2006 APH Conference
Host City

Portland finds a place on many of the "Best" lists. The city has been dubbed North America's "Best Big City" by Money magazine and the cleanest by Reader's Digest. Portland also received the Great American Place Award from American Heritage magazine. After reading why you'll know more about Portland than many local residents do.

Welcome to Portland, Ore.—the Rose City, the Bridge City—one of the friendliest, most beautiful and walkable cities you'll ever have the good fortune to explore.

The city with a pioneer past is not only clean but very green—summer, winter, spring or fall. With an annual rainfall of nearly forty inches, the grass is always greener in the Northwest. Fortunately, the famous "Portland mist" dries up during the late summer, which lasts well into October. But bring a jacket because average October temperatures are between fifty-five and sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit.

Portland is green in another sense, too. Public recycling containers abound throughout the city. It's also dubbed one of the top ten vegetarian-friendly cities—good news for many APH members.

You'll quickly learn about MAX, Portland's light rail system, as that's how to travel from the airport to the Doubletree Hotel for about $2. The hotel is on the east side of the Willamette River, across the street from Lloyd Center, Oregon's largest shopping mall.

From the hotel, you can travel free on MAX to historic Old Town, Pioneer Courthouse Square, Saturday Market and Tom McCall Waterfront Park, as well as the many art house cinemas, Native American and other art galleries, brewpubs and gourmet coffee shops scattered throughout the downtown area of Fareless Square. You could spend many happy hours browsing at Powell's City of Books, the world's largest independent bookstore with more than a million volumes stored in a building occupying an entire city block.

For a nominal charge, MAX will take you farther afield to the terraced Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, the Classical Chinese Garden, Washington Park Zoo and the World Forestry Center.

Outside the city, if you plan to do some real exploring, you'll find Multnomah Falls and other spectacular vistas in the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens are both an hour away. Then, of course, there's the beautiful Oregon coast, a little more than an hour's drive from the city. Local APH members will happily suggest their favorite beaches, lighthouses, sand dunes and tidal flats if you can extend your trip an extra day or two.

The APH conference is plenty of reason to travel to Portland. We hope you enjoy the city, too.