Portland August 2013- World Forestry Center

There is a place in Portland where you can learn more than you ever needed or wanted to know about trees. Located adjacent to the Oregon Zoo, The World Forestry Center Discovery Museum is a great place to stop for a few hours and contains plenty of interactive educational exhibits to teach and amuse all ages.

After paying admission ( $9-adults, $8-seniors, $6-kids) it's tempting to head straight into the main exhibits. Don't be tempted by the enormous redwood tree in the center of the room, take a few minutes to watch the video to the immediate right of the ticket booth. It sets the stage for your forestry learning experience, where the emphasis is on the relationship between people and the environment. It's a good video and it explains forestry on a global scale.

As soon as the video is over, you can rush to that enormous tree. It's impressive!

The building is two stories and the tree is the height of the entire building.

The bottom floor has most of the interactive exhibits, including a mock white water rafting adventure. They have games where you can test your skill at being a forest fire fighter (smoke jumper) or trying a task working in a wood mill. There is a game testing your knowledge of recyclable products, answering the much debated question...which is better, paper or plastic?

The bottom level also has a very pretty outdoor courtyard with a waterfall.

The upper half of the building houses a special exhibits area, which was currently filled with Ansel Adams photography.

I've seen Ansel Adams photographs in person, but the volume of photographs in this exhibit really gave me a deeper appreciation for the photographer. Many of his photographs are breathtaking. The museum was very empty when I visited, so it was a treat to really be able to take my time enjoying the photographs. In particular, I thought his photographs of the southwest were stunning. The Aspen tree photographs were also of particular note. I love the pieces that play with shadows and contrasts. Gorgeous stuff.

My favorite educational part of the museum was a video based exhibit on the top floor. There were four videos, each lasting about five minutes and speaking about a particular forestry issue in a different region of the world. This tied in directly with the museum introductory film at the entrance.

The first video was about the Russian forests, which are vast and very cold. The video is set up as if you are looking out of a train car and are sitting as a passenger. Each video has a different mode of transportation to match the location. As soon as the video is over, you move to the next room and they are timed to keep the crowd moving.

In the second room, you sit on a boat in China. I learned that China is the biggest importer of wood. China has its own huge forest areas, but they have largely been destroyed. China has been big in its efforts to plant trees, requiring citizens to plant a new tree every year.

In the third room, we went to Africa in a jeep.

I had trouble watching the video in the Africa section because a father was letting his two young sons climb all over the jeep and they made a ton of noise. I thought that it was pretty rude of them, but I just stuck it out and tried to enjoy the video. I was frustrated.

The final video was in South America and the transportation was a basket lift to explore trees in the rain forest.

The rain forest showed a arborist working atop the highest trees to preserve and discover species.

Here is a poster detailing the exhibit.

Learning about forests from all around the world.

There was this crazy tree stump with a rifle. When the tree was alive a rifle was left in the crook and the tree continued to grow around it.

Sprinkled through out the museum were little wooden books each containing a short story regarding an aspect of forestry or a person working in the industry. I know that they were intended for kids, but I enjoyed reading them and found them to be quite educational. I was surprised that the museum wasn't anti-logging, citing loggers to often be advocates for sustainable forestry practices. Naturally this makes sense, but growing up in the city, we often think of logging as a bad industry. Of course we think this, yet do nothing to scale back our use of tree based products.

I looked at the rings on this tree towards the exit of the museum.

This tree has far more lives than a cat!

On exiting, I picked up a map detailing hiking trails adjacent to the museum. I didn't have time to go on a hike, but it was fun to look at the map for future Portland trips.

I enjoyed my afternoon at the World Forestry Center and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

World Forestry Center Website

Portland August 2013- Gluttony

One of the best aspects of any vacation is the food. This was a spur of the moment trip and aside from everyone (friends, people in Portland, the shuttle guy at the airport) telling us to go to Voodoo Donuts, we had no clue where to eat.

Our weekend of diet busting gluttony began at LAX airport with the most overpriced breakfast ever.

A very early morning breakfast at Ruby's in LAX.

We each had a breakfast sandwich with no sides and a bottle of water. The bill was just shy of twenty. You could hear other patrons complaining about the steep prices vs minuscule sandwiches.

We had a good laugh reading the tips for Ruby's on Foursquare. Some of them are really hilarious and all of them mention the bad value. You expect airports to be overpriced, but this was kind of extreme. We would never go back there.

On the first afternoon of our trip, after recovering from The Bite of Oregon, we walked over to Voodoo Donuts and saw this line...

It wrapped around the street. We decided to try again later and satisfied our sweet tooth across from Voodoo at the Mix 'n' Match Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.

Dan waiting to order at Mix 'n' Match Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.

The way Mix 'n' Match works is you pick an ice cream base and then you pick a mix-in. I had maple ice cream with Captain Crunch, which was delicious. Of course it was almost more fun to watch the ice cream being made than it was to eat it.

Dan had vanilla ice cream with marshmallows and Lucky Charms for his mix-ins.

We spent the afternoon exploring the city on foot and found a great little bar for happy hour. Ringler's Annex Bar had a European feel (Dan's words) and we found a seat on the patio to have a beer and people watch.

I thought the box that held menus on our table was very cute and a little quirky, much like the city itself.

Dan was very happy to sit down and have a local beer.

The happy hour prices were really great and for the same price as our Ruby's breakfast, we had three beers and a pair of fancy sliders. Yummy food and an excellent value.

Mini pulled pork and beef burgers from Ringler's Annex Bar.

It was rainy and cold out, so after dinner we warmed up by grabbing lattes at a local coffee chain, Stumptown Coffee Roasters. When I visited the World Forestry Center, I learned that Portland earned the nickname Stumptown due to deforestation and logging.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters makes a really decadent latte and of course, pretty patterns in the foam automatically add to the perceived fancy-value of the drink!

We ate a buffet breakfast in the Marriott Downtown Waterfront at their restaurant, Truss. I liked Truss, because they had a giant glass pig on the host stand.

The breakfast buffet was small, but high quality. I had a really great custom made omelette and a lot of fresh fruit. The stand-out was the cinnamon roll muffin. I ate two.

We found a great chain restaurant for lunch called Noodles & Company. It turns out we have Noodles & Company in California, but I had not heard of it, because the nearest location to Glendale is in San Diego.

Dan had a spicy Thai dish and I had shrimp Pad Thai. The food was so good that I'm sure this restaurant will explode in popularity and come to Los Angeles. They had all sorts of noodle dishes from various regions of the world. It's the type of place that has something for everyone.

We took our afternoon coffee break at a coffee house used in the show Portlandia, Oblique Coffee Roasters.

Dan in front of Oblique Coffee Roasters.

The building that houses Oblique was originally a Victorian era mercantile.

The interior of Oblique is crazy with art covering the walls. There are objects mounted on the walls and hanging from the ceiling, including antique farming tools and creepy dolls. I couldn't focus on my conversation with Dan because I was too busy taking it all in.

Even though they are known for coffee and even had a huge grinder behind the counter, we ordered tea. They make a good chai latte!

We took a recommendation from my friend Carrie (Thanks Carrie!) and ate at Paddy's Bar & Grill for dinner.

Paddy's is a really beautiful Irish pub with dark wood booths and a very impressive amount of alcohol behind the bar.

Paddy's hold the World Record for largest Irish Coffee. 159 gallons!!!

The food was good too. I had a burger smothered in bbq sauce and Dan ordered fish n' chips.

Our final culinary stop was Voodoo Donuts. We had absolutely everyone tell us that we needed to go there. It is one of the top Portland destinations when you search the internet. If we didn't go to Voodoo Donuts, we would have left Portland feeling like we had missed out on a quintessential experience.

We had two unsuccessful Voodoo attempts before we finally stuck it out. The first time, we saw the long line wrapping around the corner and didn't even bother. We came back later that night and although the line was still long, we waited in it for about twenty minutes. The line barely moved and there were some unsavory people hanging out in the area. Although there are a lot of cool buisnesses near Voodoo, it isn't in the nicest part of downtown.

Our third attempt was in the afternoon. The line was still long, but not nearly as crazy as our first two tries. It took about forty minutes.

Here are some pictures of the exterior of the store. They are a mix from our various attempts. It was not only nicer to go during the day, but at night, you can't really see the pretty glitter paint on the exterior bricks.

Voodoo Donuts is completely nuts inside. I was conscious of fact that there was a long line, so I tried to soak it all in and snap a few pictures as quickly as possible. There are so many donuts to chose from that I highly recommend going on their website and taking a look at everything. We used our iPhones to peruse the menu while waiting in line.

I was surprised to discover that for a place so trendy the prices were cheap. We got four fancy donuts for six dollars.

The first one is their signature Voodoo doll donut that had a raspberry filling. It got a bit mangled in the bag.

My favorite childhood cereal was Froot Loops.

The lemon cruller was light and a completely unexpected texture.

My favorite was the maple donut with vanilla cream filling.

Was it worth the wait and hype?

Absolutely.

Hands down the best donuts that I have ever eaten.

Portland is a great city for "foodies". I look forward to future trips and future culinary adventures.

Portland August 2013 - Marriott Downtown Waterfront

I can check off my 2013 New Year's Resolution of visiting a new state. Dan whisked me off to Portland, Oregon for few days to celebrate my 36th birthday. Prior to visiting Portland, my thoughts on the city were pretty exclusively based on three seasons of Portlandia. I loved Portland, but was disappointed at the lack of "Put a Bird on It".

In 1995, I was accepted to Reed College and nearly moved to Portland. As we drove around Portland, I thought about how different my life might have been had I decided to move to the area back in the 90's, rather than heading to New York for college. The two couldn't have been more different from each other or my native Southern California.

Dan booked us a room at the Marriott Downtown Waterfront.

Home for the weekend- Marriott Downtown Waterfront

The Marriott Downtown Waterfront is in an amazing location. It's right on the Willamette River and walking distance to all of the action in downtown.

We arrived hours prior to check in, but our room was ready and we even got an upgrade to a river view! Normally, I'm not too fussed with having a great view. Who cares about staying in the room and looking out a window, when there is a city to explore? Prior to getting the upgrade, I was just happy to be away in Portland. However, I have to admit that the view upgrade was completely worth it for this hotel.

Here was our view.

We watched the Providence Bridge Pedal Event from our room and during the event, a fire boat came out on the river and did a water display, including shooting out red and bright blue streams of water. So cool.

We had a microscopic patio, so mostly we enjoyed the views from standing inside of our room. I love the picture of Dan demonstrating the size of our patio.

Our room was very nice with one of the most comfortable hotel beds that I have ever experienced. I usually have trouble sleeping, but I slept solid at the Marriott.

The bathroom was a little small for my liking, making it difficult to get ready in the mornings. Our stuff, mostly mine, filled all of the available counter space and there needed to be additional towel racks. However, the toiletries were Bath and Body Works, which made up for the lack of space. The lotion smelled really good.

The best thing about the Marriott Downtown Waterfront was the staff. Everyone was extremely nice and helpful, going out of their way to make sure that we had a fantastic trip. I wish that I had gotten names, so that I could specifically mention outstanding employees. The biggest stand outs were a young blonde woman at check-in and the employees working in the concierge lounge.

We went into the lounge twice and two female employees went out of their way to give us suggestions of things to do in the area, including giving us a map and circling points of interest. They were just very genuine people giving their suggestions to make our trip better. I feel like the Marriott hires employees that are enthusiastic about Portland and it shined through when they were interacting with us.

The Marriott has a great restaurant, which I will review in a soon to come Portland food post. I also found some great reading spots in the lobby, were I took some Kindle breaks as a rest from touring.

Although we had great weather during our trip, we did see a bucket of umbrellas in the lobby, another nice touch in the hotel.

One big tip- Parking at the hotel is pricy at over thirty a day. We found a lot behind the hotel, which was six dollars on weekends. It was relatively empty and very easy access from the hotel. The back entrance for the hotel was just across the street from the lot. The Marriott is in a very clean and safe area and we never felt uncomfortable parking in the lot. It was a great find! We took the savings and spent it at the Bite of Oregon food festival!

Stay tuned for an onslaught of Portland posts, including the coolest doughnut shop on the planet and pictures of a baby elephant!