Portland used to have some of the best Pho places in the USA. Don't know what is good these days, but yelp can probably give you some clues. Given that Portland has a large Vietnamese community.look for places where a lot of Vietnamese eat. These places are likely to be in strip malls rather than in glitzy restaurant rows.

I'm trying to think of things my sister takes me to when I'm up there - Powell's is the big one. Food trucks. Eating in general (that may be more of a me thing, I tend to be a food-oriented tourist everywhere). The rose gardens, the Japanese garden. Stumptown for coffee, Jade pearl for tea. I forget the name of the mountain, but it's right there in the city. Tabor?

Helena! I'm in Portland but just had surgery on my hip and am pretty confined to a bed/sofa loop for a few more weeks now so I'm no good at showing you round our fine city :( But fine city it is! Fall is gorgeous, the leaves are already starting to turn and if you have a spare day to head out to the gorge for a day hike it coudn't be more beautiful. And yes, Mt Tabor is a volcano (dormant) within city limits, has multiple parks and a darned lovely view from the top. Trimet is the local public transit system and has super useful apps. You can even buy day (or week, or weekend) passes online without having to worry about exact change. What part of town will you be in? Powells and Voodoo are staples of the tourist trade. Willamette Week is a great (local) resource for events. Feel free to msg me at 703 798 5453 if you get lost or need a last minute idea. I can't really go anywhere but that means i'm pretty much always on call as a resource :)

eta: if you're near the convention center and ever just have an extra hour, go for a walk along the waterfront. The Willamette river bisects the city and is basically a huge park along both side of the river. You can walk up the east or west side esplenade north to the steele bridge and south the hawthorne bridge, both have pedestrian pathways and make a nice long loop with Japanese memorial at the NW corner and OMSI at the SE corner. Random sculptures and public art along the way.

One place I love to go in Portland is Le Bistro Montage - when my brother lived there it was his go to place for amazingly delicious and not overly pricey foods. [link]

Oh the rose gardens! They are lovely

Also if you are there on a Weekend, The Saturday Market (which is open Saturday & Sunday). It is a stop on the Max line - right on the stop. A real trip all the crafts and things. Plus if you are in a gluttonous mood, really good "Elephant Ears" (a kind of fried pastry). Even a hearty eater will probably want to share one of those

Thank you all *so much* I'm really excited to explore Portland! I am near the convention centre so I will for sure check out the river. I am also a very food focused tourist so I'm taking notes on all of your food recommendations. It looks like a beautiful day today so I think I'll walk around and find food all day! Thanks again!

I'll be in Baltimore the last Friday through Sunday in September for Baltimore Book Festival. If you are in the vicinity of Rash Field, please shout!

I was chatting on the book of the face with tommyrot about going to see the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art while it's here in Chicago.

Is anyone else interested?

I already have plans to go on Oct 1.