Portland - UPA Conference

I spent the week in Portland, Oregon at the UPA (Usability Professionals Association) conference where I presented a talk. I was able to get away a couple evenings and explore the city.

I ran across this fabric store that I had read about in a few sewing blogs. I didn't buy anything, but it WAS a very nice store.
Then I made an obligatory stop at Powell's Book Store. It was even huger than I remembered. And I did buy a book. But just one.
I continued walking north and up in to the Pearl District, which had a lot of beautiful parks and gardens along the streets.

Portland is known as "The Rose City" - these were some nice ones.

I didn't take the streetcar because I enjoyed the walk. But I was impressed with how new and quiet they were. You don't see public transportation like this much in US cities.
Jamison Square - a park with a really cool fountain/wading pool. Both kids and adults were playing in the water. The fountain looked like water falling down boulders in a mountain stream.



Another beautiful park. I really liked the sculpture along one side that looked like reeds. There was a sign that said the park was reclaimed urban land turned into wetland habitat for wildlife. It did indeed have a (man-made?) creek running through the middle of it and stepping stones so people could get close and peer into the creek to see the fish.


I finished up at the Deschutes Brewery - one of Portland's many "Micro Breweries" and had a burger and a local beer - a Pilsner. mmmmm!
I was kind of tickled that my photo of the micro brewery had a car with a kayak on top passing in front. Microbrewery & kayak....how stereotypical Pacific Northwest is that???

The conference itself was nice. My talk went well. And I really enjoyed seeing some of Portland.