Weekend Journey in Downtown Portland

I love visiting downtown Portland and walking around town and viewing the scenery. This town has old buildings to admire, parks and shops to explore, and dining to indulge upon.

Throughout downtown I’ve noticed a few buildings with dates on them, some of which date back to the 1800s. The oldest public building still standing in Portland is the Pioneer Courthouse, which is now used as a post office.

If you enjoy shopping, especially when it’s tax free--there are several neat places to go while you’re visiting the downtown area. Pioneer Place is a mall that has a movie theatre, food court, and has several name brand stores. There is even a Saturday market, which sells local arts and crafts items, and it’s located under the Burnside Bridge between SW Naito Parkway and SW First Ave. I enjoy shopping at some of the larger discounted type stores while I’m in downtown Portland and the Meier and Frank building along 5th Avenue, which has turned into a Macy’s, is quite a building to walk through. I believe there are 8 or 9 floors of merchandise to look at which amounts to allot of escalator rides.

There are several nice parks in downtown Portland. The Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a pleasant place to visit along the Willamette River, and this is where many of Portland’s outdoor festivals are held. This park has large side walks perfect for bicycling, rollerblading, walking, or jogging. There is a long grassy area off to the other side, which makes this an enjoyable place for a picnic or just a fun place to relax in the sun. Portland also has the worlds smallest park, Mill Ends Park, which exists where a light pole use to be.

Downtown Portland has some fun restaurants to try. Two of my favorite restaurants are Papa Haydn’s, which is a busy restaurant that is open for breakfast on the weekends and they offer lunch and dinner everyday. They always have fabulous desserts to choose from and they show them off in their glass pastry cases up front. Ringside is my favorite dinner restaurant in Portland and they serve Steaks and Seafood. They are known for their wonderful tasting onion rings. The downtown area has many different types of restaurants so even if you’re the pickiest of eaters I don’t think you’ll go hungry in this city.

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This is my favorite Marriott to stay in downtown. It is located right next to the Willamette River and is within walking distance to the downtown shopping. This Marriott has beautiful marble-and-granite floors in the entry and has a nice seating area in the lobby in case you want to meet someone there. The rooms always seem to be clean and nicely kept. You can choose whether you want a river-view or city-view room. Both rooms are nice, but if you are looking for a romantic weekend, definitely go with the river view.

Ringside is one of my favorite dinner restaurants in Portland. They are a steakhouse that offers the best pieces of red meat around, they also feature some seafood selections on their menu. They’re known for having the best onion rings in town, and they’re definitely the best that I’ve ever had. The onion rings were even recognized with a James Beard award which helped make them world-renowned.

Portland has been home to Ringside since the 1940s. In the 1950s they moved from their original building to their present location on West Burnside. In the 1970s they added another restaurant in Portland’s eastside on the Glendoveer Golf Course.

Ringside takes pride in their food, service and in their staff. They have very little turn over with their employees. They are a family owned business and have been for more than 60 years. The loyalty of their staff has been an excellent and rewarding key for upholding up such a superb restaurant. I have always had delightful and well-informed servers when dining at Ringside and hopefully that will never change.

Ringside opens nightly for dinner at 5pm. The dress code is business casual. The building inside is fairly dark with traces of soft glowing light coming from shaded lamps on each table. They have a large rock fireplace on one wall near the kitchen that gives the restaurant a relaxed yet sophisticated atmosphere. Their food and service has been nominated and awarded honors by several different organizations. This is one place you don’t want to miss when you visit Portland. You definitely won’t regret making your reservation.

The Pittock mansion was home to Henry and Georgiana Pittock from 1914 to 1919. The couple began designing their home in 1909 and it took 5 years to complete. The home included many modern features including a central vacuum system, intercoms, and indirect lighting. In keeping with their loyalty to their home state, the Pittocks hired Oregon craftsmen, and used Northwest materials to build the house. The final estate included the mansion, a three-car garage, a greenhouse, a servants' residence, all of this was located on 46 acres of land almost 1,000 feet above downtown Portland.

Henry Pittock moved to Oregon from Pennsylvania in 1853 and began working for the Weekly Oregonian and he quickly took ownership in 1860. Henry changed the papers format to a daily paper. He went on to build a financial empire by investing in everything from real estate to sheep ranching.

Georgiana Pittock married Henry when she was 15 years old. She then dedicated her life to improving the lives of the women and children in her community. In 1867 she helped establish the Ladies Relief Society, whose Children's Home provided care, food, and housing for disadvantaged children.

In 1918 Georgiana died at the age of 72 and one year later her husband Henry died at the age of 84. The Pittock family remained at the mansion until 1958, then the estate was put on the market by Henry and Georgiana’s grandson.

Unfortunately a destructive storm came in 1962 and this made the land builders anxious for their chance to buy the land. Fortunately the City of Portland decided to purchase the estate in 1964 for $225,000. The mansion opened to the public in 1965 after 15 months of restoration and has become a popular historical city attraction.

If you do visit the mansion you are welcome to roam the serene grounds free of charge but if you are interested in viewing some of the beautiful architecture on the inside there is a charge. The tour that is offered is very interesting and is well worth the time and money spent. Many nearby residents walk to the mansion because it has a park-like setting overlooking downtown Portland and Mount Hood. In my opinion, this is one of the best view points to gaze out on the city from.

I’ve visited the Oregon Zoo twice now; I enjoyed it much more than most zoos that I have been to. The Oregon Zoo is the oldest Zoo west of the Mississippi. It is situated on 64 acres with an incredible layout for visitors. This Zoo is very organized and provides easy to follow paths and signs.

This zoo has my favorite animal, the polar bear in an arctic exhibit. One of the polar bears walked backwards in a circle for us while we were there watching; I was just thrilled that they weren’t sleeping. This zoo also had a Sun bear which isn’t all that common to see, they are significantly smaller than most bears; they have deep brown to black coloring and usually weigh about 150 pounds.

This zoo has several different themed exhibits with lots of posted signs to help distinguish what the animals were. There was an exhibit for Africa which included hippos, giraffes, rhinos, and zebras. There was another exhibit for the African rainforest which included bats, monkeys, birds, and water fowl and the exhibits described some of the dangers that these animals face. This zoo also had a fair amount of exotic tigers and leopards to view.

The Oregon Zoo is located in Washington Park in Portland. This park offers many other things besides just the zoo; they have several picnic areas, a rose tester garden, trails through forest areas, tennis courts, an arboretum and playgrounds. If you pay for admission into the zoo you have the option of paying a little extra to ride on one of the three trains that loop from the zoo out to Washington Park and then drops you back off at the zoo. This is a fun and easy way to see some of the beautiful surroundings and to experience a little relaxation while enjoying your visit to the zoo.