Beaverton

First thing you should know about Beaverton, at least if you're a Portlander like I am: Tri-met works on a 3-zone system, and your 2-zone ticket will NOT fly in this town. Henry and I got kicked off the #57 bus at the Beaverton Transit Center after we got off the MAX, so we walked to city hall from there. The driver was actually kind of mean about it, saying, "It says so right on the sign outside," in a very condescending manner. It did, in fact explain in small print on the sign at the transit center that we were indeed in Zone 3, but as I explained to the bus driver, "Sorry, I've never purposely spent any time in Beaverton before."
And it's true, most people just drive through Beaverton on the way to somewhere else, thinking--as I did up until yesterday--that it was nothing but wide fast-moving streets full of Home Depots and Targets and various strip malls. But through the magic of teh internets and my friend Brenda from high school, I've found that Beaverton is actually not a bad place at all once you get out of your car. I found this site via youtube (and am borrowing the above picture from them until I unload my camera) and decided to take the day off with little Henry to visit the fountain at Beaverton City Park. It's about about 10 blocks from the Transit Center--should you find yourself walking there. Once you get away from the 5-lane boulevards that seem to traverse Beaverton in every direction you'll find yourself in quiet--almost deserted--little downtown filled with little shops and restaurants. Brenda and I took our respective children to Ava Roasteria, a coffee shop/sandwich cafe run by teenagers whose website will surprise you with Spanish-inspired guitar music about 10 seconds after you click on it.
Beaverton used to bring up weird alternative-universe feelings in me for some reason. It's as though I could totally see myself living there if things had turned out differently: The manicured lawn, the Costco membership, the 9-5 job, the commuting. Company golf tournaments, discussions about LCD vs. Plasma, casual Friday, 401k, a pet dog. Turns out (with the glaring exception of Brenda's cherry Buick SUV), people in Beaverton aren't really that much different from me. Their taxes are lower, their sandwiches crappier, and their bus drivers meaner, but other than that I think you could plop my family down in Beaverton and no one would be the wiser.
Mayor Denny Doyle, with his very un-Mayoral gangster-sounding name, has autographed our map. There's an unsubstantiated rumor that Beaverton is the most densely-populated city in Oregon, but I forgot to ask him about that.
38 down, 204 to go.