A very long walk

Last weekend was perhaps the last sunny warm weekend in a while. We made good use of it. On Saturday, we did the 4T walk in our Walk There guide.

We started by taking the MAX to the Oregon Zoo. It was hard for me to pass the zoo entrance without going in to see the new baby elephant (who I haven't seen yet), but I managed. We walked south to Highway 26, crossed the freeway and a couple entrance ramps (scary), and found the Marquam Trail. And then, you step from the side of the road into a rainforest.

The trailhead is on the opposite side of this on-ramp for 26.

It's very lush and green in here. Also very noisy, due to the proximity to the freeway.

We steadily climbed and curved away from the road noise. Fortunately, the ground was relatively dry. I'm sure it gets very muddy in that canyon! Eventually, we came out below a road, which we walked along for a little ways. (I wish the west side had more sidewalks.) We picked up the Marquam Trail again. This time, it was wide and paved. :)

Walking (backwards?) up the trail to Council Crest Park.

View of Mount Hood from the top of Council Crest Park.

Closer view of Mount Hood.

We walked past the dog off-leash area and picked up the Marquam Trail again. This time it went down, down, down the hill.

Somewhere in the hills.

At Fairmount Boulevard, we left the trail and walked along the road for a while. Saw lots of spiders on their webs and realized that they always stabilize them with three long strands. We also determined that we don't want to live in that area -- the hills are beautiful, but they limit land possibilities (not a lot of yard space; lots of drop-offs) and the trees are very thick (= dark).

After walking for a while, and moving back and forth across the road, trying to stay on the side with the wider shoulder, we entered the more open (tree and view -wise) and modest (appearance-wise) Homestead neighborhood. We continued walking into OHSU and found the Portland Aerial Tram.

Entrance to the tram building.

View from the tram. Nicely, the ride down is free.

Another view as we descended. I was glad to have such a sunny clear day for taking pictures.

At the base of the tram, we got into the Portland Streetcar and rode it to downtown.

A view of the streetcar and the downtown library. A very cool building with somewhat off-putting people hanging around outside. It's somewhat close to Portland State University so it's got that grungy university feel. :)

We walked around for a while, trying to find me a suitable snack. For some reason, I wanted pork buns. We didn't find them.

If you've seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (and know us well), you'll understand why we were excited about this flower shop.

We finally ended up in the Pearl District, at Cupcake Jones, thanks to David and his amazing ability to remember where things are (except his sunglasses) and how to get there.

David's cupcakes:
September specials that are no longer listed on their website. :( One was root beer, and the other was chocolate mint.

My cupcakes:
The Pearl: white velvet cake filled with vanilla pastry cream, topped with vanilla bean buttercream icing and a single handmade white chocolate pearl
Downtown Cupcake Brown: delicious devil’s food cake filled with sour cream chocolate ganache, topped with rich fudge icing and hand shaved chocolate