A city of "-est's"

Portlandians love their city. They also like to lay claim to a lot of “-est’s” – the biggest, smallest, tallest. There are also a lot of “most’s” here as well. I am on a hunt to find all the “-est’s”, and experience all the “most’s.”

There are two “most’s” that make Portlandians (and myself!) the proudest: Portland has the most breweries per capita than any other city, and Portland has the most strip clubs per capita than any other city (this includes Vegas and San Fran!). What a combo. I have frequented many bars thus far – actually, an embarrassing amount. (Jeremy’s keeping track and writing reviews about each one. Check it out here.) I am yet to visit a Portland strip club – but I do know which one I want to go to. Soon. Very soon.

One of the first weekends we were here, Jerod and I had a day of “-est’s” with Ryan as our tour guide. On the list: Powell’s, Mill Ends Park, and Saturday Market.

Powell’s is the largest bookstore in the world. It is indescribable, you really have to see the place, but I will try. It takes up an entire city block. It stocks more than a million used and new books – a million! The store is divided into color-coded rooms (rose, orange, blue, gold, red, etc.) by sections – there are 122 sections and 3,500 different subsections. The purple room is my favorite – I could spend an entire day in just the pop culture/sociology aisle. The bookshelves alone are the biggest, tallest bookshelves I have ever seen. It’s a booklover’s dream.

We continued onto Mill Ends Park, the smallest city park in the world. Shaped in a circle, it is only 24 inches in diameter and is located in the middle of Naito Parkway. You really have to keep your eyes peeled for it, or you’ll miss it. In 1948, the “park” was built to be the site for a light pole. When weeds sprouted in it, Dick Fagan, a columnist for the Oregon Journal, decided to plant flowers in the hole. His column, “Mill Ends” would often feature the park and its leprechaun inhabitants. According to Wikipedia, the park has been home to many unusual items in the past, including a swimming pool for butterflies (with a diving board) and a miniature Ferris wheel. (No leprechauns were harmed in the taking of the below picture.)*


The last stop in our day of “-est’s” was Saturday Market. Located under the west end of the Burnside Bridge, it is the largest open-air crafts market in continuous operation in the U.S. I was stoked to go – I heard there was shopping, beer, food and live music. Sounds awesome! And all of this was true – to an extent. In actuality, it was a bunch of booths with random crap you don’t need (i.e. blown glass, bow and arrows, miniature dog statues), the live music was hippies beating on buckets, the food was mainly fair food (and we all know how I feel about eating food from a fair), and the beer was contained to a small area. Bummer.

Other Portland “-est’s”:

- The Hood to Coast Relay is reportedly the world's largest running relay race, with nearly 20,000 racers per year. The route is from Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood to the Pacific Ocean at Seaside. I hear it starts out really cold in the mountains, then gets hot at sea level, then finishes cold again on the coast. It’s 130 miles.
- Portland has the largest fabric store in the U.S., Fabric Depot.
- The Portland Building hosts Portlandia, the second-largest hammered copper statue in the world, second only to the Statue of Liberty.
- Portland is home to the very first professional hockey team in the U.S., the Portland Rosebuds, though no longer a team. But Portland was first, nonetheless!
- Forest Grove, Oregon, west of Portland, has the world’s tallest barber shop pole.
- In 1905, the largest log cabin in the world was built in Portland to honor the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- I’ve also read that Portlanders supposedly eat more ice cream per capita than any other city. Which is weird. I haven’t seen a single person eating ice cream since I’ve been here.

Now I haven’t heard of any “only’s.” Hey Portlandians, Portland is the only city to what? Fill me in!

*According to many sources, Portland is also home to the largest urban park, Forest Park, which is nearly 5,000 acres. I have heard, however, that Alaska swooped in and took over the title with one of their parks. Non-Palin supporters insert remark here. Poor Alaska.