You Can't Plan This Stuff - Portland, OR - 5355 Miles

Some people vacation having planned every day, every hotel, every tour, and every attraction to be seen. I don't do that. I stay about a week ahead on where we stay, but beyond that everything is on the fly. True to form we started off in Portland Saturday buying a pass for the transit system and heading into town on the rail. We got off at the first stop downtown and followed what seemed to be the general flow of people. We ended up at the Portland Saturday Market which is a weekly event with music, food, and dozens of vendor booths with any arts and crafts type wares one might desire. After spending time at the market we walked much of the downtown area, had lunch at a local microbrewery, and took the train to Washington Park to see the inevitable rose gardens. On the way back to the hotel we again passed the Saturday Market and I noticed it said, "ON SUNDAYS, TOO." We decided to return Sunday to tour Chinatown and go back to the market.

Today we got to town at about 10:00 and walked the two blocks to Chinatown. It had Chinese-style streetlights, random concrete dragons, and several Chinese restaurants such as Louie's Chinese Seafood, but the area seemed remarkably devoid of Chinese. Like yesterday the movement of people tended toward a specific direction so we joined in, this time away from Saturday market. Along the way we passed a gay bar with blaring music and an all male crowd spilling out onto the sidewalk. I thought, "I never knew Sunday mornings were such a rockin' time in the gay community."

A block further movement came to a stop in a massive throng of people. Someone spoke into a bullhorn. The billboard on the bar next to me advertised female impersonators nightly. We had inadvertently ended up less than 30 feet and 30 seconds from the start of the 40th annual Portland gay pride parade. Some people probably paid thousands of dollars for packages to put them in that spot at that time and we were there by complete accident. Never being one to pass up a good parade, we stayed to watch.

Before the actual parade, things kick off with the start of the Portland Drag Race. There were great photo ops but I was in a hurry holding the camera overhead and shooting blindly over the people in front of me. I'm not sure what I did but when I checked I hadn't taken any pictures. By the time I got it together, the traditional leaders in the parade had begun - Dykes on Bikes.















Any parade needs a marching band and official "Queen". This was no exception. I loved the band T-shirts saying on the back, if you can't see it, "I Can't Even March Straight." You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but note the guy walking behind the queen in the coat, tie, and pink tutu.















The Parade also had a contingent of gay clowns and gay segway riders.















Other random parade pictures.















I briefly contemplated joining in the parade with the Gay and Lesbian Employees (GALE) of Pacific Gas & Electric but decided against it.














We watched about half an hour before continuing on and having lunch. Later we stumbled upon the parade ending location. It had started at 11 and ended at 2. I can't imagine how many participants were involved but everyone ended up on the riverfront for a big party. I heard activities from the night before included a naked run along the river. I feel lucky we didn't stumble upon that.