Our second couch surfing hosts had spare bicycles and by bike is definitely the best way to see Portland.
A tramp and his wheels
Yes you guessed it.... Ralph ate here
Mount Hood from the top of Mt Tabor which we cycled to the top of. Portland lies on top of an extinct Plio-Pleistocene volcanic field known as the Boring Lava Field.[32] The Boring Lava Field includes at least 32 cinder cones such as Mount Tabor,[33] and its center lies in Southeast Portland.
I ended up spending some of the $100 on a hair cut in order to stop people giving me money on the street - hhhhmmm perhaps that was stupid
Sidney and Randy our couchsurfing hosts had an awesome outdoor area with decking, it was really cool as they built it to incorporate the tree that was already growing there. They live a short cycle ride from downtown Portland in a lovely leafy suburb.
Randy and Sidney had us out on bikes within minutes of arriving at their house. Sidney guided us to downtown across the Willamette river on a bridge the bridge has a section in the middle that lifts up for tall ships to go under. (See photo below).
Fiona and Sidney at the traffic lights
We cycled up to Alberta street at night to witness "last thursday". The street was closed to cars until 11pm, there were loads of stalls selling hand made stuff like painted lighters, cake hats (very niche) , paintings and keyrings. There was lots of music, African drums, native american drums and singing, Breakdancing and quite a few DJ's. It was quite like Camden but with more families and less drinking. The US is really weird about alcohol in most places especially drinking in public - Why can't they just let everyone vomit on the street like we do?
Random artiness
The pedal bar
A double bike, twice the fun
Pedalling with attitude - Randy lent Ralph his helmet complete with rear view mirror.
On the way to 'Last Thursday we stumbled across a TV programme being filmed. We only knew to cycle up hill about 20 blocks and then look out for a street that's closed and that's where the Last Thursday would be. I saw a cordoned off road and some people and vehicles and thought it must be what we're looking for but it turned out to be filming for 'Grim'. We did think it was a bit of a quiet street party!
Take that Mrs Palin
Us with Sidney and Randy at their lovely house in a rare moment when we were all there at the same time as they are both extremely busy people, always cycling off somewhere. Randy did us a fantastic all American 'cookout' on the deck. They are off to Mexico soon so we may well catch up with them there.
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