I think we’ve become pretty enamored with the more close in to downtown areas to live now. We’ve always lived in the suburbs and the city has a real energy that I love. There are so many cool and funky nooks and crannies to explore. Portland is also a town that has not been overrun by gentrification, so there’s lots of local flair. There is a Starbucks on virtually every corner, but what can you do? It’s a very different experience from where we are now, but it’s great. The business environment looks good too, especially for entrepreneurs and the social media scene is very good. A couple of other observations.

I notice a lot of people smoking downtown. This struck me a little strange for a city that prides itself on being green. The clean air and all the bike riding, a higher level of fitness no doubt, but the smoking. I did not expect that. Secondly, something less surprising, lots of tattoos. For some reason, it does seem apropos for the pacific north west somehow but what was more surprising was the number of women who are tattooed. I’ve also seen lots of not very good tattoos on women. I recently read a great book on the Tattoo industry by a Portland tattoo artist, Jeff Johnson. Tattoo Machine is the book. Jeff works at the Sea Tramp Tattoo Company. I haven’t been by the shop yet. I don’t have any tattoos myself and don’t think I ever will but it’s an interesting art form and a great read of you want a real behind the scenes look at things.

The kids and I went to a park in north Portland this afternoon because we found a good water park there and it was over 90 degrees today. But we also found a concert in the park which was a neat surprise. By the time we were ready to go quite a crowd had gathered. A person selling shaved ice had setup shop there and another person was selling pizza. The neighborhood rep was out with t-shirts and information. All that and the band was pretty good too. What made me most happy, though, was the number of kids and families there. A kid friendly city is very important to us and Portland seems to have some good things going for it in that regard. The zoo was one of the nicest zoos I have seen. I’m also very impressed with the light rail transportation system.