), Chinese Rice Soup, pan-fried noodle, BBQ pork and ducks. We had two gigantic won-ton soups and lean BBQ pork with crispy skins – delicious. After lunch, we went to Portland Museum of Art, which had a very nice collection of American, Asian, and European, modern and contemporary arts. The museum also featured an exhibit named China Design Now, which explores the recent explosion of critically compelling design and architecture projects created in China, contextualizing the impact of rapid economic development on these projects in the country’s major cities.
Snow started to fall around 3p (317), did not stick initially but eventually turned to about 2-3 inches by late evening. Traffic came to a halt at entrance ramps and bridges over the Willamette River between downtown Portland and its terminus at the Columbia River. Next day, most of the snow had melted except streets on the hill. The Japanese garden was closed due to snow. Instead, we visited the science museum (OMSI -
333). There were a lot of puzzles and games to challenge our mental capacity. We enjoyed a documentary film titled “The Deep Sea” at the Omni Theater. The film depicted marine life, coral reefs, and helps in the Pacific Ocean. As the sky became dark, we took some night pictures of downtown by the Willamette River (343).
It rained all days next day. Therefore, it was not ideal for gardens or any nature walks. We went to Bridgeport Village, an upscale shopping mall, to dine and watch a movie. We had a great lunch at a Japanese restaurant (Sinju – 237, 358). The cost was not expensive at all. We were pleasantly surprised that Oregon has no sales tax (cool). After lunch, we walked around the mall with umbrellas over our heads, watching the beautiful displays, fountains and flowers on the side walk. We then watch the movie Avatar in 3D at the Regal Theater. Despite its simple plot (to Pocahontas), the computer animation was excellent. As we walked out of the theater, the mall took on a romantic setting with dim street lights and lights hanging over trees (366).
The light sprinkle of the rain was very refreshing as well. We then spent a couple of hours at Borders (bookstore) and stopped by a rice pudding place before heading back to the hotel where we saw some firework to celebrate a new year (2010 – the year of the tiger) from downtown Portland.
Our last day was spent on Llyod shopping center, Audubon Society of Portland, and on the road. It was nothing special about Llyod shopping center except it had an indoor Olympic size ice skating rink. Even though the rain refused to stop falling, we drove up to the hill for a short walk at the Audubon Society of Portland, a nature sanctuary and miles of maintained trails through a mixed coniferous forest, streams, ponds and native vegetation. After the short-walk, we drove to Medford through rolling hills with pine trees. We stayed at the Marriot, Courtyard by the airport of Medford. Since the Thai restaurant that we wanted to try was closed, we dined at a Mexican restaurant instead. The sea food enchilada was good but very, very filling. It took a long time to digest.
Next morning, we started another long drive (360 miles) back to the Bay Area. We only stopped at a couple of rest stops but managed to take some pictures of Shasta Lake (415).
Overall, we really enjoyed our short trip to Portland. It was a potential place for retirement because of the people (friendly and with layback attitude), nature, affordability (compared to the bay area) despite its cloudy and rainy days (382).
In terms of climate, Portland paled in comparison to the Bay Area but fared favorably relative to Minneapolis with 6 months of sub-zero cold temperature.
