 |  |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
A day in portland
By Terry Currier
Let's
get right down to what I think is unique about Portland. What helps to
make it one of the most fun and livable cities in the country? The local
businesses that are scattered among the national chain stores that grace
every city in America keep Portland unique.
Our journey begins here: let’s take a walk through the city of Portland. Maybe even hop in the car, take the bus or even ride the light rail from time to time. We start this beautiful Saturday by having a meal at one of our fine breakfast establishments, the Cadillac Café. Now the Cadillac, all decked out in sporting pink colors complete with an entire 1961 Pink Cadillac on display, now resides up the street from its original location on NE Broadway. Why? Because their great breakfast and lunch menus have tasty dishes to satisfy both meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The smaller original location made a tiresome wait many times on the weekend … but well worth the wait as the lines continued from week to week.
After
that satisfying breakfast it's time to take care of the arts and intellectional
side of ourselves. Let’s pop by Music
Millennium, Portland's complete recorded music store since 1969, and
see why they have been selected best independent store in the country…multiple
times. We walk into the old brick building on 32nd and East Burnside,
that doesn't look all that big from the road, only to find CDs, records
and even some cassettes crammed in every nook and cranny as well as a
staff that actually knows what it's all about. In addition to all the
various genres filling the brick building there’s a subdivision
devoted entirely too classical music. Classical
Millennium has an immense inventory equivalent to only a few in the
US. Yep, one can find the biggest Hawkwind section in the country at Music
Millennium but today we decide to pick up the latest by Radiohead
and some Turkish Music.