Use these links to learn more about ATSSA’s Midyear Meeting host city:
Portland, Oregon

Keep in mind that shopping in the entire State of Oregon is TAX FREE

First of all, you will want to keep in mind that shopping in
the entire State of Oregon is TAX FREE.

Weather

August temperatures range from highs around 80 degrees to lows around 57 degrees.

Getting Around

• Most likely you will not need a car unless you wish to venture outside the city limits.

• All trips on MAX (the light rail system), bus or streetcar that begin and end within Fareless Square are FREE – all day, every day. Fareless Square includes most of downtown Portland.

• Try the Portland Aerial Tram – a three minute ride consisting of a 3,300 foot cable that links the South Waterfront District near downtown to the top of Marquam Hill.

• The Portland Streetcar runs on a three-mile loop connecting NW 23rd Avenue, Portland City Center and RiverPlace. Stations are located every 2-3 blocks and cars run until about 11:30 pm.

MAX stops on either side of Pioneer Place mall with more than 90 restaurants and shops on four stories over four city blocks. MAX also stops at a train station buried 260 feet below Southwest Portland’s Washington Park. At this stop: Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center Discovery Museum, Portland Children’s Museum, Hoyt Arboretum – three miles from Hilton.

• Mt. Hood Territory – for year-round snow sports, golf, hiking, fishing. 90 miles from Hilton

• Parks and Gardens

o Portland Classical Chinese Garden – one mile from Hilton
o Japanese Garden – two miles from Hilton
o International Rose Test Garden (the oldest test garden in the U.S. featuring 557 varieties of roses) – two miles
from Hilton
o Forest Park – the nation’s largest urban wilderness, six times the size of New York City’s Central Park
o Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park – covers what was once a 1960s highway – six blocks from Hilton

• Five Downtown Bridges all pedestrian accessible

o The Broadway Bridge – Portland’s only red bridge
o The Steel Bridge
o The Morrison Bridge
o The Burnside Bridge
o The Hawthorne Bridge – oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the U.S.

• Out of the Ordinary

o NIKE Town – one block from Hilton
o 29 Breweries – more than anyplace else in the world.
o VooDoo Doughnut – open 24 hours.
o The Velveteria – Portland’s new museum of velvet paintings!!!
o Powell’s City of Books – more than a million volumes in a city block; the largest independent bookseller in the world – half mile from Hilton
o Portland Saturday Market – open air bazaar with more than 350 artists – one mile from Hilton
o Portland Weather Machine located in Pioneer Courthouse Square, predicts at noon what the day’s weather will be by blasting trumpets and spraying mist.
o Ecotrust Building, built in 2001, is a green renovation of a historic warehouse in the Pearl District.

• Nearby

o Nike world headquarters in the Portland suburbs.
o Town of St. Helens on the bank of the Columbia River about 30 miles northwest of Portland.
o Mount St. Helens is about 60 miles northeast of Portland in Washington State.
o Forest Grove, OR is home to SakéOne, the only American-owned sakéry in the world.
o Less than 30 minutes away is the 80-mile long Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area with more than 100 waterfalls.
o The drive from Portland to Cannon Beach on the Pacific Ocean is 90 minutes.