Portland is known for its quirkiness, but it’s not just limited to clothing style, record stores, and street art. There are fun and funky moments of joy to be found around town in neighborhood front yards and parking strips. Miniature galleries, exchanges and other festive displays—many of which could be mistaken for a tiny free library as you ride by.
There is something refreshing about randomly stumbling on one of the sidewalk joy stops, but it’s also a mix search-and-find with happiness adrenaline rush to bike to a few. Luckily, PDX Dinorama has compiled a guide as well as interactive map.
We toured four on a 3-4 mile ride in the Mount Tabor neighborhood: Poetry Pottery, Lucky Dog Library, Mt. Tabor Creations, and Lantern Diorama. We originally planned out a route focusing on the major neighborhood greenways, but after getting a little off course, we found it was better to Google map in bike mode to the cross streets of the next destination. There are a lot of small streets in the area which have low speeds and no traffic even though they technically are not greenways.
Mt. Tabor Creations and Lantern Diorama had a Valentine’s theme during our trip, but it would be cool to see how these displays change throughout the year. Our vote for most creative goes to the Poetry Pottery and cutest goes to Lucky Dog Library.
Another unexpected find was a very short trail after the Lantern Diorama, linking SE Salmon Street between SE 53rd and SE 55th. It’s about time our commuters get a taste of mud. It’s a bonus if you can find it!
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