As part of the conference we got a MAX ticket for the week. The MAX is the public transportation train that goes around the city, there are also bus and streetcar lines. Every night I took the train into the city to go exploring restaurants, bars, breweries, etc. Portland is a city known for locally sourced food and local microbreweries. It was a nice coincidence that my 21st birthday was right before the conference, so I could enjoy those parts of Portland culture.
One of the first places we hit up when I finally got to Portland (after missing my 6am flight on my 21st birthday, and no it's not because I was hung over, for the several people who asked and everyone else who thought it, but didn't vocalize it) was Kells, an Irish Restaurant and Pub. If you look at the top of the picture on the left, you can see there's something on the ceiling of the bar. It's money! Every time a patron leaves a tip of $1.50, the two quarters are wrapped in the dollar bill and it gets thrown up onto the ceiling. In March each year the money is scrapped down (although we never figured how they get it to stick up there) and donated to children and their families in need at the Providence Child Center to help pay for medical costs. Kells has donated more than $200,000 since they began the initiative in 1995, it just goes to show how far $1.50 can go! Every little bit counts, literally!
Later in the week, we went to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery. I was there to eat dinner with my research mentor from the menor/mentee program I signed up for as part of JASM, it was a nice place for a post-undergrad conversation with good food and good beer, right off of the red/blue line that runs from the hotel/convention center into downtown.
We also made a stop at Bailey's Taproom another night. I had a wonderful pineapple cider! It was so good! It's the one at the front of the picture on the right - light, fruity, delicious!
On my last night with my research friends (I spent one more night with some friends from Bryn Mawr, but more on that later) we went to Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and the Secret Society. They made their own cider right inside Reverend Nat's, the process and equipment was cool to see. I went to the Secret Society with some graduate students for dinner. There was good food and an amazing bathroom. I don't usually get excited about bathrooms, but this one was larger than the bar itself and as I found when I visited Powells later in the trip, was featured in"The Best Places to Pee - A guide to the funky & fabulous bathrooms of Portland" Pity I don't have any pictures of the bathroom, though as an example there was a chandelier, felt chairs in the living room included in the bathroom, wood panelling, fancy taps, etc.
Portland is an amazing city, and I'd love to go back! It really does have the great quirky culture it's famous for! And I loved every minute of its quirky-ness!
The first night I made a pasta primavera with Ben, a housemate in Green Village with me. We cooked the pasta, some onion, green pepper, carrots, and a tad of pasta sauce. We both liked lots of veggies - more veggies than sauce is definitely the way to go! I put some mozerella cheese on top of mine. I put it on right after putting it in a bowl, so it melted into a delicious gooey top! 
A few of the other housemates grilled veggies and meat, so we had the outside grill already warm. After dinner, we made s'mores! On a grill! We grabbed utensils from the kitchen like forks, spatulas, and tongs on which to place the marshmallows. Even though the process was a bit unusual, they still turned out to be good marshmallows! A good dessert to end the day and to start a marsh filled field season! Marsh-mallows! 
