Back in Portland for the second time and about to head south. We are hiring a car in a few hours and spending two days slowly winding our way down I-5 and 101 towards the Bay Area, California. The time we've spent in the Pacific NW has been varied but wonderful, matching easily the expectations in my mind built on a month-long visit here in 2006. Portland has changed a lot in the ensuing nine years, or so most people we have met here have said. The city is bigger, busier, more corporate. Its unofficial motto, "Keep Portland Weird", bares less relevance now than it did a decade ago or twenty or thirty years ago. Honestly I can't be 100% sure as my memories are hazy but certainly the skyline is a lot more jagged with
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