Learn about skateboard attractions in Portland, Oregon

The popularity of skateboarding is spreading around the globe and this means that there is a growing list of great cities to vacation in as an avid skateboarder. One of the best vacation destinations right now for skaters and skateboarders is Portland, Oregon. This city not only has a great selection of skateparks to choose from, but it also has skate shops and events to add to your vacation itinerary.

Skateparks in Portland, Oregon

There are at least five good skateparks in Portland, Oregon. The Department of Skateboarding is one of the parks you need to visit if you are planning a visit to Portland. This is the city’s only indoor wooden skatepark. It can be found at 15 NE Hancock Street, Portland, Oregon, which is near the Hancock Williams intersection. This park is extra fun because it has theme nights and special contests that you can enter.

The smallest outdoor skatepark is Holly Farm. This skatepark can be found at the corner of Comus Street and SW Capitol Highway. This park only has about 2,800 square feet of skating space.

Glenhaven and Pier Park are two other skateparks in Portland that you can visit. Each of these parks offers about 11,000 square feet of terrain. Pier Park can be found at the corner of Bruce Avenue and N. Hudson Street, and Glenhaven can be found at the corner of Siskiyou Street and NE 82nd Street.

The final skatepark that you can use while in Portland is Burnside. This park is found under the Burnside Bridge on the east side. It offer about 10,000 square feet of skating terrain including several bowls.

Skating Events

If you are interested in skateboard events then Portland is a great city to visit. Some of the events you can join in include: the Wendy’s Invitational, the Action Sport Tour and the Portland Action Sports Film Contest. Advertisements for these events can be found on many different Portland city websites.

Skate Shops

While in Portland don’t forget to get in a little shopping. Below is a list of skate shops you will want to browse through:

• Daddies Board Shop, 7126 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
• Exit Real World, 206 NW 23rd Ave., Portland
• Department of Skateboarding, 15 NE Hancock St., Portland

• Shrunken Head Skateboards, 531 SE Morrison St., Portland, OR

Matthew McConaughey is finally a dad! Matthew and his girlfriend, Camila Alves, welcomed their beautiful baby boy into the world on Monday night. No word on a name yet, but being a celebrity baby, chances that the name will be something like Trailer Park Surfer are pretty good.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie‘s divorce just keeps getting messier and messier. It seems that Madonna has been having some sort of an affair with none other than famed baseball player, Alex Rodriguez. It’s no surprise that there are rumors that Madonna used Kaballah to persuade A-Rod that the two of them were soul mates and destined to be together. A-Rod is, of course, going through his own messy divorce with his soon-to-be ex-wife, Cynthia Rodriguez. Cynthia hasn’t wasted anytime socking it to Alex by fueling rumors that she and rocker Lenny Kravitz have a thing going on and then flying off to Paris and indulging in extravagant shopping sprees. I’m sure we’ll be hearing about these two couples for some time.

And here’s one that nobody saw coming – Drew Barrymore has split from her boyfriend of one year, the cute Mac Guy, Justin Long. Besides indulging in a lot of PDA around LA, everyone thought that Drew and Justin were actually one of the most down-to-earth couples in Hollywood. They of course, are vowing to stay friends, but we all know how the friend thing goes after you’ve been in a relationship with someone.

Another couple who made a trip to Splitsville USA this past week are supermodel, Kate Moss and her rocker boyfriend Jamie Hince. The Daily Mirror reports that the couple had a major fight over the 4th of July holiday weekend and that Jamie has since moved his belongings out of Kate’s London home. Ouch.

And guess who is in talks to develop her own reality TV show? The infamous high-priced call girl, Ashley Duprey, who was rocketed to fame after it was reported that she was part of the Eliot Spritzer scandal. Rumor has it that the 23-year-old wants her own reality dating show, sort of like Tila Tequila’s MTV show.

Sources:
E Online – http://eonline.com
Daily Mirror – http://mirror.co.uk
US Weekly – http://usweekly.com
People Magazine – http://people.com

No one should die without seeing the coast of Maine from Acadia National Parks. This is one hike that I highly recommend.

August 15: We woke to rain after sleeping like babies. Once the sun was out, we headed to a hike that we had planned called Huegenot Head and Champlain Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine.

The hike was 3.3 miles and supposedly would take two and a half hours. I’m not sure who’s counting the minutes or how old the person is, but we like to stop and smell the flowers and did the hike in 3.5 hours. We found one area strenuous and much of it challenging, but the hike was gorgeous and worth the challenge. This hike begins at the Tarn parking area. We found the granite staircase. We love this kind of trail in spite of the physical work it requires. We started out with about 1,400 steps. Sure the steps were well defined and we had forest next to us eliminating the fear of falling off of them, but still, that’s a lot of steps when you’re going up a mountain and gaining 1,100 feet in elevation.

After the 1,400 steps, we hit some switchbacks. This is the kind of hike I call “rock climbing.” I’m 5 feet 4 inches and with rocks like that, I’m pulling myself up to get on them and onto the next one. When we weren’t “rock climbing” the trail was almost straight up. There’s an elevation gain of 1,100 feet.

The summit was incredible and a perfect place for a picnic. We were looking at Frenchman’s Bay but didn’t see any seals or other critters. We had company but it was alright becase we all shared our stories of how we got up. We could have come to this summit any of four ways including using a ladder. At that time I had never done ladders so chose the rocky way. I had also been told that one way up the trail was so steep that I would be on my hands and knees clinging to the side of the mountain and trying not to look down to lots of air. Many of us wondered where the Starbucks was and when the helicopter would be coming to take us down!

We found out that we had our hike to ourselves for the most part because of the four ways up. The Precipice Trail, which is how some came up, is said to be the most difficult on this side of the island. The trail we went up is Tarn. We decided to go down Bear Brook Trail, which felt like an easy descent after the climb up. One negative about Bear Brook Trail is that we ended up on Route 3 and then had about a mile walk to our car. I would have preferred hiking to our car.