After leaving the hot muggy weather in Philly, we are enjoying the cooler temperatures in Portland, Oregon. This city has a great public transportation system, friendly people and many restaurants and outside markets. Portland is a wonderful city for walking and biking.
Yesterday we walked along the river and around the city and ended up at Powell’s Books, said to be largest books store in the world. It covers an entire city block, has three floors and free maps of the store are available to help you navigate the vast collection of books. The staff is very helpful and friendly. Since Portland has no sales tax, Powell’s is a great place to browse and buy a few books while traveling.
Today we plan to rent bikes, ride along the river and explore some other neighborhoods around the city.
Hopefully, Foursquare will allow me to check into my hotel today to earn 250 bonus points. The staff at the front desk of our first hotel in Portland, Aloft, was great at helping with both the regular check-in for our room and the Foursquare check-in for the Starwood promotion.
This was my first stay at an Aloft hotel. Since we had a long day of traveling, I decided to stay near the airport our first night and get an extra stay for Starwood’s free night Getaway promotion. The bed was very comfortable, the room had a large flat screen tv, with large windows on each side and free airport transportation was provided. There is a new shopping center across the street from the Aloft with many chain restaurants and shops. Best Buy had the Virgin Mobile Top-up cards for sale, so we picked a couple hundred dollars worth since no sales tax is charged here in Portland.This Aloft offers free bikes to borrow, but we were too tired and unfamiliar with the area to bike. We walked around the shopping area, had dinner and picked up some fresh fruit for breakfast.
After breakfast we took the MAX red line train from the Cascades train stop next to the Aloft into the city. Now we are staying downtown at The Nines. It is less than a one block walk from the train stop and located above Macy’s department store. I will try to post a couple pictures later today.