Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

I’ve spend the first week of the month in Vancouver, B.C., attending the ESTC. It was only the second occurrence of the conference, but I was impressed by the turn out. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is behind this event, which will take place in Portland next year – mark your calendar for November 2009!

It’s quite exciting, as 2009 will be such an important year for sustainable tourism. The launch of the Global Criteria only (if you haven’t read about this yet, check out www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org) will be a huge reason to celebrate.

I went to Vancouver to introduce Portland to this year’s delegates. And in good Portland fashion – literally – I didn’t go unnoticed. A couple of Junk-to-Funk artists loaned us their dresses made out of used materials. Can you guess what mine is made of?

See you in ’09 for more.

Smokin'?

What do Beethoven and opera have in common?  Not very much, as it turns out.  Indeed, the masterful composer’s only operatic work is the beautifully composed, poorly lyrical Fidelio.  Showing in Stumptown for the first time in nearly 30 years, the Portland Opera brought Fidelio back on stage this November.

The story centers on Leonore, a woman whose husband is unjustly imprisoned.  Leonore disguises herself as a man in order to obtain work as a prison guard.  Her struggle to free her husband – and take a stand against tyranny – are the central themes of the performance.

Sung in German with translated English dialogue, the Portland work meshes historical and modern-day costuming for an across-the-centuries statement against opression.

The 2008-2009 opera season, entitled “Life on the Edge”, continues in February with The Turn of the Screw.

While some things always seem more expensive than they did the year before – food and airline tickets, for example – a few items are actually getting cheaper in Portland.  One such ‘on sale’ service is downtown parking.  A combination of this summer’s high gas prices, Portland’s great public transportation and Portlanders’ love affair with bikes lead numerous garages around town to slash their prices by  more than 10%.  This cost savings wasn’t limited to the daytime hours, either.  A few parking structures dropped their  “after 5″ event prices as well.  The best news?  Even though gas prices have fallen and many Stumptown residents have traded in their bikes for the winter season, the under $9/day ticket prices still remain.

I had a fantastic meal a couple of weeks ago at Tanuki, a small izakaya in Northwest Portland. Izayaka means something like “place that sells sake,” and the food is served tapas-style in small, shareable portions to accompany your drinks.

I’d been reading about Tanuki, which opened in spring of 2008, and had heard that ordering omakase — chef’s choice — was the way to go. I don’t know a lot about Japanese food, but I’m eager to learn, so I liked the idea of getting recommendations right from the chef — no guessing my way through the menu and no hesitating over items that sounded too foreign to my palate.

Omakase came through in a big way. My friend and I ordered drinks (very interesting sake shandies — sake and ginger beer with a shot of fresh carrot juice) and set a price of $20 each for food. Here’s what we got:

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