Fun things to do.?

Question

Hi I'm going to portland Oregon in may. what are some fun things to do. That don't coast alot of money.. and good coffee houses to go too. thanks friends

Answer 1

If you drive to the Gorge it is beautiful. The beach is real close and that is breathtaking cause the beaches here are not dirty. Also the mountains are real close. The Staurday market is by the waterfront in downtown portland. It is a lot of fun.

Answer 2

You sure won't have a problem finding coffee shops there will be sometimes 2 or 3 on some blocks in the downtown area. Otherwise it is the rainy season so just drink coffee and sleep is about all there is to do.

Answer 3

I like to go to Harveys comedy club. Its located on 6th and Glisan and is a good evening of entertainment. It is a non-smoking establishment and runs one or two shows every night.

Answer 4

Yelp may be of some help.
http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=&find_loc=Portland%2C+OR&x=49&y=9

Answer 5

First things last: Coffee Houses - get your caffeine fix at one of these 5 places. World Cup Coffee & Tea House - 1740 NW Glisan St. Wonderful space, comfy chairs, beautiful animal art murals, friendly staff. Anna Bannanas 1214 NW 21st Ave. - funky neighborhood, good people. Pied Cow Coffeehouse
3244 SE Belmont St. - very cool setting. Java Vivace
2287 NW Pettygrove St - lovely old Victorian, delicious crepes. Rimsky-Korsacoffeehouse 707 SE 12th (at Alder)

There are loads of wonderful brewpubs. You could keep busy just going to all the McMenamin's and sampling their wonderful concoctions. Many of them, like the Kennedy School at 33rd and Killingsworth, have theatres with second run films, as well as a great soaking pool. Five bucks and you get to sit in a beautiful tiled rectangle filled with 101 degree water while looking up at the stars.

Powell's Bookstore is a great place to hang out and there are author readings virtually every night.

The Blazers might not be playing while you're here, but you can get a sports fix at Niketown 930 Sw 6th Ave. It's fun!

The Oregon Zoo is a great place - one of the best in the country.

You just missed Oregon Museum of Science and Industry's Star Wars exhibit. Their regular collections are fun, though, and there's an OMNIMAX theatre and planetarium.

A short drive away is the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, and boy, is it scenic! And gorgeous! (sorry, can't resist the pun) Beautiful waterfalls.

Ride the Portland Aerial Tram - you'll be doing it before a bunch of Portlanders do because it's newly opened!
M-F 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM Sat 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM The Tram cabins depart every five minutes.


There are some fun theatre and music events right now, although at other times of the year there are even more good things happening. Lots of music festivals and theatre in the parks. But let's look at May:

Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and Other Riches - OMSI
A family-friendly exhibit that takes visitors to seven ports of call along the most biologically diverse river in the world, the Amazon. Here visitors encounter amazing creatures including notorious piranhas, enormous anacondas, beautiful stingrays, and mysterious pink dolphins.02/03/07 - 05/06/07

Portland Indie Wine Festival - Indie Wine Festival
This relatively unknown brigade of craft wineries (that produce <2000 cases/year), with a diversity of styles and movement towards sustainable production, are the rising stars in Oregon winemaking. Like many of Portland’s most popular cultural events, the Portland Indie Wine Festival is a fun, lively, community experience. Think Sundance meets wine tasting. Festival goers will taste the best wines selected by a jury, meet the winemakers, sample great food from Oregon’s top chefs, and buy wines to take home. 05/05/07 - 05/06/07 Urban Wine Works 407 NW 16th Ave. This is a little spendy at $60.


Children's Day - Japanese Garden Society of Oregon
In Japan there are two festivals held each year to honor children—one day for boys and one for girls. At the Garden, we combine the two events to offer Children's Day as a tribute to the happiness and future success of all children. This family event features a variety of entertainment, including taiko drumming, raising of the koi nobori, Japanese storytelling, traditional Japanese dancing, and singing by the Japanese Immersion Singers. Hands-on activities include ikebana, block printing, sumi-e brush painting, taste of tea for children, origami, koi viewing, haiku path, and a doll display. 05/06/07
$8 adult, $6.25 senior/college student, $5.25 student

Mother's Day - Japanese Garden Society of Oregon
A time-honored holiday in America, Mother's Day is celebrated at the Garden with a presentation of teas from around the world, poetry readings, and live music in the Pavilion and throughout the Garden. We invite everyone to enjoy the Garden as we pay tribute to mothers everywhere. 05/13 $8 adult, $6.25 senior/college student, $5.25 age 6-17

Waterfront Village - Rose Festival Association
The Waterfront Village is Portland's largest civic celebration, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Presented in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the Village offers more than 500 hours of classic family-style entertainment, a variety of food menus presented in courtyard settings, and thrilling rides for the kid in everyone. This year the Village features our Pirates Rendezvous, Tall Ships and the Pacific Northwest’s finest, cleanest and family-friendliest carnival. Join us during our Centennial Celebration festivities! 05/31/07 - 06/10/07

IN CONCERT

Cinco de Bruckner - Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Our season concludes with the pairing of Bach and Bruckner, masters of the organ and of fugal counterpoint. CSO concertmasters Dawn Carter and Brad Hochhalter solo in the Bach Concerto. The 25th anniversary celebration is crowned by Bruckner’s magisterial 5th Symphony. 05/04/07 - 05/08/07

Young Romantics - Portland Baroque Orchestra
PBO closes the season with groundbreaking performances of early 19th century orchestral works from youthful German masters Schubert, Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber. Also on the program, Monica gives her debut performances of Beethoven’s lyric Romances, Op. 40 and Op. 50, for solo violin and orchestra. 05/04/07 - 05/06/07

Concerto Night - Portland Youth Philharmonic
Takemitsu, a largely self-taught Japanese composer consider himself a student of France's Debussy. We challenge you to compare and contrast the two or just enjoy listening to them on the same program. The theme of the evening though, is the concerto and there is something for everyone, no matter their favorite instrument, in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, which calls forth "solos" from each instrument group. Another outstanding solo will feature 17-year-old Judy Park who will perform Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto. 05/12/07

The Magic Flute - Portland Opera
Renowned illustrator Maurice Sendak's sets are a wondrous medley of the serious and the childlike--the picture-perfect setting for Mozart's finest work. Part farce, part allegory, part cosmic exploration, it shimmers with possibilities, as Tamino and Papageno discover not only the meaning of life but true companions for the rest of their lives as well 05/12/07 - 05/19/07


The Peacemakers - Portland Gay Men's Chorus
The final concert of the season will offer the world premiere of The Peacemakers along with other works written for the Portland Gay Men's Chorus, including music by Lou Harrison, Desirée Lavertu, Kate Campbell, and Tom Simonds. 05/16/07

Celebration Works - First Presbyterian Church
5th anniversary season of concerts at the First Presbyterian Church, including: May 20, Alder Street Sextet $10 adult, $5 senior/student, parking will be validated

ON STAGE

Bad Dates - Portland Center Stage
This off-the-wall, one-woman comedy casts everyone in the audience as the confidantes of Haley Walker, a 40+ single mom from Texas who manages a chic Manhattan restaurant run by the Tomanian mob. Haley finds herself on a series of really bad dates in her never-ending quest for Mr. Right. 4/17 - 6/10

They Came From Way Out There - Artists Repertory Theatre
From the creators of Chaps! and fresh from a hit run at Milwau-kee Rep comes this paranormal musical revue set on the very wildest outer fringes of American paranoid pop culture. In it, you get to choose the next president of the Paranormal Society. Will it be the retired NASA engineer with nightmares of alien visita-tion? The singing Sasquatch? Or the Goddess worshiping earth mother with her own secrets to keep? From Area 51 to conspiracy theories of every stripe, this revue is a singing, dancing mind probe of the paranoid, delusional, and alien obsessed yokels camped out in our own backyards. 4/17-5/31

Tango - Theatre Vertigo
Arthur is a son who knows best and wants to bring order to his free-spirited family of bohemians. His miscalculations result in the rise of the barbarians and the destruction of the world as he knows it 4/27/07 - 05/26/07

Wild Food Adventures Spring 2007 - Wild Food Adventures
Providing expertise in wild edible plants and foraging.
May 18 -21, 2007, Native Shores Rendezvous 503.775.3828

Sunday Swing! - Westside Swing Join hundreds of dancers of all levels and ages. 01/14/07 - 06/24/07 Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell Every Sunday evening 7:00 p.m. Beginning Swing Lesson 8:00 p.m. Dj'd Swing Dancing 503.957.3369 $8 adult, $6 student

Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum - Portland Art Museum
In conjunction with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Portland Art Museum announces the American tour and exclusive West Coast viewing of the exhibition. A legion of great painters will be represented and complemented by a selection of ceramic, glass, and silver show pieces to be the most beautifully produced by 17th century Dutch silversmiths. 5/26 - 9/16

Will Shortz - Literary Arts, Inc. The only person in the world to hold a degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, and is the subject of the 2006 documentary film Wordplay. 05/10/07 First Congregational Church1126 S.W. Park 503.227.2583

Pick up a Willamette Week and check out dining and other options. Have fun.