Portland, Day #2

Getting out of bed wasn't quite as bad an experience as I suspected, thank god. Sorting out directions to the day's destination was only a little harder: the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum!

We went primarily to see the HK-1, Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' cargo plane. It was the largest plane in the world for years --and it might still be but I'm not sure if Airbus' latest monstrosity has displaced it. In any case, it is indeed bloody huge: it dominates the museum and it was impossible to find a vantage point in which I could get the entire beast into a single photograph. And even if it's no longer the largest, it is certainly the largest wooden plane.


The museum had a lot more to show than just the Spruce Goose, including a wide range of WWII military hardware from both the US and the Soviet Union. The space museum next door was loaded with fascinating toys too, some replicas, some original. We've seen a lot of the displayed hardware at the Air & Space Museum in DC but there were a few novel items (a full Titan II missile and control room, the X-38 lifeboat glider, the X-15 replica, etc.). The Evergreen museum also did a vastly better job of placing the displays in historical context and the building itself was vastly more architecturally attractive than DC's.

We were expecting to spend about three hours at the museum. We were actually there for nearly six, including a nice lunch at their cafe. Going in the off-season was great for ducking the crowds but the lower lighting levels in the late afternoon made outdoor photography difficult: next time, I'll shoot the outside displays first.

We returned to the hotel just before 6pm and promptly napped.

Dinner was a quick affair: a burger at Burgerville, next door to the hotel. I had the chicken burger with pear chutney... heartily recommended! Sadly, the chain is local to the northwest of the US; indeed their slogan is "inconveniently located to most of America."

Portland, Day #2

Getting out of bed wasn't quite as bad an experience as I suspected, thank god. Sorting out directions to the day's destination was only a little harder: the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum!

We went primarily to see the HK-1, Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' cargo plane. It was the largest plane in the world for years --and it might still be but I'm not sure if Airbus' latest monstrosity has displaced it. In any case, it is indeed bloody huge: it dominates the museum and it was impossible to find a vantage point in which I could get the entire beast into a single photograph. And even if it's no longer the largest, it is certainly the largest wooden plane.


The museum had a lot more to show than just the Spruce Goose, including a wide range of WWII military hardware from both the US and the Soviet Union. The space museum next door was loaded with fascinating toys too, some replicas, some original. We've seen a lot of the displayed hardware at the Air & Space Museum in DC but there were a few novel items (a full Titan II missile and control room, the X-38 lifeboat glider, the X-15 replica, etc.). The Evergreen museum also did a vastly better job of placing the displays in historical context and the building itself was vastly more architecturally attractive than DC's.

We were expecting to spend about three hours at the museum. We were actually there for nearly six, including a nice lunch at their cafe. Going in the off-season was great for ducking the crowds but the lower lighting levels in the late afternoon made outdoor photography difficult: next time, I'll shoot the outside displays first.

We returned to the hotel just before 6pm and promptly napped.

Dinner was a quick affair: a burger at Burgerville, next door to the hotel. I had the chicken burger with pear chutney... heartily recommended! Sadly, the chain is local to the northwest of the US; indeed their slogan is "inconveniently located to most of America."