Sonya's Blog - Day 293 - Exploring Waterfront Park in Portland

Sonya’s Blog - Day 293 - April 10th - Exploring Waterfront Park in Portland

We are off to explore Waterfront Park today and we will also explore some of downtown Portland, since we will be right there. We are only about 20 minutes away from the park from where we are camping. We decided to wait until it had warmed up a bit before heading out.

We found the park no problem and there was a large parking lot right across the road, right next to a little tent city which was set up under the freeway. Waterfront Park was in a nice location along the , but it is full of homeless people and street kids that have camped out. One lady even had one of those zip up hammocks set up between two trees. I couldn’t believe they allowed that in a very busy, public park. There was also lots of garbage around, which I was surprised by, since the reviews I read said the park was very clean. It has a really nice, wide walkway along the river and there are nice views of the city and all the bridges.

We were quite near to where the Saturday Market was set up, so we wandered over there. It is called the Saturday Market, but it runs on Sundays as well. We had fun poking around all the booths and looking at all the local stuff. Lots of locally made clothes, jewellery and personal care items. There was, of course, a lot of artist stuff as well. There were also quite a few food booths set up and the choices of food were very international. We decided to try out the polish food and got ourselves some perogies, polish sausage and potato pancakes. We got so much food for very little cost, it was amazing. It was also extremely good, so that was another huge bonus.

Isaac with The Statue Man beside the Saturday Market:

There was more to the market, across the street, so we went to check that out. There was a great band playing, Blake and I wandered over there to listen to them while the kids checked out an artist’s booth. Of course, you don’t want to stand still for too long just listening to the music, because you will be approached and asked for money. Portland must have a huge homeless population, because they are set up everywhere, as we found out when we walked further into the city. Of course, we have been in plenty of cities and seen tons of homeless people. It was a little different here, they really seem to congregate in groups and want to be in the hub of the action, making the homelessness population more obvious than in other cities. Not really sure, but it sure is visible. It is unfortunate that the wealthiest country in the world has such a prevalent and obvious homelessness problem.

We kept seeing all these people with large pink Voodoo Doughnut boxes. We came across the store during our wanderings and the line-up was out the door and down he street! Blake asked someone what the big deal was and was told it was a bit of a tourist trap. It is a Portland thing and they make all these unique, different flavours of doughnuts, so the crowds come to check it out. We passed on the doughnuts and took a picture instead:

The Theatre District:

I wanted to check out Pioneer Courthouse Square, because it was a place that was recommended. We saw the old courthouse and the square, but it wasn’t too exciting. We walked around for a bit more and saw the theatre district and then headed back towards Waterfront Park. Natasha and I checked out some more of the Saturday Market while Blake and Isaac went back to the truck to have a snack. Natasha found a super cute sweater and I found a new skirt, that were both locally made.

When we were done we headed back to the RV for supper. We ended up having quite a late supper, but that was fine. I finished the book Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad. It was a little disturbing, not sure I should read about missing and murdered 16 year old girls, probably not the best for me with my daughter being 15. It was pretty good, I found some of the storyline a little choppy. I am sure there will be a sequel, though, with that cliffhanger ending!

Isaac hamming it up in the RV. I got the red nose from the grocery store, after donating to a children's charity. Isaac made a whole outfit out of it and pranced around the RV for awhile making us all laugh:

Sonya