We’ve heard a lot about Portland so we were excited to visit. It seems like a millennial hotspot. It’s liberal, forward-looking, a bit hippy, and definitely weird. We were shocked to learn that Portland has the title of “most strip clubs per capita in the country.” We didn’t visit any, but we did spend 3 days here and enjoyed every one of them.
Powell’s Books
This place is a city of books. With 4 floors and 68,000 square feet, you can actually get lost. Each floor and section is color-coded by book topic. We stopped by for what we assumed would be a quick visit, and 6 hours later, we didn’t want to leave. Adam bumped into Annie while she was reading a book about Hygge. Annie bumped into Adam while he was reading a book about recent U.S. history, written from the perspective of the Tea Party. This place is special. It’s going to be very sad one day when most physical bookstores are gone. We both added a ton of books to our prospective reading lists.
Local Comedy Club
In the past few years, we have both taken a variety of amateur performing classes. Adam took Improv and a Storytelling class. Annie took Improv and Musical Improv. We’ve loved the environment because it is very open-minded and accepting. We ventured out to a comedy club in Portland, just a few blocks from our Airbnb. It was the type of place where the only people in the audience were friends and family. The skits were very well done, and we laughed from start to finish in the front row.
Disney Movie in Old School Theatre
Nature shows and Disney are our jam. In Manhattan, Adam took Annie on a date to see a movie called Monkey Kingdom, the first of Disney’s nature series. When we were in Portland, we heard about these neat old theaters that have been transformed into music venues, movie joints, and bars. We saw that at the Baghdad Theater, they were showing Made In China, which is the second installment of Disney’s nature series. We knew we had to go so at 3 PM on a weekday, we made our way over. It was totally worth the stop.
World’s Smallest Park
Adam had a few tricks up his sleeve as we explored Portland. He’d been looking to find “weird” things in Portland and sure enough he found one. After driving around for a bit, Adam ordered Annie to park on the side of the road to visit the world’s smallest park. Annie kept her eyes peeled because she thought that she’d be able to spot it before we arrived. We were crossing the street and then we stopped. Adam said, “we’re here.” The so-called park was a circular moat of concrete filled with some mulch and a few flowers. It was no more than 2 feet in diameter and was located on the dividing line of a major multilane road. Annie was shocked, but Adam assured her that the park has a license and everything.
