Pacific Northwest - A Week In Portland, OR

What to do while there. Any suggestion on activites for me and my sister? If there is a place to rent bikes and a cool spot to ride (as tourists not for fitness). We rode central park last summer.
I'm thinking something along those lines. Where to eat, museaums, live music.
This is your chance to show off your city.

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=237

I thought this piece did a pretty good job (below). Ride some on the Springwater (Veloce has rentals, I believe), go to Powell's Books, check out the Rose Garden/Washington Park, catch some live music downtown. Since you've got a week, I'd also go to Mult. Falls, Timberline, and maybe Cannon Beach.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/travel/15hours.html?ex=1177128000&en=c63e6e2ca7c478f5&ei=5070&emc=eta1

I spent 7 months in Portland doing an installation at the USPS. Any chance I had was spent in Mt. Hood, the Columbia River gorge (sp.), Mt. St. Helens, wine country, south of Portland. Definitely do the Mt. Hood Loop, see Multnomah falls, drive to Dundee and drink wine, have a martini at The Veritable Quandry, drive west through the mountains to Tillamook, see the Japanese gardens in Portland and............... drink as many of the local Microbrews you can possibly drink. I don't know of any other place in our great country where there is such a huge a variety of beer. I suppose that's what you do when the sun goes away in September until April - brew beer. That and grow some of the finest "funk" ever lit..... Have fun. PS: when I headed out there, I was lucky enough to have my truck sent out on a flatbed. I had my bike and got my ass kicked on every ride. There ain't no mountains in in Pompano Beach, FL.

What are some suggestions for me and my sister to do while there. Music, food, museums. I there a place to rent bikes and cool places to ride. We rode in NYC Central Park last summer. Thinking something casual not fitness ridding. Here is a chance to show off your city.

When are you coming? What part of town will you be staying?

What are some suggestions for me and my sister to do while there. Music, food, museums. I there a place to rent bikes and cool places to ride. We rode in NYC Central Park last summer. Thinking something casual not fitness ridding. Here is a chance to show off your city.

we just visited and got some good solid bikes (nothing fancy) here for pretty cheap:

http://www.citybikes.coop/rentals.html

They are over the Willamette but not real far; if you don't mind a short bus ride and about a 5 block walk.


here's some others:

http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=34812&a=71974

definitely do the Japanese Gardens - very pretty. we were tourists so I'm no expert but I will say the food was excellent everywhere we went. There's a cool tea shop to hang in: http://teazone.com/index.html

also check out Powell's books if you like that (I plunked down about $100, no sales tax and shipped em home!) and plenty of decent cinemas around town, plus a nice main library.

1. Saturdays- rent a road bike from Veloce and join Portland Velo for our Saturday Signature ride

2. Visit Forest Park and hike a bit of Wildwood Trail

3. Drive out and visit the "REAL" Highrocks for the best view of Mt Hood anywhere

4. Drive up to Larch Mtn parking lot, do a short hike then checkout the "viewpoint"

5. Climb Beacon Rock

6. Have a slice of Escape From New York Pizza on NW 23rd

7. Do a road ride around Sauvie's Island

8. Forget about Multnomah Falls and visit Wahchella Falls

9. Do a Gorge hike...Make sure you lock your car and don't live anything visible in your car!

10. Visit Powells Bookstore

11. Stroll Hawthorne Street

12. Visit DU's Teriyaki on Sandy Blvd

13. Call Vanilla for a tour

14. Ride the tram

15. Drive up and see the Mt St Helens visitor center/blast zone

16. Visit the Tillamook Forestry Center

17. Make sure you check out one of the Cross Crusade races

18. Don't buy any Starbucks, try the "little guys"

19. Drink PLENTY of micro brews!!!!!!!!!!

20. Go to Timberline Lodge

21. See a movie at Cinema 21

22. Chill at the Lucky Lab

and on and on and on

Veloce has some nice Masi bikes for rent and it's a great store to visit too.

http://www.velocebicycles.com/

I'll be there from the 19th to the 23rd. Staying at the Jupiter Hotel. I don't know anything about the city so I guess I should ask what are the best internet sites to resarch this stuff. I wish my sister was an avid cyclist. I'd love to ride some real mountains. We will have a rental car so That hould help getting around to the different sights. How is parking in town. I used to live in Chicago's Wicker Park. It had bike lanes but permit parking was everywhere. The only public parking was on the streets surrounding the park itself. Needless to say there was never a spot to be found.
Is there anywhere we should avoid?

The Jupiter is just around the corner from CityBikes.

ZooBomb is every Sunday night.

The Jupiter is really nice. As randya mentioned, you're just a stone's throw from Citybikes (http://www.citybikes.coop/) where you could rent a boring but well-equipped hybrid, or you could walk a bit further to Veloce where you could rent something more to your taste. Veloce (http://www.velocebicycles.com/) also happens to be the state's top Breezer dealer. Your sister might enjoy riding around on one of those. Ask Demetri if he's got anything she could rent and be ok on. You'll be in the inner core of the city, so you'll have no problems getting around on a bike if you so choose. In fact, it's far easier to go by bike than by car in the inner city. You can pick up really nice, free bike maps at Citibikes. They always have them by the front door. Oregon has no sales tax. :)

There is a beautiful and well-designed MUP along the river called the Eastbank Esplanade. It is on the free maps. You can get to downtown that way across the Steel Bridge. Part of the MUP floats!

Depending on where you are staying, you could try Waterfront Bicycles (http://www.waterfrontbikes.net/index.html). They have some decent touring bikes. I rented the Fuji Newest 2.0 while I was there.