The Native Oregonian's Guide to Avoiding Portland - A Preface
This blog, if I'm being totally truthful, was born out of envy. You see, I'm a native Oregonian. I've lived nowhere else for the last 40 years of my life. I met my wife here, bought my first house here, and am currently raising three little boys here. I'm not the type of Oregonian you see in Portlandia -- those are exaggerations of the peope who live in Portland, and I'm not close enough to Portland to be considered that "weird." I enjoy Powell's books, sure, but I'm more on the fringe of the metro area, closer to the country and St. Paul, the rodeo capital of Marion county, than the mess of downtown. And unfortunately, it turns out that most of what people know about Oregon involves Portland, which is only a fraction of the state, and honestly a poor representation of everything we offer. Sure, there's the City of Books, a must see part of Powell's Booksellers. And Voodoo Donuts, if you're into phallic shaped donuts that, honestly, ar