Sunday, 19-Mar-2023



My Aunt was in town!

Holy cow… I haven’t seen her in… well, since before COVID, at least! Her and her friend were in town exploring the Pacific Northwest, doing the tourism and seeing the sights – an amazing opportunity for me to not only get to see her, but to take the excuse to actually see some of the tourist sights that Portland has to offer!

It’s the strange rule about living somewhere – The longer you habitate, the less likely you are to do the stereotypical fun tourist things. In this case – a tour of the Portland Underground, complete with a history lesson about some of Portland’s less savory history. Specifically, the act of “shanghaing”, or crimping, or kidnapping men to crew ships sailing out from Portland. Very similar to the underground tour that my Mom, Steve, and myself did back in Seattle!

The tour itself was… fun? The guide was super great, and the details were definitely interesting, but unfortunately the Portland Underground has long since been filled in and blocked off… all that remains are effectively the basements of various buildings with some remaining walls. Enough to make a cool tour… but not quite a “tour of the tunnels”, so to speak.

It was great, though, and the tour guide was endlessly entertaining – and I got to catch up with someone I hadn’t seen in way too long, so I considered the evening an absolute excellent evening.