I made it out yesterday for another ride with the kidlets on the bike carrier around Portland yesterday. One thing I can say in 20+ years of riding is bike riding is way more popular now than it was when I started. Old railroads and trolley lines have been torn up around Portland and turned into bike trails which are extremely popular now and quite packed. I don't have a bell on my bike yet but you don't seem to need one as people are so used to just all the traffic that the traffic seems to flow quite nicely. It's almost as if people who have bells are considered rude.
Weird things aside Portland is a very polite city. Very polite. I just grow tired of the outsiders moving up here (no offense y'all). It's like "Oh, I like the nature so much up here it's so beautiful! Perfect place to put my cigarette out and blast my music because I'm the first person doing it!" Actually hippies are really bad at that for all their nature loving.
Pet Peeve: We don't call it "The 205" or "The I 5" or "The 26" no more than we call it "The Burnside Street" or "The Ankeny Street" but Californians do. I can hear it on the radio when we get some transplant from the media down there to up here. Also, drivers from Californai drive WAY too fast. More than 10 over gets you a ticket here, but I suppose they are learning. The North Plains Police make a KILLING patrolling 26 on the way to the coast. Small town cops with the good ol' boy connection got given a piece of major freeway - they even nailed Al Gore out there doing like 85 in a 55 and when he pulled the "do you know who I am" routine they were like "Al who? Here's your ticket...."
Snapped these from my cell phone.
Steele Bridge Bike Path. I didn't take any pictures while it was super crowded.
Loading ships near the Steele Brige...I just liked this picture...
The Steele Bridge is the only one of its kind in the world. It's a double decker with trains and bikes on the lower half with the MAX Train and Traffic on the top, but the lower deck and upper deck move independently as a drawbridge so they can raise one or both decks at the same time. The architecture and engineering on it is pretty cool - the engineer left over in me.
Made it down to Oaks Park. Largest Roller Skating Rink this half of the U.S. but didn't get a picture of it. Its just a small local amusement park.
Kidlets with a glare and a goofy smile enjoying a hot dog at Oaks Park before the ride back....
Mast of Battleship Oregon downtown Portland with the figurehead off the bow of the ship.
What the ship originally looked like. The smokestacks were downtown at one time as well but I can't find them, I don't know if they just got destroyed or scrapped.
Another shot of the mast. I just put a couple of these out here, they aren't professional quality but I don't find many pictures of them on the web so here's a couple.
For what its worth to any other naval veterans I kind of laughed at the engineering of the mast including the door on it. I can't say I've seen a doorknob on a ship except maybe to the captain's quarters but there was one on the mast so I assume the mast didn't need to be watertight, that or the doorknob made a hella tight seal during rough seas or the mast was rigged to drain or something...I don't know. Should have taken a picture of it.
Bike Path down on the Willamette (Wih-LAM-et) river with the Steele Bridge in the background.
Kind of IN the river not just on it here.
City of Bridges.....
USS Blueback Submarine from the bow down at OMSI
And a gratuitious shot of some flowers I really liked that looked like crepe paper to me.
