visiting for 4th of july weekend (Portland, Beaverton: rental car, rental, home)

[mullenium]

my wife, 2 yr old daughter, and I are flying up to scope out the area.. getting in saturday and sadly coming home tuesday.

any suggestions on things to do? places to visit? we want to check out hillsboro and beaverton for possible places to live when we move up there from phoenix..

but other than that we dont know what sights to see.

I think i want to check out white salmon, or maybe drive to the coast? we will have a rental car so transportation is not a concern.

also is there any big 4th celebration we should check out?

thanks everyone!

[Rob Allen]

Big 4th of July events:

- the Waterfront Blues Festival takes over Waterfront Park downtown all weekend, with a big fireworks display on the 4th.

- the Fort Vancouver fireworks on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington are even bigger than the fireworks at the Blues Festival.

Rumor has it that there are places in the West Hills where you can see both displays, although the distance diminishes the effect somewhat.

[Deezus]

Go check out the Blues Festival for a day... It'll be going on for 4 days, July 4th weekend, and has a mix of good blues, funk, cajun, and zydeco artists---including a lot of good musicians from New Orleans. And it's cheap to get in.

[Daisy32673]

Ditto on the Blues Festival and Fort Vancouver Fireworks. As far as neighborhoods go where will your job be?

[mullenium]

Thanks for the input guys.

Any other attractions? Like trails, viewpoints, rapids/waterfalls we should chck out?

And daisy: not sure yet, moving there is a fairly new desire at this point. We want out of the desert so bad lol. My wife is pregnant with our second girl and due November, we are really big on natural home birthing and she loves her midwife here, so unless we know there are a ton of really good ho me birthing midwife options there we will wait til november til after she has the baby.. So I haven't even began to start looking for a job out there yet. We jus heard Hillsboro and Beaverton are good for IT which is my career field.
:-)

[gma221]

I found Frommer's "Portable Portland" guide helpful on my first trip to Portland, which was about the same length as yours. You can find it on Amazon.

Some of the places we visited that I highly recommend are the Japanese Gardens (their huge iris display should be blooming at that time), the PSU Farmer's Market, and the Saturday Market (which is also held on Sundays). The downtown walking tour is also very informative. Google "Portland Walking Tours" and you'll find it. Your two-year-old would probably really enjoy playing in the fountain at Jamison Square in the Pearl District (there's also a GREAT ice cream shop nearby called Cool Moon).

A lot of travel guides recommend taking the aerial tram up to OHSU, but in my opinion it's overrated. The view is nice, but the tram station is a little out of the way, and once you go up there's really nothing to do aside from snap a few pictures and come back down.

Even on a short weekend trip, it's worth it to go see the Columbia Gorge and Multnomah Falls. Take the scenic route instead of I-84. The coast is a very nice day trip, too (Ecola State Park is a must-see), but I'm slightly partial to the Gorge.

Some of the places that I haven't yet visited but am very eager to are: the International Rose Test Gardens, Forest Park, the Chinese Gardens, the Rhododendron Garden near Reed College, and the Pittock Mansion. I've heard the zoo is pretty cool, too. So many things to see and do in Portland!

Hope that helps.

[friggsdottir]

A friend of mine used an amazing midwife for all 6 of her children's homebirths. I'll give you her contact info if you guys move before the baby is born.

[mullenium]

Originally Posted by friggsdottir

A friend of mine used an amazing midwife for all 6 of her children's homebirths. I'll give you her contact info if you guys move before the baby is born.

Can you pm me with the info? Thanks!