Oregon, Day 8a - Salem

We drove back to Portland from Oakridge on Saturday, and stopped off in Salem for lunch and a quick peek around. Salem is the capitol of Oregon, so we were certain that in addition to the shaggy furry-pitted agro-urbanites that are typical to Oregon towns, we would also find some local pot-puffing politicians and maybe even get to witness a logger-rights versus spotted-owl throw down.
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No such luck. There were however, people walking around and enjoying the day...very nice to see people in a downtown area on a Saturday. In Florida, we call people who hang out downtown and enjoy the day on the weekends 'homeless.' There were homeless people on the streets, don't get me wrong. For the folks in Salem though, the allure of shopping at the downtown Nordstroms made tolerating them more of a necessity than just a simple nuisance.

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No bike lanes downtown (sorry APA!), but lots of bike racks and quite a few folks using them too. There were lots of places to eat, but we passed on a few of the more inventive looking joints in favor of a more staid and stodgy seafood place...something where we knew we could feed the rugrat. Rugrats typically do not eat espresso and artichoke hearts. They do however, like french fries with lots of ketchup....or as the kids say today "Catsup!"

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Besides, we are from Jacksonville, so by nature we prefer to eat nasty fried crap.

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On to Portland!