I was excited when I woke up with a plan for Friday—to find Delirium. After reading the story, some of you might think that I started out there (pun definitely intended). My quest to find the best coffee shops in the area is not limited to downtown and I had heard about a café in Gresham that was supposed to be a good one, Café Delirium (thanks Desiree). Since I’m trying to get to know Portland and the best way to get the feel for a place is to see it on foot, I decided to walk from downtown out to the café, following Burnside Street as far as I could. Google Maps said it was only 13.5 miles (it turned out to be 14.3 miles) and estimated it would take 4.5 hours. That was only half a day—no problem!

Before I left the house at 8:30am, I later saw in the paper that the forecast was for periods of rain. That made me a little nervous because I didn’t want to get soaked. Then again, living in Portland, you have to get used to walking in the rain. I wasn’t going to let it stop me. Besides, if it started raining too much, I could just step into a café along the way and wait it out. The downpours here don’t usually last too long. The drizzle does, but not the heavy rain.

It was a great morning for walking, despite the humidity. The temperature was cool, but there was no wind, so I was comfortable walking in a t-shirt, jeans and my ever-present Chacos.

Fountains and mountains, two reasons Portlanders love living here

It was a brisk and somewhat damp morning in Portland when I set out walking. The sun was trying to burn through the light clouds, but with rain forecasted for the afternoon, I was not optimistic that it would win. Like my last wandering, I headed eastward again, crossing the Hawthorne (green) bridge over the tranquil Willamette River. It was just before 9am when I crossed, and there was a constant stream of bicycles zipping towards me as commuters made their way into downtown. Portland is a bike-friendly city (another sustainability thing) and the mayor, Sam Adams has a reputation for advocating for bike commuting. He recently (and controversially) designated some of the city’s water and sewer funds to improving bike lanes and bike safety.

As I crossed the river, I realized that my toes were cold. That may sound like a strange observation, but since my trip to Beijing this summer, I have hardly worn any shoes other than my open-toed Chaco sandals. When I first got them, I was a little skeptical about their suitability for walking. In addition, wearing sandals seemed a little too Portlandish for me. However, after spending five weeks in Beijing, I admit I really like them. They keep your feet cool and are good for wandering for miles, especially once your feet get used to them. However, as the rainy season approaches, I don’t know if I will put the sandals away in favor of shoes or not. Might be a little too cool to keep wearing them (the weather, not me).

On the other side of the bridge I followed Clay street until it veered right and turned into Ladd Street. Ladd took me through a neighborhood of large older houses and there were massive elm trees on either side of the street, forming a tunnel overhead. At the end of the tunnel was Ladd Circle, a wide traffic circle with a small park in the center. On the opposite side of the circle I spotted Palio Dessert and Espresso House (review here). It looked like a great place to make my first stop of the day.

After a longer than expected stop at Palio, my wandering began anew. I left the café and walked up Harrison Street, which I would follow for the next few miles. Harrison, as it turns out, is one of the streets that Portland has modified to encourage bicycle commuting. There are bike symbols all along the street, and medians had been placed at major cross streets (leaving a gap for bikes) to discourage cars from traveling down it. As far as I could tell, the changes seemed to be effective. I saw many more bikes than cars or pedestrians.

Being bike-friendly