Sure, you could go see Wall-e or Kung Fu Panda at the movie theater or eat yet another meal at an air conditioned restaurant to beat the heat. However, I have another option for you.
Mt. Tabor.
OK, I admit that it won’t be as cool as an air conditioned room, but it will be cooler and possibly more fun. I recommend going all the way to the top of Mt. Tabor where you will find a nicely paved circle with plenty of grass in the middle and some of the best views of the city available. The best part is that it will be shady, a couple of degrees cooler, and if you are lucky, breezy.
The options are numerous: volcano crater, reservoir, play area for kids, stair climbing, biking, running, hiking, picnics, and more.
What’s your favorite secret to beating the heat during the sunny summers in Portland?
I recently learned that the South Waterfront district is hosting a series of free sustainability discussions for those who are interested in learning more about our environmental impact. I’m a big fan of free events designed to educate the public. I have been involved in helping to organize many free technology events for the Portland technology community through my work with Legion of Tech.
Basically the South Waterfront district is hosting a series of talks with local sustainability gurus, it’s free and open to the public, and they even provide some catering and wine while bringing in a different sustainability expert each time. The next installment is July 10th 6-8pm at the Discovery Center (0680 SW Bancroft) with Regina Hauser, the Executive Director of the Oregon Natural Step Network. She will be discussing the Natural Step’s approach to living a more sustainable lifestyle. Here is a snippet from the description on the South Waterfront Sustainability Event page:
Sustainability asks us to live and work in a way that allows our children and future generations to flourish. How do we know if we’re doing the right thing? The Natural Step provides a framework for understanding sustainability which can be used as a guide for short and long term decision making.
The Natural Step is a global not-for-profit advisory and education organization dedicated to sustainable development. It gives decision-makers a shared, science-based understanding of sustainability and a unifying framework for moving towards sustainability.
(quoted from SWF Sustainability Speaker Series post)
You can RSVP for this event by contacting Jeremy Solly at jeremy@southwaterfront.com or calling 503.222.7788.
I moved to Hawthorne just a few blocks away from the Daily Grind in March of 2007. One of the big advantages of the neighborhood was the ability to walk to everything: restaurants, Powells, groceries, bubble tea, coffee shops, and … an awesome health food store with a deli. I loved the vegan deli food, desserts, and the convenience of running out to pick up missing ingredients. Then, sigh, the Daily Grind closed. I was back to driving to New Seasons on Division to buy my health food.
We speculated about what might replace it, but we feared the worst. What if they put in yet another Starbucks? or Subway? or *shudder* McDonalds. Even worst, would they turn it into another condo building? Then yesterday, I got some amazing news.
New Seasons, another locally owned health food store, announced yesterday that they would be moving into the old Daily Grind location. Rejoice! I’ll have to wait until 2009, but then I will be able to walk to a great, local health food store with a deli. Awesome.
When I began traveling to Portland in 2000 and 2001, the Portland Airport was a mess. Construction was in full swing, and my experiences in the Portland airport were not good ones. I mostly remember walking for what seemed like miles next to construction barriers and ending up in isolated, unconnected terminals where food choices were very limited.
Fast forward a couple of years to the completion of the A, B, C terminal renovation. At the time, it was new and shiny, but unconnected to the poor D and E terminals. I was always a little sad when my flight was scheduled to leave from the no mans land that was D or E.
Now, we have choices. The gates are all connected by a walkway, so I can eat wherever I want and I can pick the shorter of the two security lines. We can choose between Starbucks or Coffee People and fast food or sit down restaurants in addition to Powells and other stores with entertainment for the flight.
However, my favorite thing about the Portland airport has to be the free and stable wireless. With the security rules in full force, the free wireless makes getting to the airport early bearable. If you are lucky, you might even catch one of the piano players or other musicians providing some free entertainment.
A quick search for Portland on Flickr reminded me that we have many talented photographers in the Portland metro area. Here is just one stunning image uploaded today to Flickr by atul666.
Photo by atul666
Maybe I eat a little too much salt, but I have a big weakness for fancy salts, which are ridiculously easy to find here in Portland. I’ve always loved salt, but until a few years ago, I ate mostly run of the mill table salt. About 7 years ago, I bought a salt grinder and switched to sea salt, which seemed so exotic to me at the time. A few years later, Todd introduced me to coarse kosher salt, which is great on so many things.
It wasn’t until a few months ago that my first dinner at Nutshell changed the way I looked at salt. Nutshell has a bread, olive oil and salt menu where you select a type of bread along with one or more high-quality olive oils and fancy salts as an appetizer. I tried Turkish Black Pyramid salt, which is just as the name describes: black in color and naturally shaped like little pyramids.
We decided to go online and buy a few cool types of salt to have at home, and a google search for Turkish Black Pyramid salt led me to a site called The Meadow where I ordered a “starter set” of salts to try. The day after placing the order, I went back to the site to see where The Meadow was located (to help gauge when my awesome salt would arrive). I was surprised to find out that they are located at 3731 N. Mississippi Avenue in Portland! Oops. I could have just visited the store to pick out my salt, which I have done several times since that first order. They also have a huge selection of chocolates, so even if you aren’t as much of a salt fan as I am, it is well worth the trip.
I will never think of salt the same way again!
When I first saw the links, I couldn’t image why people were hunting for butts, but get your mind out of the gutter! This has nothing to do with the body part that we each carry around of various shapes. This is about cigarette butts! It isn’t even about an anti-smoking campaign. The Portland Butt Hunt is about reducing the litter associated with cigarette butts.
What is the Portland Butt Hunt?
On Saturday April 19, the Leadership Portland class of 2008 invites you to join us in the first Portland Butt Hunt. We have partnered with SOLV to incorporate the Butt Hunt into their annual SOLV IT Earth Day initiative - one of the largest Earth Day projects in the nation. Our objective will be to clean up the butts around downtown Portland. Mark your calendars, sign up, and join us for the hunt!
We encourage smokers and non-smokers to join the butt hunt. This is not an anti-smoking initiative, it is an anti-litter initiative. It is important to have smokers on our team.
Some ButtHunt details: We will meet at Pioneer Square (by Starbucks) at 9am on 4/19. Gloves and garbage bags will be provided. Suggested routes will be coordinated and assigned.
Quoted from the Butt Hunt Portland site
I hate to see the sidewalks littered with butts. I was once a smoker (in college), but I was never a litterer. I was one of those who would put it out on the sidewalk, and stuff the butts in my pocket until I could find a trash can. This is a great cause, and I encourage people to get out and support it.
Do you love Portland and want to contribute to Portland is Awesome? If so, send me an email (geekygirldawn on gmail) with your desired username and a link to your existing blog. Assuming that your writing style is a good fit for Portland is Awesome, I will get your account set up and you can start contributing!
We having one of those amazing spring days here in Portland. It is around noon and already 63 degrees with a forecast for a high of 70. As a result, I am thinking of all of the fun things that I could do here in the city to take advantage of the weather.
Here are a few of my personal favorites:
- A walk up and down Hawthorne with a stop for bubble tea
- Climbing the stairs at Mt. Tabor
- Visiting one of our many farmer’s markets or the Saturday market
- Wandering around the waterfront downtown
- Hiking in the gorge or forest park
What are your favorite warm weather activities in Portland?
I am a bit of a bubble tea fanatic, and Fat Straw has the best bubble tea in Portland. Their secret … Coconut milk! They have a huge selection of flavors, hot or cold bubble tea, and even smoothies with tapioca! My favorites are probably coconut, almond, and pineapple. If you are feeling a little adventurous, try the taro: it’s blue and has a really interesting flavor.
It isn’t just about the bubble tea, either. They have a really solid wireless connection, comfy couches, power strips, a quiet back room, and plenty of tables where you can hang out and enjoy your tea. They also have espresso, great pots of tea, and plenty of vegan (and non-vegan) bagel sandwiches if you get hungry. It’s well worth the trip to Hawthorne and 43rd to check it out.
Fat Straw
4258 SE Hawthorne Blvd
(503) 233-3369
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