Small Town Boy in the Big City

Teri took Nina to Aunt Kim's to make cookies and Ryan went to work so I decided to get some errands done without a car.  After all, this is Portland and everyone either walks or rides a bike or the metro to get things done.  Since my travels would take me all over the city, I opted for the bus.

This would be a first for me and I was really looking forward to earning my "mass transit" merit badge.
I realize this will be boring for most, or you can follow along on google (see link below) and track our intrepid traveler, sort of.

So first I walked one block north and seven blocks west to the Fred Meyer store to get a bus pass and pick up the #75 north to the transit station north of Hwy 84.  Then it was walk two blocks north and seven west to the supposed location of my first stop.  Slight problem, business no longer exist.

So, back track to a Burger King (not a politically acceptable establishment here, with all the Mom & Pop stores available) to fire up the iPad and search for an engraver.  I was looking for an engraver to put "Louis" on the back of a bunny spoon.  Hand engravers are rare these days, but a few phone calls located one in downtown Portland.

So I hop on the #77 to Rose Quarter Transit Station, pick up the MAX Red line to down town, then over and down a few to the engraver.

The River from the MAX.

After the engraver's walk the tree blocks to the river.

The Morrison bridge.

Then I walked up to the Hawthorne and caught the #33 up and over a few to transfer to the #9 that would take me to the Ross Island Bridge so I could walk over to the east side and check out the construction of a new bridge between the Hawthorne and Ross Island.

Waiting for the #9 seemed like a good time for a bathroom break so I went into a high rise to ask if they had any public toilets.  The nice lady at the local bank branch office in the lobby said the nearest would be in the food court below us.  Food court!

So I go through two sets of giant glass doors and over to the escalator and proceed to descend into another world in the city's underground.

The escalator down to a magic land under the city.  Those are drooling lion heads in the left wall.

After confirming that it was indeed like all other malls, I went back up to the hum drum world at the surface and hopped on the #9.  It took me to the west side of the Ross Island so I could walk across and see the new construction.

This is the west side abutment and first columns in the river.  The new bank plantings have silhouettes of what looks like Coyotes all over.  Must be keeping something away.

The east side has a concrete batch plant just upstream.  This was the clean out site, I'm sure that no pollutants are making their way into the river.

About a mile from the west side I picked up the #70 in front of Classic Pianos and the Aladdin Theater.  At 12th & Powell. The rest is easy, just go up to Hawthorne, transfer to the #14 and go up to 44th and then it is walk over one and up two to home.

Here's the link to the map of the trek.  Google Maps

Didn't get very warm today but it sure was beautiful!

Stay safe and warm.