What is there to do in Portland, OR?

What about this?

 

Oregon Rail Heritage Center

An EXCELLENT choice, since SP 4449 is currently undergoing her 15 year FRA mandated boiler inspection. Plus, the SP&S 700  and UP 197 are both in the building.

Light rail, RDCs running on the West Side Express, the ORHF is great.  Doyle will be getting his PA-3 running any day now ...  Big Happenings in Portland!

Where is the PA located? Is it open for visits?

There's a map on the site link and information on visiting

You could also go umbrella shopping, apparently it's firmly into the rainy season!

 

Zoo Railway.

 

http://www.oregonzoo.org/visit...park-and-zoo-railway

The NKP PA is in the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation building along with SP 4449, SP&S 700 and UP 197. 

 

Check out the link provided above or try www.ORHF.org 

THe rail museum is nice, but you shouldn't miss the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry which is just a few blocks north. In fact you drive past it to reach the rail museum. It's a fun hands on museum.

 

Another place not to miss is VooDoo Donuts in downtown. Great unique donuts. I like the Gay Bar or the CocknBalls, both tasty. There are also a couple of outdoor food courts in town. They consist of a bunch of trailers parked around the block with just about type of food you can imagine in them

Finally for wine go to Bodecker Cellars in town. They buy about 20 tons of grapes from me each year. Tell them, you want to taste wine made with fruit from Madrona Hill Vineyard. There are several that contain our grapes

 

 

 

The Evergreen Aviation & Space museum is a good take. This is where the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose is on display. They allow visitors inside the plane and for an extra $20.00 you can have your picture taken at the controles complete with the big white hat. Many other aircraft and rockets on display as well. The museum is located about a half hour ride outside of Portaland in McMinville. 

Canoe. 

yea sis was at the vineyard, said it was pouring all weekend. Wonder if Scott Long has figured out the whole cubit thing yet so he can build an Ark

 

 

Sorry, link to museum site was on the nkp restoration site but no reverse link

 

pa

the rose test gardens

 

 

go do some awesome train watching at the Amtrak station in Vancouver, WA, right across the river.  Trains from three directions, swing bridge over the Columbia River, airplane traffic, industry, freight yards, tower.. all right there.  Just over the I-5 bridge on the south end of downtown.  Safe and fun.  Drive out I-84 30 miles to Multnomah Falls.  Second highest waterfall in the US and the walkup from the parking lot passes under the Union Pacific tracks.

The Multnomah Falls were a treat for us.  We stopped on the way back from the Bonneville Dam.  It's kind of scenic to take the highway on the way up the river and interstate on the way back.  BNSF runs on the north and UP on the south with plenty of action.  Enjoy!

A bit further out of town but not to long a drive; Depending on when you are there and when these are open;

 

http://www.mrsr.com/

Mount Rainier Steam railway

 

https://www.mthoodrr.com/

Mount Hood railway

 

http://www.ocsr.net/

Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad

 

Take an Amtrak trip to Seattle or Tacoma Street car to glass museum in Tacoma and natural history museum.

Or in Seattle a short drive or bus ride to Eastside trains.

Vic's Hobby Shop downtown, and out in the burbs Whistle Stop Trains.  Not much 3rail stuff but Whistle stop has a great selection of books and some o scale stuff.  Train watching in the area is great!

Scratch Vic's, Leo lost his lease, and closed up shop the end of January, this year.

 

In the Portland area, Whistlestop, out on the Eastside is the go to place for O-Gauge, Tammie's out in Beaverton is a full line hobby shop, but does carry some O-Gauge, and is the area's go to place for Large scale.

 

 Too Bad, you're not visiting in November, the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club( very close to Vic's former location) is open all four weekends in November. The CGMRC has a 60x70 HO Layout, that models the Columbia River Gorge from Portland to wishram, WA, Plus a portion of the Oregon Trunk Line, and includes a Nice Logging division as well.

 

Doug

since your mention antiques, check out the new Grand Marketplace on Grand St. and Yamhill, an entire block of industrial, architectural and other vintage items.also, Portland has one of the best food scenes in the country, not even including the 600 food carts. there are more james beard chef nominees and winners there than you can count. eating great food is a local pastime there. fantastic music scene too. at the supermarkets, etc. get a copy of the weekly Willamette Week and The Mercury papers for listing of every music and cultural event all over town. more breweries than any city in the country, coffee roasters and in-town vineyards for wine tastings (not counting the hundreds of vineyards outside of Portland).

jerrman

with all that water, you could always drown a few worms...

 

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/rr/marine/

 

Hey guys, great ideas so far.

 

Any surplus shops or great antique/junque shops around? My buddy lives downtown and we will be riding the light rail a lot. He's also only a block from one of the food trailer locations.

Look the the money that floated down from the sky with a parachute & a person attached to it.

We rode our BMW motorcycles out to Oregon this summer and one of the places we visited was...

 

http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/

 

They have the Spruce Goose there and many other aircraft plus a building of the space age. A very impressive display of aircraft history.

       
       


if u r taking light rail, you can easily get to the aforementioned Grand Maketplace antiques in the Southeast. Downtown, there's a small "chocked to the ceiling" eclectic shop called Hoodoo Antiques. There's also a few some interesting shops in the Pearl district. There are three of those very large and diverse food cart pods downtown. if you're into books, then Powell's Books is the place. an entire city block and an institution in Portland. Btw, Division St in the Southeast is the burgeoning place for restaurants including, if you r into Thai, the famous Pok Pok. You'll know it by the line outside, day or evening, as they don't take reservations. the wait can be long but it's worth it.

jerrman