KCRag Forum

Thanks for all the suggestions. Portland was great. Loved the public transport. We spent a lot of time in Washington Park. The hike from the Hoyt Arboreatum to Pittock Mansion was the highlight. Food and Brew were great. Coast was nice - some great towns but Ecola State Park and the area between Newport and Florence was great. Especially the dunes. Lincoln city did indeed suck. Cannon beach to Newport literally took hours to drive in heavy ow traffic.

In Crater Lake now. Mostly doing hikes - Mt Scott being the highlight but Mt Garfield was well worth it. Unfortunately, we got here on a weekend and the place where one can hike down to the lake was terribly congested. Off to Bend and Yakima tomorrow.

mean wrote:

Highlander wrote:So - how about the Space Needle? Worth the time and money? I don't mind spending the money but with one day, I don't want to wait in lines but I also don't want to order tickets in advance because I don't want to go up on an overcast day.

I personally found the Space Needle to be kind of boring, but the Experience Music Project (apparently now called the EMP Museum) basically next door to the Space Needle to be rather interesting. Based on my reading of the Wikipedia article, it has changed quite a bit since I was there though, and is no longer focused solely on music. I assume this is why they changed the name. When I visited, they had a large collection of artifacts from Seattle music history, from Hendrix to Heart to Nirvana (and "grunge" / "Seattle sound" 90s music in general). No idea how much of that stuff remains, but in any event the Gehry building it is housed in is still pretty cool and perhaps photo-worthy.

Just returned. We did not go up the Space Needle but we did visit the excellent Chihuly Exhibit and the underwhelming EMP. I was blown away by the Chihuly Glass exhibit but was really disappointed in the EMP - and I say that as a guy who is a guitar fanatic and has always idolized Hendrix. But for future reference - you can pay a lot less and go to the top of the Columbia Center which is much higher than the Space Needle. Of course, if you are going to the Chihuly - you can buy a combined pass and the cost would be the same but the Columbia Center is smack in the middle of downtown and has a great view.

Roanoker wrote:If you have any interest in wildflowers at all, please visit the place called "Paradise" on Rainier. Great masses of gorgeous blooms coat the incredibly beautiful hills and mountains in July and August. We were there in 2001. The view at every turn was jaw-dropping. You will see species that do not grow in lower elevations.

Roanoker - I have to say that Paradise is aptly named and was one of the highlights of our trip. Our original plan was to spend a couple of hours in Paradise and drive to Sunrise in the northern part of the park. But we headed out on the Skyline Trail - and then the Paradise Glacier Trail and ended up spending a good 6-7 hours hiking. It was indeed Paradise and we had a cloudless day to take literally hundred's of pictures of Rainier. Thanks for the suggestion.

So glad to hear that you did visit Paradise. Please post a few pictures. When I was there, all I had was that old, first-of-its-kind, Kodak digital camera. There is nothing like beautiful flowers adorning beautiful mountains. And you had a cloudless day! Couldn't be better.

Apparently Portlanders are freaking out about the lack of free parking as well... i guess they're everywhere.

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/09/p ... e-company/

kboish wrote:Apparently Portlanders are freaking out about the lack of free parking as well... i guess they're everywhere.

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/09/p ... e-company/

I believe that is Portland, Maine, if I'm not mistaken.

Oops. So much for article skimming. But still, there's got to be even more parking available in Portland Maine!

kboish wrote:Apparently Portlanders are freaking out about the lack of free parking as well... i guess they're everywhere.

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/09/p ... e-company/

I have been to Portland Maine twice and its a nightmare to park in the downtown area. I've had more trouble parking in that city then I ever had in Kansas City

Been there once, agree but they didn't rip out half of their downtown for surface lots as KC did.

Be interesting to see, 10 years from now, how parking conscious cities are feeling about their prime location lots when most cars can park themselves in a non-prime location for free or almost free.