There are multiple direct flights from Phoenix to Portland and we decide on an evening one in order to not take an additional vacation day. The flight is easy and we arrive late in the evening. Supposedly we have a “preferred” car but when we get there it looks quite scratched. With no person nearby we take lots of photos and drive to our Airbnb holding our fingers crossed regarding the car.
The Airbnb is easy to find, relatively near the airport and we can enter it, which can be an issue for self check in Airbnb. It looks quite nice, the only problem is that it is cold so we find the heater and then turn it on while we explore the house.
There are some stairs going down into the “dungeon” and a back door, we decide that we are going to explore the basement the following day more in depth as we are quite tired today.
In the morning we take another look at the house, it is quite nice especially with the fall colors all around us. The backyard where the mystery back door leads is pretty also but we aren’t able to use it as much as we would have liked as it is already quite cold in Portland and you cannot stay and work outside as we would have liked.
In the basement dungeon there are two rooms. One is full of washing machines and dryers, no reason why any house would need to many. The second, smaller, room is the office and gym and this is where one of us will work most of the days we are in this house.
As we work the next days we get lots of visitors both at the front door, squirrels mostly, and back door, birds and squirrels both.
One of the things we are surprised about is that the driveway is occupied by an old van so we need to park on the street. However we notice that everyone else is parking on the street and after looking more closely we notice that none of the Portland houses has an attached parking, very weird.
We explore the neighborhood a lot when possible because we really like the fall colors. Also the weather is surprisingly good rain wise, there is very little rain even though it is cold. We also like to research and find restaurants for breakfast and lunch to enjoy this more walkable neighborhood.
We eat at a couple cafes in the morning and the food is quite good but because it takes time to get there and back and we have to work we mostly eat from what we get from groceries stores.
While the neighborhood is walkable with many people walking the streets, there are no sidewalks. This makes us more likely to walk in the area during the day to see the inevitable cars coming towards us.
The neighborhood is quite bird friendly with lots of birds everywhere. We are surprised to see even a hummingbird, we expected them to be gone to warmer climates by now.
For lunch and dinner we try different cuisines from the area. We like everything we try like Asian, Mexican or anything else available in the small area around us.
Once we even walk in the evening. It seems that everyone is out at that time mostly with dogs. That is another things that people in Portland like besides not having garages, having dogs, the more the merrier.
On one evening after work we drive to Alberta Avenue which is supposed to be full of art galleries and we are looking forward to that. We have trouble finding the galleries and parking for that matter but after a parking spot was located the only art we see is on the walls so we continue exploring hoping to find the promised galleries.
As we find the galleries we discover that most of them are closed. This is weird, they are open during the day but not in the evening when most people are walking around.
There are a few open stores but they are mostly not galleries, second hand clothes, bike shops and some restaurants.
In the end after walking up and down the street we go to a supermarket which has some interesting (and quite expensive) items. Here we buy the provisions for the whole week and these are the provisions we use for breakfast and lunch when we work. And then we wait for Friday when we have a free day to explore and then the weekend when we want to visit the town and surrounding area.
