Portland - Open Source Convention 2006

I recently returned from a week in Portland, OR where I attended the 2006 Open Source Convention. The convention itself turned out pretty well (as I documented over in my tech blog) but I had an extra day at the end to do some sightseeing.

Here's the view from my hotel room to the west towards downtown:


Our first stop was the Chinese Garden, in chinatown. It was built by 100+ craftsmen from Portland's sister city in China and modelled after a typical scholar's garden from the Ming Dynasty. It occupied an entire city block right in the heart of Chinatown.


After that it was off to the zoo in Washington Park. Washington Park has the distinction of having the world's deepest subway stop, at 770 ft below the surface. The elevator ride is a lot of fun (and fast!) I got a good shot of the hippos...


From the zoo you can hop on the zoo train which goes for miles through the woods of the park to the International Rose Garden (Portland is the City of Roses, after all...)


From the Rose Garden, you can get great views of downtown.


After that we hit the trendy Nob Hill neighborhood for dinner and then headed to the airport for a long redeye flight home. Portland is one of my favorite cities and I am happy to be able to make it there each summer. This year I'll get a bonus visit because I'm going to tag along when Katie heads there for her neuropsych conference in February!