Different change of pace today! Sarah took me on an awesome bike ride through the city. There is nothing more freeing than biking in Portland.
Portland is easily the only place I’ve traveled in the US with roads entirely designated to bikes. You can see how firmly engrained the bike culture is in this sprawling city, virtually everyone has a bike and frequently opts to travel that way. Sarah herself has two bikes – I got a perfect opportunity to loan it out this morning.
Little air in the tires and we were good to go! We stopped pretty early in our outing at a local café, place called Zell’s. Just about anywhere you go for coffee in the city is much better than your average cup of joe, but this place was truly exceptional. Pretty impressed with Sarah’s recommendations up to now!
After we were good and caffeinated, we headed deep into the city using the designated ‘highway’ for bikers. Many people had a similar idea, we rode in several groups of people for some time. Met a family of four this morning that doesn’t even own a single car – that’s being progressive! The kids actually loved being able to bike everywhere, what fun.
Portland has an abundance of parks. We stopped for some shade in one and ended up being enlisted in a community circle of hacky sack. Everyone is terrifically friendly here, I’ve been really impressed. I say this in part because I am TERRIBLE at hacky sack. No one seemed to mind when I dropped the ball more than a few times.
It was a good day to be moving around, my legs are legitimately a little sore after all that. I think tomorrow I resort back to taking it easy! But who knows?
