Trip to Portland

I'm back from my trip to New York and I'm ready to post about my trip to Portland from AUGUST!! Last August I went on a small vacation to Portland.  I had never been there before so it was pretty exciting.  Driving to Portland takes a long time... I finally got to see Mount Shasta, which was pretty cool.  We also stopped at the Wildlife Safari for a quick phot-op with some animal favorites -- zebras, giraffes, ostriches, monkeys, etc... Portland itself is a very beautiful city.  Many bridges, active downtown area, bright blue skies and lots of clouds... it's also just minutes from being in complete forested wilderness with hiking trails etc.  We went to the Columbia Gorge which was really amazing... something that I had never even remotely experienced in my life. Some of the other things we did was go to the Portland Zoo, eat out ALOT, and ride the new sky tram/gondola up the mountain.  Here are some of the pics! Here's a shot on our way up to Portland... next are some animals from the Wilderness Safari... Zebra and baby Emu. Farm and cool sky.... Daisies at the Pittock Mansion in Portland. Maple Bacon donut at VooDoo Doughnut in Portland.  They have everything from donuts with bacon on top to ones with sprinkles and Captain Crunch cereal... marshmallows, etc.  Super awesome, creative, wacky donut shop!  You should definitely go next time you're up there! Columbia Gorge... You have to climb up and crawl over all of these fallen trees and big rocks to get to the end where you're rewarded with a beautiful waterfall!!  At some points, you're walking in water up to your waist... BRR! Night shot of Portland (above).... Below are some photos from the Portland Zoo.  Really fun, lots of neat animals... I have so many great shots of this guy below that it was really hard to choose which one I wanted to post... I couldn't tell if he was really annoyed with me and my honker of a lens or was just being a ham... The Kennedy School is one of many historical buildings that the McMenamin's converted into cool restaurants, movie theatres and hotels.  It's really cool because the restaurant is inside the school, as is the movie theater and rooms to stay in, it smells like an old school (it IS an old school), really creative idea!!  We went here to eat lunch. Below is a photo of my lunch (how could I leave out a shot of my food?).  It's a pork BBQ sandwich with hungarian mushroom soup (otherwise known as paperkash, sans the chicken). Last but not least here is a photo of the Aerial Tram that takes you from the waterfront of Portland to the top of the hills.  Your'e basically suspended inside a little metal nugget that moves along the cable pulley up to the top. There are alot of hospitals and medical centers up there and many hospital employees use this tram to get up to work.  Pretty cool! Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit of my trip... wish I could post more but alas, I'm too frigging busy!!