Organic Brewers' Festival, Portland

Last weekend I went, with my wife, and my son and daughter and their friends, to the North American Organic Brewers' festival at Overlook Park in Portland, OR. Portland is one of my favorite cities. People ride bikes everywhere here, and there are a ton of breweries. How could it get any better? Part of what makes it a nice city is the public transportation. It's convenient and cheap. It works because their is a critical population mass in a small area. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Portland's Urban Growth Boundary, but it is undeniable that the inner city is vibrant, because there is no choice but to work with the existing infrastructure for living and working. This means that a lot of neighborhoods that would otherwise be blighted are gentrified. I guess this is good or bad depending on one's own situation.
But back to the festival. there were 80 different ales, lagers and ciders from breweries all over the Northwest, Vermont, Idaho (Grand Teton Brewing in Victor) Wisconsin and Colorado as well as Europe. This is just one of the bike racks outside the brewers' festival. Portland may not be Amsterdam but lots of people use their bikes here. Downtown, some of the parking lanes on the side of the streets are blocked at either end and designated for bicycles, and there are bike lanes with their own signal lights!

This is a picnic pavilion in Overlook Park. It is supremely overbuilt. I don't know how long it's been here, but it will be here for a very long time. Why spend the time and money on something like this? Maybe the initial expense, amortized over the life of the structure, makes this the best way to build something. But it goes against the throw-away culture we live in. I'm just sayin'.