily used.  I couldn't get a view of the entire city, but here is a small segment of Portland's skyline.

For miles along the Columbia River, there are more marinas than I could count.  Many of them are actually "floating home communities", complete with security gates that limited my photography to the levee some thirty plus feet above the river.  (The highest recorded flood was 33.6 feet above normal in 1894, but was almost matched in 1948.)  The floating homes range from $200,000 to more than $1 million in price.  The slip is owned in some cases, rented in others.  Most of them could never be moved from their current site.  You may notice the floating docks can rise about thirty feet.

 
There are also numerous condo/town home communities and some single family houses along the river.  One resident who pays no rent is the beaver I spotted swimming in one community.

Other residents who pay no rent are generally thought of as "homeless", but I think they mostly just choose a less costly lifestyle.  In my travels, almost everywhere I went, I saw tent cities ranging from a single tent to maybe fifty.  In other places, junk cars, trucks, buses, RVs, etc lined both sides of a street or just pulled in wherever there was room.  I was not willing to risk taking pictures up close and personal.

One icon of the area, the beautiful Mt. Hood lies about 60 miles east of Portland and is visible from many locations.  At 11, 240 feet (approx.), Mt. Hood has twelve glaciers and offers the only lift-supported year-round skiing in North America.  Having experienced four eruptive periods in its history, it is classified as a potentially active volcano.  I wanted a photo of it with the golden light of the setting sun, but clouds prevented that. This was taken mid-afternoon on a clear day.

In 2013, I went up on nearby Mt. Larch to photograph the full moon rising over Mt. Hood.  With a full moon occurring early this morning, I went out last night by Portland International Airport in hopes of getting photos of the last super moon of 2020 rising near the mountain.  Once again, clouds spoiled the event.  For a while, the mountain was almost totally hidden, but the peak eventually showed itself as the moon also came into view.  The photo isn't the sharpest, but does show how it appeared at my location.

While waiting for moonrise, I photographed some of the arriving planes almost directly overhead.

As I've said, this area seems to have the perfect climate for growing plants.  Until now, my visits here were all in the summer.  Now I've seen Spring blooms and they are lovely.  In addition to blooming trees and shrubs, the Japanese maples and pines are very impressive.  Here is an assortment from my drives around the suburbs of Portland.