Welcome to Portland, Oregon, home to the Trail Blazers, a huge annual Rose Festival, and the Columbia river. Portland has long been considered to be a "little sister" to Seattle, which is 160 miles to the North, but I've always thought that PDX stood on its own as a pretty decent place, and I'm sure that the locals would agree with that point of view.

Here, the beans enjoy the view of downtown Portland, as seen from the convention center.

Now, the story goes that they couldn't decide on a name for the city when it was founded way back in 1884 - one person wanted to name it after their hometown of Portland, Maine, while someone else wanted it named after their hometown, Boston, Mass.

So instead of having a caged grudge match or beating each other over the head with folding chairs, they decided to settle it in a civil manner, and flipped a coin. Portland won, and the rest, as they say, is history. (Sorry, no recounts or pregnant chads allowed..)

Downtown Portland is accessed by one of 8 bridges - this one being the (obviously named) Steel Bridge. Built in 1912, the Steel Bridge is considered unique because it is one of the only known dual-lift bridges in the world. So what's that mean? Well, the lower deck which is for Amtrak and freight trains can be lifted independently of the upper deck, which is for the MAX light-rail commuter train and plain ol' cars to allow extra clearance for the boats below. The beans really didn't get the gist of this, but are fine with it -- just as long as they don't scrape their lid when passing under...

Next up, the beans stop off at Union Station in downtown Portland, which is the hub of Amtrak operations in the Rose City. The depot originally opened in 1896 and served trains of the Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane, Portland & Seattle, and Union Pacific railroads. While the beans enjoy a train ride as much as the next can of vegetables do, they really wish that the next stop was Tomorrowland...

Now, here's my good friend Erich Franke, hanging out with the beans on the banks of the Williamette river. In addition to the Williamette, Portland is also home to that infamous big-boy, the Columbia river. The Columbia rolls for more than 1,200 miles, from the base of the Canadian Rockies in southeastern British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon. The Columbia River Basin is also the most hydroelectrically developed river system in the world. More than 400 dams tap a large portion of the Columbia's generating capacity: more than 21 million kilowatts. So think about that the next time you flip on the lights...

Finally, here's a shot of two handsome young lads - the Brothers Franke. This is Erich and Stefan, the pride and joy (and occasional handful, I'm sure) of our BATW co-founders, Gary and Paula Franke. While the boys hang out in the park with the beans, the crystal-esque spirals of the convention center tower skywards in the background.