Sports and Schnitzel

Left the Grand Lodge in the morning for Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro. This ballpark is home to the Hillsboro Hops, a minor league affiliate (High-A) of the MLB team Arizona Diamondbacks. They were originally founded in Yakima/WA and moved to Portland/OR. The new 4,500-seat stadium was opened in 2013. Barley (photo below, left) is the team mascot of the Hops, a very successfull and consistent team in its league.

 

We had a tour with the GM through the stadium and learned a lot about the league's system. Also, Peter got another cap for his collection, of course! Drove into Beaverton afterwards and had a wonderful lunch with the Washington County tourism rep in Bar Garten, a German restaurant. 

Beaverton is called "Silicon Forest", since it is the seat of high-tech  companies like Intel or Linux, but also of Fred Meyer and NIKE. The city has an attractive little downtown area with a foodtruck park and is easily accessible from Portland by streetcar. The pork schnitzel - sort of a cordon bleu - with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts was better than lots of dishes I recently had in restaurants at home!(photo at bottom).

More sports in Portland, at Providence Park (left pic). Two pro-soccer teams, the Timbers (men, MLS) and the Thorns (women, NWSL) use this old stadium, which was expanded recently. The first "Multnomah Stadium" was built in a rudimentary form in 1893 and operated as a baseball stadium from 1926 on. A section of the old wooden benches from the early days are still existing. 

 

 

 

From 1975 soccer was being played in Providence Park, for a certain time games in both sports, soccer and baseball (Portland Beavers), took place here. 2009 the nowadays Timbers were founded, and from 2011 on they were the only team playing in this stadium. In 2012 the women's team, the Portland Thorns came, and, played their first season in 2013 - and are since then equally successful than their male colleagues.

A 2019 expansion raised the capacity to over 25,000 seats and added a multi-level facade to the East End, with great views towards the city skyline:

 

Last stop on our last day: The Architectural Heritage Center in the Central Eastside of Portland. They are very active in organizing public programs, tours, and gallery exhibitions from the wide variety of items owned by the Bosco-Milligan Foundation. Again, it rained most of the day, but we spent the day in an interesting way - thanks, Karen!