My husband and I will be spending the last week of July in Portland and the first week of August in Eugene, Newport, and Seaside. Any places I should visit? Music stores? Sessions? Places of general interest? I’ve never been to the area before. I have all the touristy travel stuff, but I wouldn’t mind advice from a real person!
Looking at your profile/interests, you might get a kick out of Hippo Hardware in Portland. They salvage everything imaginable out of old mansions for home improvements…matching old stuff in houses people are trying to restore. 1040 E Burnside Portland, OR.
Powells Bookstore, on the same street, is another place you can get lost in if you like books. It covers a whole block, about 5 stories high, with VERY expensive antique collectible books in one section. 1005 W Burnside Portland, OR. One of the largest in the world.
Artichoke Music use to be the Irish-Central shopping place for musical instruments/jamsessions. They still have plenty, but have diversified a little. That’s the location where Kevin Burke’s live album was recorded a few years ago. Lots of nice whistles. 3130-A SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR. Enquire here for all the hot spots in town…sessions, concerts, pubs, etc.
Pioneer Music always has a good selection of rare old instruments. 907 SW 9th Avenue Portland, OR.
Portland Music Co. 531 SE Martin Luther King Blvd Portland, OR., and, 2502 NE Broadway Portland, OR. They must have moved, and expanded. I remember them being on 3rd or 4th St.
Millenium Music is great for Traditional Irish Music CDs (new and used), and old collectible LPs. 3158 E. Burnside at 32nd.
Biddy McGraws-6000 NE Glisan, Portland, Kells-112 SW Second Avenue, Portland, Michael Beglan’s-Alberta Street Pub-2839 NE Alberta Street (Michael knows all the famous Irish musicians) are good bets to hear live performances and jam sessions. Michael has a web page. Just call him for best places to go… 503-331-1774
Places of interest to see: Columbia River Gorge just East of Portland…a 20 minute drive to Multnomah Falls out I-84. Also Mt. Hood Timberline Lodge…about an hour SW of Portland. Drive out through the town of Sandy on Burnside. Portland, Oregon is a city of art museums too if you’re into that. Check [u]Google[/u] for tourist info.
[u]Saturday Market[/u] is one of the top 10 attractions in Portland, according to their web page. 350+ artists, home cooked food vendors, live music (even Irish) gather every weekend. Main office is located on Burnside, but I remember the stages being just North a block or two down near the river and the city metro. You can find the exact location somewhere on the internet. Saturdays and Sundays…a kind of festival atmosphere.
Can’t help you on the other towns, but be sure and see Cannon Beach if you are anywhere near there on the Pacific Ocean. You won’t want to go back to Arkansas. 
I loved Newport, used to live in Corvallis and it was about an hour drive. They’ve got a wonderful road of little shops that are nice to wander, lots of resident sea lions, and an excellent Aquarium a few miles down the road, think it’s the Oregon Aquarium. I liked the sea otters best.
Haven’t been there in years so my info may be out of date, but I would love to go back to Newport someday.
I second Powell’s. Its incredible. There are color coded rooms for each category, E.G. the gold room has science fiction, the grey room has art anthologies… especially inpressive since each room is about the size of a small shopping center.
The zoo is on par with most, and is great if you love animals. I haven’t been there for about half a year but they are in the middle of a spree of opening exhibits. Recent additions include a lorikeet aviary, a whole complex of marine mammals, and for a while there was a butterfly exhibit (I think it was temporary though). The both aviaries and the northwest nature trail are my favorites. And the naked mole-rats. And the little wee monkeys, too. I kinda remember hearing something about a new wolverine exhibit. There is the standard elephants, giraffes, hippos, alligators, bears, large cats, etc. Penguin feeding time (sometime between 1 and three I think) is a must-see if you’re there in the afternoon. It costs about 10 dollars a person last time I was there.
Another recommended stop is sauvie island. In case you don’t know, its a giant island in the middle of the columbia river, about 15 minutes NW from portland. Too bad the corn maize (like a hedge maze) isn’t grown yet. It’s a fall thing, ya know. Anyway, it is beautiful there and you can probably pick up some produce (namely BERRIES this time of year).
As for music, I live in a flute/coronet dominated family so I’m not much help there.
The newport aquariam is great, too.
In eugene all I have to recommend is the resturaunt “Poppi’s Anatolia” - 992 Willamette St. If you like mediterannean, it’s great. If not, don’t go.
I don’t know the details of your trip, but if you go in the order you stated, you will most likely be going up the wilamette river valley to get from portland to eugene. I don’t have any specifics, but my grandparents live down there and on the trip it is evident that there are wineries EVERYWHERE. If you have a taste for something alcoholic, just follow the signs. I can think of one place - you know those signs that say “Gas next right” and list the gas stations? It’s like that only with vineyards 
. Don’t be afraid to stray off the interstate either, its hard to get lost down there and the people are friendly. I kinda remember a sweet-peddling monastary somewhere in there. I think there is an older road that runs right by the river, too, you might wanna buy a map and experiment.
All right, I hope that’s not too much or too disorganized.
P.S. Whatever you do, do NOT venture further northwest than sauvie island. That would put you HERE. If you get lost and end up here, do not feed the hicks. They will become dependant on it and will no longer be able to function in the wild.
I can mention a replica of Stonehenge, just over the border in Washington State along the Columbia river. It is off the beaten path, about 50 miles east of Portland, but if you are into that kind of thing, worth the drive.
http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/about.htm#ston
The Oregon Coast is picturesque and rustic. Some sections remind me of how the coast may have looked long ago before all the human development. I also remember a spectacular sunset with the sun over a blanket of fog. Those types of sunsets are probably common in Oregon, but perhaps a once in a lifetime experience for me.
I got into music because of a vacation to San Francisco, Oregon and Washington state. At the Newport aquarium I heard some haunting flute music, perhaps native American flute, as background music. In Pike’s Place Market in Seattle, there was a booth selling flutes. I picked one up and off course could not coax anything out of it. The vendor kindly suggested an ocarina. I bought that and sounded out a few tunes. I quickly outgrew the ocarina, though still have it. I saw a Clarke with a book and cassette in a bookstore. Now many years later, I play just about every day. I write songs, and perform in public. That trip literally changed my life.
Enjoy.
- Bill
I loved the zoo, too. Fragrant of pines and cedar, clean air, chilly November sunshine…oh it was glorious. AND I got to see a baby elephant being taught how to use its trunk by its mother.
Carol
Thanks, everyone! This is very helpful.
The zoo must be the Washington Park Zoo. Yes, a very nice one. Which, reminds me of another great place in Portland, and near the zoo… [u]OMSI[/u] Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. A train ride through the campus, a planetarium…tons of very interesting things to see and do there, and a beautiful location overlooking the town!
Stonehenge, and Maryhill Museam, that BillChin mentioned, is great. One of my best friends use to live right at the Stonehinge (replica) site, and was the resident Anthropoligist/Curator of the lower rooms in Maryhill Museum (Native American artifacts). I lived about 10 minutes from there, windsurfing, for about 7 years. It’s actually more like 90-100 miles from Portland, about 1½ hr. drive.
If you want to see some of the most radical people in the world (far more radical than Irish musicians), drive on past Multnomah Falls to Hood River and watch world-class windsurfing and kite surfers. It will take your breath away to see 7-9 ft. swells in the Columbia River and surfers using them for ramps to jump 20-30 ft. in the air, at about 40mph. All this about 50 miles East of Portland amongst some of the most outrageous scenery. World class fruit orchards and vinyards too.
Mike Beglan’s Alberta St. Pub has an Irish session every Friday night. Starts around nine or so. Quality varies a bit, but there usually are a few very good musicians there to keep things moving along.
Do go to Powell’s. I usually go down there planning to stay an hour or so and come out weighted down with books about five hours later. They just got a new “Colloquial Breton” book/cd set in the foreign language section…Oh boy, someone tie me down…
And if your sojourn through Oregon should take you through a humble little town called Otis by any chance, do stop at the Otis Junction Cafe for what is undoubtedly the world’s greatest breakfast.
If you are a wine drinker, take the opportunity to visit a vineyard or two. There are quite a few in the Eugene area.