Portland & Cannon Beach

This past weekend we took a trip down to Oregon. The photos are available for both Portland and Cannon Beach.

Back in the 1960's & 70's Oregon had a visionary Governor named Tom McCall who is credited for making Portland the way it is today. McCall was a big environmentalist and accordingly enacted many 'green' laws. He permanently set aside huge swaths of state-owned land as wilderness areas, increased funding and acreage for state parks and forests, and shut out big-business tourist development by making the entire coastline (including all the state's numerous beaches) public property, free for anyone to use. His most influential act, however, was a law placing an "Urban Growth Boundary" around all Oregon cities. This severely limited suburban sprawl and protected Oregon's natural beauty. (As an aside, Tom McCall was a Republican...interesting how things have changed.)

The UGB forced Portland to grow denser rather than wider; the acres of asphalt parking lots common in cities like Minneapolis and Seattle are unknown to Portlanders.
This density, along with Portland's narrow streets and short blocks (200 ft instead of the 360 ft standard in many cities), makes it very pedestrian friendly. We parked our car the entire weekend; everything you want to see or do is within walking distance or can be easily reached on the streetcar (Portland also has the best public transit system in America).

The downtown core area has a lot of great old architecture and seems to always be bustling; it's reminiscent of a small London. A short walk away, the Cultural District has big musuems, Portland State University, and lots of tree-lined streets. A short walk in the other direction brings you to the Pearl District, a masterpiece of smart planning and easily one of the most livable urban neighborhoods in the country.

Portland has great bakeries and restaurants, a thriving microbrew scene (there are 80 craft breweries in the city), great coffee, and is just an all-around great place to walk around. It's been called the best place in America to live, and you'll find no argument here. It's a 2.5 hour jaunt on I-5 from Seattle, just close enough to make a long day out of it...which Anya and I will certainly do in the future.

On our way back to Seattle we took a long detour over to the coast (60 miles west of Portland) to a town called Cannon Beach. Check out the pictures; they portray the rugged and beautiful coast better than I can. The beach was great, but even on a 80+ degree day in the summer the water (coming straight from Alaska) was extremely cold.